What ever happened to Brian Grosso

Went to Arizona. Best showing was a 25th at CC nationals when it was at Knoxville in 1990. I don't know if it was his So. year or his redshirt freshman year?

Arizona State that is I believe.

"Brian Grosso (Walled Lake Western) Grosso won three national championships, including the 1988 Foot Locker. A four-time state titlist, he struck disaster at the state XC finals as a senior. Running with a huge lead, Grosso took a wrong turn and placed fifth. An 8:56.8 runner at 3200, he set a state 5000-meter record (14:34.8) and made the U.S. Junior team."

Grosso definitely went to Arizona. He did well his first two years but ended up dropping out of school (I believe)and never seriously competed again.

Yeah man he was something to see pre Dathan. I seen the state meet where he turned the wrong way and worked back up to 5th or so, my bro got 7 or 11th in that meet, real muddy day as I recall.

I've heard alot of weird things about what happened to him after college but no idea on what's true or not.

I noticed Grosso wasn't a Kinney finalist in 87. Was he a near miss in 86 or 87? It's pretty impressive to not qualify, then as a senior, win the thing in your first try. Did he win the midwest regional? There were a few tough guys in that field that were returnees, that on paper were much better known.

I assume Grosso was a pretty high mileage guy. Anyone know how he trained?

Heard he had an interesting recruiting visit at MSU.

I'm not positive but I think I saw on here he qualified for the Oly trials in 10,000. Or at least ran around 28:50 at a Stanford meet. But you never know with this site, it could have been a joke.

Also heard he broke 9:00 numerous times in HS. He definitely picked a good school for running considering Arizona at the time had Guisto, Davis, and Ramirez might have been still been hanging around. They had some great talent in the late 1980's.

I ran w/ Brian at Walled Lake Western HS in MI for two years. He commented once that he got up and ran 9 miles before school, then another 9 miles (at least) during practice after school. He was a machine.

I was around Brian's coach a lot during his heyday. He ran a LOT of mileage. Much of this mileage was derived from two-a-days starting early in his high school career. His year-around training was strength based, and he did very little speed-based work to work on different systems. This was true even during the spring track season when a lot of his teammates (Walled Lake Western had pretty good teams at the time) would be doing shorter, faster stuff on the track. Four years of a lot of miles, a lot of hillwork, and great durability apparently allowed him to thrive.

Walled Lake wrote:

Where did Brian Grosso go to college after his Kinney win in 88. I've seen a thread claiming that he was potentially the best of all the Kinney/FL winners. what kind of PR's did he go on to run, and is he still competing? Just curious.

This is all you need to know, John McDonnell passed on him and Dave Murray picked him up, who do you think had a better read on talent and attitude?

He had the ability to run 2:06 marathon. Durable and talented.....not much focus. I lived with him and still talk on a regular basis. Hidden talent!

If it's true he ran 18 miles per day in high school, is it really a shock that he didn't pan out in college (or maybe was burned out)? Reminds me of Cormier. Durability IS talent, yes, but if his PR was 8:56 off of almost 130 miles per week, I don't think he had much further to go.

He never ran 18 miles in one day in hs. When I transferred to az from Arkansas in sept 1990,is when I got to know Brian. 2 weeks before Stanford Inv, he wanted to know what Joe Falcon secret was. Prior to that, he never ran more than 12 miles. After following a Joe Falconesque schedule, running 89 and 93 mi back to back weeks, he showed up beat all of the Arkansas guys, only loosing to Davis-which is a whole other story, as I don't believe at guy ever ran over 60mi in one week with an average of 45. He should have been e first American to dip,under 13.

Grosso was a unique individual who never came close to his potential. He quite school for o apparent reason. We talked about some of his dumbest moves during the course of his 40 years on his birthday last week, and his dropping out was just oneof them.

After he dropped out in November of 91, he moved back to Tucson in mid 94, where he did not run a step in over 2 years. I had moved from running to duathlon, where he started to do my run training with me. 10 weeks later, after racking up 4 weeks at 50mpw, then 5 weeks at 90mpw (with no intervals...just base, he was 5th at the Barrios 10k, running 14:01 for his first half and holding on to beat many of the best road racers in the world.

The next week he sabotaged himself once again, when he was raced an off road marathon, trying to cherry pick a $2000 prize purse. He caught my sinus infection on the San Diego trip, and was sick as a dog the next week heading into this race. There were alo a few others sneaking up to Prescott to snag the same coin Grosso was aiming for: Brian Abshire,, e Belgian marathoner who got popped for EPO, and the eventual winner, Rob Finagan. Grosso f'd himself that day running a marathon sick. He was sick for the next 4 months having to spend a bit of time in the hospital.

Sabotage was his middle name. I can go on and on.

I raced the Leadviille MTB race this summer, where he came up from Boulder to watch/help feed and hang out. He stays trim with no competition in mind.

Pardon the typos in my previous post.....using an iPhone

I have heard the stories about Marc Davis and his light training in college. How did the coach let guys get away with this? Didn't you guys run twice per day?

Arizona had three great talents there right then with You, Grosso and Davis. There may have been others there then, I think Giusto had graduated, but Ramirez was there?

I don't see how a high-profile program like UA with all these talents could let them train haphazardly?

Did you see guys hide in the woods and throw rocks like Davis says he did most of the time?

Who do you feel is the most talented runner you ever ran with or against in HS or college or after? If you feel Davis really could have run 12:59 that is pretty high praise. I do know he ran a US JR of 13:39 I think at Mt. SAC.

We had some unused horsepower for a few years. Giusto finished in 88 and Rameriz was 87.

I had transferred from Arkansas and Jesuit HS prior to that. For whatever reason the dynamics were very odd. There was a lot of strife of the team. Grosso and Davis did not mesh.

While at Arkansas, the top contenders would cross the line together, wether practice or race. Az was the opposite. This group of guys worked against each other.

Grosso was talented and durable with huge ability for 10k or marathon. 2:07 at the max. Davis was the opposite. He was fragile and could never put many miles together. There was a time (winter 91/92) where Marc and I start putting in some long training, where there were some 90 min runs. Otherwise, an hour run was long for him.

Davis was too good to be a steeple guy. He always liked the mystique of this event, as he always dared to be different. He would never gain a pound when he was out of shape, which I think is what really helped him. He was probably the most talented runner I ran with, including joe falcon. He was raw!

FYI, McDonnell did not pass on him. Grosso was offered a full scholarship. Grosso would have been the best choice for his running. He would have developed in this program.

Would love to hear more stories about "back in the day," PTAz.

Arkansas would have been a good choice for grosso's running

Interesting...I met Grosso while he was working at a smoothie shop near UofA. He was friendly, but I never had a chance to run with the guy, but on a couple of occasions saw him running...at a pretty good clip. I remember him saying he ran about 12 miles tops. I think he ran close to 29 in a local Tucson 10k. There we a few guys I trained with off and on occasionally a du/tri-athlete would join us...maybe I ran with you back then...94-95.