who is dorian ulrey?

Why does the state of Illinois have so many great distance runners? No where near the size of Texas or California, but arguably puts out equal or better talent (in numbers, of course) year after year. What's up with that?

UNI is NOT fully funded. You must choose and pick which event groups to fill. If you're a stud = and you can make it through the clearinghouse- you can attend ANY major track/cc school in the Midwest right now.

Kind of related wrote:

Why does the state of Illinois have so many great distance runners? No where near the size of Texas or California, but arguably puts out equal or better talent (in numbers, of course) year after year. What's up with that?

I participated in IHSA cross country, and I cant tell you the reason is that we have great tradition. Some big runners to come out of IL : Craig Virgin, Jim Spivey and recentley Matt Withrow, Torres Twins, Don Sage, Dorian Ulrey, Evan Jager, Chris Derrick and a host of other athletes. York dominance year after year certainly makes everyone envious to some point which causes others to make their programs better. Our programs are really organized and well coached. But sad to say, being a Chicago guy, there are not a lot of great runners from the more urban areas, we focus on the big three: baseball, football, and basketball. Running however is pretty popular with older people though.

A "Panther State"? You get real. Iowa will never be considered a "Panther State". Do you want to know why? I will tell you. You have had two top 10 indoor finishes at NCAA Indoor track, a runner-up football team in I-AA, and an above average basketball program. Exactly what has UNI done to put Iowa on the map? Absolutely nothing. You just happen to go to the school and want to run your mouth because you have a handful of fast 400 runners, four or five 800 runners, and ONE really fast miler who isn't from Iowa. I hope you aren't one of those 10 or 11 15:30 5k'ers they have on the team because you spouting off doesn't change the fact that your XC team would get owned in the Iowa Conference. Go ahead and keep making your comparisons to DIII, but the truth is, other than Ulrey UNI has an entire distance squad of "DIII" runners. Well, I should say they have an entire team of "JV DIII" runners. Good for you UNI.

UNI, way to represent the Missouri Valley Conference!!! Always going to be haters of the mid-majors! Knock the academics, but Drake, Creighton and Bradley are great academic institutions. Knock the sports programs, but the MVC is a dominant mid-major in basketball and has been for years. Wichita St. has always had a really good baseball program. Football (the weakness), there certainly isn't the funding of the big conferences, but the teams do well at the 1AA level. I'm proud to be associated with the MVC. Oh yeah and don't forget Larry Bird represented the MVC, go Celtics!!

Potential Energy wrote:

Dorian ran at an extremely small school in a little town, very far from competition. His coaches had never had anyone like him before. He never ran in any big spots post-season either. The big schools didn't really have him on their radar and UNI swooped in and got him signed before he got below 4:13. He was not pressed in any race over his last two seasons. Every year he PR'ed every meet during the state series for the small school Illinois Class A.

The potential was always there and just waiting to come out.

Anyone saying that Ulrey was “overlooked” by big schools is crazy. I know for a fact he was heavily recruited by Kansas, Oklahoma State, Illinois and Minnesota. I am sure there were others, but I know that these four went after him hard. He must have connected with Chris Bucknam and the rest is history.

The penis envy and entitlement that Iowa and Wartburg runners have is laughable.

Pointing out that Ulrey is not from Iowa is kind of out of left field, there, Hawkeye. Name the last "stud" that the University of Iowa had, distance or mid-distance wise, that wasn't cherry-picked from Glenbard South or somewhere else in the Chicago suburbs? (Sorry, Adam Hairston is not a stud, Hawks.) I can name a national champion at UNI this season that was born in Iowa... when was the last time U of I was able to say that?

Oh, good talk.

Penis envy? Keep dreaming. Come play in the Big Ten and see how well your "team" does. Mulder is a stud, but in no way does that merit a "Panther State" comment. Athletes at UNI are so arrogant and a large majority of them are not even D1 talent, but tend to have the ego. I find it "laughable" you tried to compare the Hawks and Cyclones to "DIII" when your distance team is the one made up of runners with that type of talent. I apologize if you haven't broke 15:30 for the 5k...don't feel bad because no one else on your team has either. You're right, good chat.

UNI would mop up Iowa in the Big Ten. Come on, Iowa can't even compete in the Big Ten, so I don't know where you arrogant assholes get off talking down to a team that actually qualifies runners for NCAAs.

FWIW, UNI scored more points at nationals than Iowa did at Regionals. LOL!

Iowa = Panther State. Get over it.

Hawk fans shouldnt be so cocky about how much better they are. Looking at this years conference results:

Outdoors-

1 Iowa runner finishes in an impressive 4th in 30:19, not a single other Iowa runner even runs in the race

5000- Not a single Iowa runner finishes the 5000

1500- Iowa has one runner run a 4:02 for the 1500 and not make the final

Indoors-

mile- No runner from Iowa even in the race

3000- One runner from Iowa runs an 8:31

5000- Two runners from Iowa manage a 14:47 and 14:49 for 10th and 14th place.

Not all that impressive and not much better than UNI. Factoring in the 1500/mile- UNI's performance at conference, regionals, and nationals is better than Iowas.

Not that this has anything to do with Ulrey. Who is a fantastic talent and has improved at UNI. But, the DIII schools in the IIAC could and have beaten UNI's distance squad in recent years. Without a doubt there is no argument that both Luther and Wartburg's distance programs have had far better results. That being said, UNI in all other aspects would wipe up and have had great success at the DI national level, especially considering the types of recruits they get compared to Arkansas, LSU, Texas, etc...

