Chris SOLINSKY USA 7:36.90 PB

Ritz just ran slower than his recent 8:11 two-mile up in Eugene!!!

Solinsky, huge PR and another feather in the Wisco groups hat!!!!

I remember his 8:12 (en route 3k) in High School for his 8:41 or whatever.

He will always be good at this distance. If only the 5k were shorter, and the mile longer for him. He's good, but unfortunately his talent falls between the two.

He'll go sub 7:30 some day, and probably take a shot at the 7:25 time frame.

Solinsky will never touch 7:25. Pretty sure that would be All-Time top ten.

You realize El G only ran 7:23 right? The WR is 7:20.

I love peeps wrote:

He'll go sub 7:30 some day, and probably take a shot at the 7:25 time frame.

hahahahahahhahahahahaha

He's going to join the likes of these guys? Cmon...

7:20.67 Daniel Komen

7:23.09 Hicham El Guerrouj

7:25.02 Ali Saïdi-Sief

7:25.09 Haile Gebrselassie

7:25.11 Noureddine Morceli

congrats to him. not to get carried away, but honestly, our country could FINALLY be on it's way back.

i think this makes him the 7th American All-Time

with Lagat and Maree in there too.

Kennedy has 7-8 of the top performances.

367 on the all time performance list

I love peeps wrote:

He'll probably take a shot at the 7:25 time frame.

Um, no. Unequivocally no.

the diceman wrote:

I love peeps wrote:

He'll probably take a shot at the 7:25 time frame.

Um, no. Unequivocally no.

ps- great race for him, though. Congrats.

Surprise! wrote:

I love peeps wrote:

He'll go sub 7:30 some day, and probably take a shot at the 7:25 time frame.

hahahahahahhahahahahaha

He's going to join the likes of these guys? Cmon...

7:20.67 Daniel Komen

7:23.09 Hicham El Guerrouj

7:25.02 Ali Saïdi-Sief

7:25.09 Haile Gebrselassie

7:25.11 Noureddine Morceli

saidi sief was a documented cheater, and komen suspiciously disappeared, but whatever.

Komen was in a car accident, thus his sudden departure.

7:30.84 ( 8) Robert Kennedy (IN) 18 Aug 1970 08 Aug 1998 Monte Carlo MON

7:31.69 ( 3) Robert Kennedy- 2 18 Aug 1970 23 Aug 1996 Brussels BEL

7:31.77 ( 2) Robert Kennedy- 3 18 Aug 1970 04 Jul 1997 Oslo NOR

7:32.55 ( 7) Robert Kennedy- 4 18 Aug 1970 04 Aug 1999 Monte Carlo MON

7:33.07 ( 4) Robert Kennedy- 5 18 Aug 1970 16 Aug 1997 Monte Carlo MON

7:33.37 ( 2) Sydney Maree (PA) 09 Sep 1956 17 Jul 1982 London ENG

7:33.96 ( 8) Robert Kennedy- 6 18 Aug 1970 10 Aug 1996 Monte Carlo MON

7:34.41 ( 1) Bernard Lagat (AZ) 12 Dec 1974 21 Jul 2006 Rethymno GRE

7:34.44 ( 4) Robert Kennedy- 7 18 Aug 1970 29 Jul 1998 Paris FRA

7:34.96 ( 6) Adam Goucher (OR) 18 Feb 1975 20 Jul 2001 Monte Carlo MON

10

7:34.98 ( 5) Matthew Tegenkamp (WI) 19 Jan 1982 20 Aug 2006 Fontvieille MON

7:35.33 ( 4) Robert Kennedy- 8 18 Aug 1970 18 Jul 1994 Nice FRA

7:35.41 ( 6) Robert Kennedy- 9 18 Aug 1970 21 Jul 1999 Paris FRA

7:35.50 ( 7) Robert Kennedy- 10 18 Aug 1970 03 Sep 1999 Brussels BEL

7:35.84 ( 1) Doug Padilla (UT) 04 Oct 1956 09 Jul 1983 Oslo NOR

7:36.04 ( 3) Robert Kennedy- 11 18 Aug 1970 12 Jul 1996 London GBR

7:36.15 ( 4) Robert Kennedy- 12 18 Aug 1970 25 Jul 1995 Monte Carlo MON

7:36.28 ( 4) Robert Kennedy- 13 18 Aug 1970 22 Aug 1997 Brussels BEL

7:36.69 ( 1) Steve Scott (CA) 18 Jun 1955 01 Sep 1981 Ingelheim GER

7:37.04 ( 3) Jim Spivey (IL) 07 Mar 1960 01 Aug 1993 Cologne GER

top of all-time US list

More impressive than his time, was his place. 3rd place behind Mottram and Bekele. I know the field was only fair besides those two, but still. I am just simply more impressed with him taking 3rd than with his time. HUGE race for the 22 year old - Congrats!

