HS freshman Lukas Verzbicas runs 14:18 for 5000 indoors

fsdnfdsmfnd wrote:

I have seen him run for a couple of years and when I saw him training a few years ago at a local track i thought he was in high school. Then i saw him runnning at a Junior High meet and he was quite impressive. I have seen him running very hard 1000 meter repeats with his parents watching him. I talked to him when he was in 8th grade and he seemed like a nice kid.

My son goes to school with Lukas as well as being his teammate the past 3 years, he is a very nice down to earth kid. My son is amused by the fact that you would not have any idea that Lukas is so amazing if you didn't know anything about him because he comes across in school as any other freshman. There are many kids in his school who probably have no idea what a rare talent is in their midst. My son is proud to know him and we enjoy hearing about his many accomplishments. Lukas truly loves to run and his parents are both very accomplished athletes as well, his mom was a former national champ herself.

Can someone please check the bloodwork on this "clean" Lithuanian??

i am sure someone knows about his training....cheating only gets you so far

mrr82, I just took on faith that claim from a previous poster that this was worth high 8:40s 2M. This race was an average of 9:12 2M (that is, that was his pace for the 5000m) and IAAF tables equate 14:18 5k with 8:59 2M. Since lower mileage high school runners are going to tend to slow down more from 2M to 5k (I don't know his mileage, but as a triathlete, he would get a lot of additional aerobic work from swimming and cycling), you could figure that he would run faster than 8:59. I think that Withrow, after winning footlocker, ran in the 14:teens at 5k in the spring, significantly behind Rupp at Junior nationals.

letsrun.com wrote:

The average freshman in High School is 15. He is a little bit older than that, but so what?

get used to it, kids, especially boys, are waiting a year to enter K or 1st grade. 19yo seniors (therefore 16yo freshman) will be common, although later in the spring maybe.

Great running for two months old.

nananananana wrote:

ciego no más wrote:

Fernandez was born in November of 1990. That's about as young as you can be for his graduating high school class. Verzbicas was born in the fall of 1992, which is in line with most of the high school sophomores in the US.

he was born in january of this year.

I was 16 a week into my senior year of high school. Didn't turn 18 until I was a freshman in college. I'm not knocking this kid, I don't care what his age is, he's got 4 years to improve. However, he is pretty old for his grade.

jkhhjhkhhjk wrote:

I was 16 a week into my senior year of high school. Didn't turn 18 until I was a freshman in college. I'm not knocking this kid, I don't care what his age is, he's got 4 years to improve. However, he is pretty old for his grade.

he most likely has 10-15 years to improve.

I am normally not one to be suspicious however with this kid I am. Some of his results over the last 2 years have been unreal.

Get em while theyre young... wrote:

Can someone please check the bloodwork on this "clean" Lithuanian??

When I ran back in the late 70's they had an age limit for HS. I think it was 19....maybe 19 1/2.

Do they still have that? I wonder if this kid will be able to run his senior year in track?

Regardless, it's a pretty impressive outing for a 16 year, though not completely outrageous....still more to come for this kid....probably.

I don't think anyone's arguing with how impressive this performance is, only with labeling him as a freshman. I think it's misleading to call him a freshman because anyone who hears this will naturally assume he's 14 or 15. Even for a sophomore - obviously - these times are damn impressive. Hell, even if we call him a high school junior, that gives him another year and a half to improve on 14:18 and 8:57. I think Coe ran 8:56 at this same meet his senior year. Look what he's doing three years later. Hard not to be optimistic about this kid's promise.

What's the big deal not even close on this list. for 14, 15 or 16. Russian, American, I don't care. http://www.arrs.net/SA_O5K.htm

I don't give a shit how old you were in Highschool. Great, you turned 18 in college. You were YOUNG for your grade. Lukas is one (ONE!) year old for his grade. He would be on the old-end of normal sophomores, but still within the normal range.

14:18 is amazing for a sophomore or any highschooler however you slice it.

Hes got 3 more years to improve that time in highschool as well, which is pretty exciting.

????????????????? wrote:

I am normally not one to be suspicious however with this kid I am. Some of his results over the last 2 years have been unreal.

Get em while theyre young... wrote:

Can someone please check the bloodwork on this "clean" Lithuanian??

Yeah I'll get right on that. Clearly anyone running faster than you must be cheating. This allows you to still feel good about your high 15 minute 5k's, right?

He took the freeshman record from 15.51 to 14.18!!

Eh, whatever.

16 year old freshman

17 year old sophomore

18 year old junior

19 year old senior

There are lots of 19 year old seniors out there.

I agree, he's 6-12 months older than the averager freshman. But he's a freshman in terms of experience without a doubt, this is impressive.

Gosh, around y-2K this kind of mark may have been provisional for NCAA indoors and would have easily qualified you for every D1 conference championship outdoors.

i asked hime when he was in eighth grade during CC season and he told me he was running around 45 miles per week. He would run hard before many small meets and then race. I think he was kind of banged up as an 8th grader and he had some sort of injury he told me he was getting worked on that cut back his running volume. I remember noticing that when he ran one of his feet turned in a great deal and thought that might have been his problem. He is a huge talent and did not seem cocky