Why is anyone talking about Division 3 schools in this discussion? Those teams are nowhere near as good of a team as UNI,(or Iowa , ISU, for that matter). They wouldnt have scored a single point at nationals and would probably be in the celler of the MVC and Big Ten. Thats not a knock on them, they are D3 after all.

Is saying your d3 schools cross country is better than a d1 program like UNI, LSU, Tennesee, etc. that puts no money into their distance program really bragging?

Good for you, you are a decent d3 program that can beat LSU in cross country!, congrats. You do not, however , belong anywhere in this discussion.

When you get DI scrubs bragging like they are better than all DIII runners, yes. DIII, and the IIAC in particular, was brought into the discussion. I defended my conference. UNI, Iowa, ISU all have better overall programs. They should. You dont get DIII runners defending themselves out of nowhere, and it is usually a DI scrub picking the fight. Its not the 13 or 14 minute 5kers, it is the 15:30+ guys at DI that feel they need to be better than someone somewhere.

how do you know they are d1 scrubs posting on here?

I dont think the problem is d1 scrubs as you call them. I think its d3 runners with an inferiority complex trying to get attention. Perhaps youve criticized UNI,Drake,Iowa State, or Iowa in the past and hate the attention they are getting , particularly Lisa Koll and Northern Iowa.

I bet your one of those Iowa Preps posters that thinks youre an awesome runner and has criticized Bucknam and Ihmels in the past and cant say much now.

Quite the opposite in fact. I think it is good for the state with what Iowa has done with in-state talent (Hairston as of recent), what ISU had done with both Uhl and Lisa Koll, and what UNI has done with Mulder, Reid, and the many other mid-distance guys that have improved there. How can you argue with as many sub 1:53 guys as they have? Buckham and Ihmels are both very good coaches, at least going by results. I have no envy of any of those schools, I am a 15:30-16:00 min guy. I have no problem with anyone faster or slower, but it does get old when there are plenty of DI guys( in this instance, Iowa DI schools bagging on Iowa DIII schools) that bag on DIII when they aren't much faster than me, if at all.

I know they are scrubs because good DI runners don't take the time to bash average DIII runners, because their times back it up. Scrub DI runners would be average DIII runners, maybe slightly better.

Kind of like d3 getting on d1 runners. While Im not accusing you,this song has been sung before. The classic lines are;

"why would so and so(in this case Ulrey)go to UNI?

It must be the grades.

I dont doubt,however, for a second that it was a d3 runner in Iowa mouthing off about it. Ive heard it before.

For the record, Im a former d1 runner- not a scrub by your definition(though I had a few scrub times now and then)but not quite national class either. Ive heard lines like that before(over a decade ago) and still do. Usually it was Iowa University runners(even as UNI was doing better, and yes in cross country).

When Dorian was in 8th grade I saw him run the 1600 m on his Riverdale School track at a junior high meet against little Orion, my son's school. After watching Dorian, my son came to find me and we just stared at each other, speechless. Our jaws were dropped and eventually we gushed "Did you see that kid?" We looked around and nobody else seemed to recognize that we had just seen a runner that was a rare and extraordinary talent. We felt we may have seen a future Olympian.

It was a privelage and thrill to watch him for his next 5 years of track and cross country. At a meet in rural Rockridge his Sr. year, he uncharacteristically ran the 800, doing so in 1:52, of course with no competition. As usual, the crowd seemed unaware just how phenominal he was and the local papers had little to say about him. I drove 4 hours to the State meet that year to watch him beat the state 1600 record in 4:09.

What is it about watching an elite runner? It's thrilling and awe-inspiring to me.

Like the subject title "who is dorian ulrey"? we waited and waited for our area to recognize him. I'm still dissappointed in our area's sports writers, as Dorian gets minimal attention even after his wins. He got a tiny square with an announcement of his NCAA 1500 2nd place several days after and no article. Sorry to be cynical, but if he becomes nationally known, I predict they will jump on the bandwagan then and claim to have been involved for years. They haven't.

It's a good question why he has been largely unnoticed. To give your debate perspective, he has been largely underrecognized even within his home town region. We have the Bix 7 race here and there are many interested in running. We've had top state distance runners for the past decade who actually got more attention than Dorian in the media. (Hird and Chenowith brothers) You all have logical ideas as to why he wasn't widely known before last weekend. Add his prep years to the mystery.

I think that's why my son and I feel we've been privelaged to have recognized that he was spectacular when he was so young, allowing us 5 years to appreciated and admired his great running, while the general public was unaware.

I stood next to Dorian one day as I checked in to his high school office as a visitor for work I do, and I wanted to express my awe, but figured I may come off as a very weird mom-aged "groupie" :) Regretting that missed opportunity to praise him, I'm doing it now......hope you read this Dorian. We enjoyed every race we watched you run, and continue to follow your career, now giving us opportunity to catch you on TV.

The only reason why the D-III schools get brought into the argument is because the D-III'ers jump in talking shit when the topic of D-1 distance programs comes up.

Buttonwood wrote:

UNI is NOT fully funded. You must choose and pick which event groups to fill. If you're a stud = and you can make it through the clearinghouse- you can attend ANY major track/cc school in the Midwest right now.

UNI is fully funded with their scholarships. Give me a break. Their budget isn't that bad either. It's not major conference money but it's not far behind. With their facilities and ability to stay at home most of the indoor season their budget is pretty good. It's a major achievement to do what UNI is doing but they are doing it with 12.6 scholarships for men and 18 for women.