1 Kenenisa BEKELE ETH 7:26.69 SR

2 Craig MOTTRAM AUS 7:35.00 SB

3 Chris SOLINSKY USA 7:36.90 PB

4 Dathan RITZENHEIN USA 7:39.03 PB

5 Edwin KIPKORIR KEN 7:40.88 SB

6 Mo FARAH GBR 7:42.83 SB

7 Ian DOBSON USA 7:48.03 PB

8 Abraham CHEBII KEN 7:53.64

9 Steve SLATTERY USA 8:01.15

10 Jermaine MAYS GBR 8:05.87

11 Rui Pedro SILVA POR 8:07.19 SB

12 Seth SUMMERSIDE USA 8:08.83

Charles BETT KEN DNF

Shadrack KOSGEI KEN DNF

lets look at Solinsky's progression.

junior- 8:30+

Senior- 8:12 (en route) 8:43~ about an 8:09 if he was racing 3k

4:03 the same year.

College:

frosh-ok

Soph- 7:40's for 3k

Junior- 13:30 5k NCAA champ 4 flat last mile

Senior-bonked CC

This summer- 3:37 (3:54) July 7th

3:39 (3:57) June

3:57.8 may 6th

clearly much faster over the mile/15 than in years past. Does he have more room to improve? yeah, probably a good 4-5 seconds in the mile/15.

In 4 years, from his senior year in Highschool (8:09) to now, he has improved roughly 33 seconds. In 4 years, his likely peak, can he improve another 10 seconds? very possible. Lets say he lost about 5 Ibs of muscle, and focused also on mile/15 training in addition to his 5k training. Sub 7:30 is easily within his grasp. Probably next year or the year after he runs sub 7:30. by 2011-2012 he's taking shots at 7:25 or its equivalent. I don't think he'll break 7:25 by any significant margin, if at all, but he has the talent to run between 7:29-7:26 for 4-5 years in his career.

By that rationale, Teg will be running sub 12:45 in a couple of years. Except he won't. And Solinsky won't be running anywhere NEAR 7:25. This is not to detract anything from Solinsky- a very fine performance. He has a lot of potential. But to say that he can take another 10 SECONDS off of his 3k time based on his progression is ridiculous. We're not talking about going from 8:00 to 7:50 here. 7:36 to 7:25 is completely different ballgame.

first off, the conditions weren't so great for this race.

secondly, the pacing, the actual race itself, were all poor in terms of sucking runners to an even faster time and keeping them all in contention. There were two fast guys, Mottram and KB. Solinsky did most of the work further back, had no one to really key off the last k (which makes races really fast) and instead kicked hard on a tiring Mottram.

So he could have gone 2-3 seconds faster if the conditions had been just a little different. From that, he probably has another 1-2 seconds of improvement this season. He's just oddly talented at this distance it seems, he's done this now several times, years apart, with different training (HS/College) so my best guess is that this is his best distance. So, he drops 3 seconds in another race this season. If he ran 7:33 would you be saying the same thing? Probably not.

Once you're the level he's at, its hard to improve by a lot, yes everyone knows this. But also, the conditions and actual race matter even more. He will still improve, and if he stays consistent he can knock a 7:34-7:33 time in this season, and in 3-4 years will be pushing 7:27 or faster, easily.

I thought that Mo Farrah was going to do well. I respected the fact that he was staying in contention. I don't think he is in great shape.. but he had the right idea to stay up on the leaders.

Ritz sits back too much because he doesn't have faith. He (ritz) can run 7:33 but i have seen too many GP races where they take it out to fast and he is at the back of the bus.

Wonder what Fam is doing today? chillin.. catching a movie in Manhatten.. eating a hot dog..

I love peeps wrote:

Once you're the level he's at, its hard to improve by a lot, yes everyone knows this. But also, the conditions and actual race matter even more. He will still improve, and if he stays consistent he can knock a 7:34-7:33 time in this season, and in 3-4 years will be pushing 7:27 or faster, easily.

So based on his progression the past few years, what will Teg be running in the 3k and 5k, peeps? What about Webb in the 1500? With runners at this level, I don't think it is safe to assume anything. Certainly not that they will automatically get significantly faster in the future. There are too many factors at play.

Solinsky is definitely a talent, but there is no reason to think that he will beat Kennedy's times based on anything he has done to date (and please don't try to compare their high school times). Tell me what evidence you see to suggest that he will destroy Kennedy's 3k time.