runnerstribe.com wrote:
Results just in from the NSW State 5k champs - 19 year old James Nipperess won the title from former Aus XC champ Jeff Hunt in 14:04, with a 62 second last lap. Breakdown of the race in 400m splits can be found here..
http://www.nswathletics.org.au/answ/live/pics/001-1-04.jpgMakes for a pretty strong junior team for World XC now...with Gregson (3:41, 8:01, 14:01), Everest (8:00, 14:01) and Nipperess (3:47, 8:09, 14:04) and seventh placed athlete Harry Summers, who is 18, and ran 14:26 last night.
Can anyone give an indication of how the USA team is looking for the meet?
There are several excellent runners who would be able to participate, but we don't know if they will. Luke Puskedra and Chris Derrick would make for a very strong 1-2 punch at the head of the US junior team.
Chris Derrick ran a 13:55 5k last spring all by himself, and running a negative split no less, before coming down with mono. He returned this fall and ran quite well at NCAAs, 7th overall in 29:29 and less than 30 seconds behind Galen Rupp.
Luke Puskedra has improved quite a bit since high school and finished 5th at NCAAs this year, finishing in 29:27. His track times were not outrageous last year (8:48 for 2 miles, I think?), but he has improved substantially and the longer distances suit him better. Unfortunately, it does not appear that Puskedra will be racing this year.
German Fernandez is also recovering from an injury, which occurred during the NCAA championships. It could be argued that he was running better than either Derrick or Puskedra until he hurt himself, but he never competed against them. German is entered in the US championship, but it remains to be seen what kind of shape he is in after his time off. He has shown the ability to return to form quickly in the past. His track times were 8:34 for 2 miles and ~4:01 for the mile.
The only other "big gun" currently signed up is Colby Lowe, who is a teammate of Germans. He was running not far behind German until nationals. He had a poor race and placed pretty far back. When he is on his game, however, he is quite good. Generally 15-20 seconds behind German.
I really hope Puskedra ends up running and Fernandez is healthy. If Derrick, Puskedra, Fernandez and Lowe were the top 4 at Junior WXC, the US will have a much stronger team than we customarily do. That would be three guys who are all significantly sub-30 minute 10k XC and another who is not far behind.
