Crazy BYU/Eyestone stat

With Wetmore gone, he will have to carry the torch for the Americans.

Who is ahead of him?

Sorry, I should have posted link

https://www.cougarboard.com/board/message.html?id=37038030&__cf_chl_tk=clRGl5w7KUhIFzcL59D.ZzEV5OQihCFIUb8XL0KTGro-1772497895-1.0.1.1-DpS1hV9tDCY8J_.25r1CRfrxOICn3r3ecqFpDWpmnBU

Top 10 All-Time BYU Marathoners (updated)
1. Conner Mantz - 2:04.43
2. Rory Linkletter - 2:07.02
3. Clayton Young - 2:07.04
4. Ethan Shuley - 2:07.14
5. Casey Clinger - 2:08.43
6. Jared Ward - 2:09.25
7. Nico Montanez - 2:09.55
8. Christian Allen - 2:09.57
9. Aidan Troutner - 2:10.23
10. Ed Eyestone - 2:10.59

Interesting. Name one common element (with the exception of Eyestone and, maybe Ward) that links all these times?

while its obviously not too surprising that he is being passed since people have gotten a lot faster over the last 30+ years, so many guys from his own school is pretty crazy. BYU in general seems to have a lot more guys head to the roads earlier than a lot of other schools. Wonder if thats the influence of Eyestone to push them there early.

You think it's 'super shoes' but it's they're all part of the most competitive era of american distance running. We're not getting our doors blown off in every indoor/outdoor/road race. When I was growing up any track race or road race was east africans, a massive gap, and then some other people. Now there are Americans in the mix, winning medals, even gold medals.

Morman with all that extra door to door mileage and training probably helps.

How convenient that the “most competitive era of american distance running” coincides perfectly with the introduction of bouncy shoe mania. Oh well, hope I didn’t ruin your day.

The competitive bar has been raised and training has evolved, BUT there absolutely needs to be a supershoe adjustment to Eyestone on that list. He probably "bounces" up to mid-list at least with the necessary technology adjustment.

It’s both, man. Eyestone would be top five on that list if he had today’s shoes, for training and racing. But he would still likely only be fifth. And no way would he be faster than Mantz, even if he were “really” a 2:07-ish guy.

Eyestone was pretty competitive w the Africans of that era at sub-marathon distances.

Yes, but I believe coach Eyestone's track bests were better than all of the runners ahead of him, with the exception of Mantz.

Ed had 7:51/13:32/27:41 and 1:02:56 half credentials, long before Supershoes etc. The 27:41 was top notch back in 1985. Coach Ed was a monster back then.

So the shoes are a huge factor here. The training is a factor. What about the fueling? It seems to be another factor which has helped in the marathon. And Ed always struck me as a 10K guy dabbling in the marathon.

All hail super shoes. Additionally we are in an era without Russian athletes and Africans that actually get drug tested.

This list really puts Mantz's success in perspective. From the US Trials in early 2024 to his AR in late 2025, he improved a ton. Would be great to see him eventually get into the 2:03s.

I think Ed himself would agree that his favorite sport was cross country as he ran world cross almost every year for about 8 years straight. Getting the bronze at World Junior XC in 1980 and finishing 6th in the Sr. race in 1984 being two of his highlights as well as medaling with the US team 3 or 4 times. When he ran 27:41 on the track as a college senior in 1985, prior to the super shoe, it was the fastest time by a college American ever and one of the fastest times in the world that year. That record lasted almost 20 years until Ritz broke it in 2004. He wasn't super efficient and tended to overstride a bit which probably affected his marathon PR but he was gritty enough to grind out races and he tended to be clutch at the big races as demonstrated at the 1988 and 1992 Olympic Marathon Trials. In 1995-1996 he spent several months training in Toluca, Mexico with German Silva and some of the other Mexican marathoners of that era that were coached by Rudolpho Gomez prior to the Olympic Trials. He said he got in killer shape but was probably overcooked from training at 8700 feet and he ran poorly at the 1996 marathon trials. He says many of the workouts he uses with his BYU team and pro marathoners come from his days in Mexico.

It started before that. I'd say roughly 2011/2012 was the front edge of it with Rupp and Centrowitz, then Evan Jager in 2016. No bouncy shoes for those medals. Not much was going well for Americans in the 1990's and first decade of the 2000's. Hall looked like a freak because he was the only one doing much of anything, and yet what he was doing isn't any better than what multiple people have done in the past several years. We've got 4 different men finish in the top 9 of the olympics from 2016-2024 (3 olympic games). From 1980-2012 (a whopping 9 olympic games) only two men did it, Meb and Ritz. In 2000 only one american was even qualified, and that was back when the qualifying standard was pathetic.

Didn't realize Ward had "only" run a 2:09, but he was 6th at the Olympics. I wonder what he could've run, since he definitely should've been able to go faster.