Why aren't more people talking about Verzbicas?

Have you ever heard of dyestat?

If Verzbicas were black he'd have scores of idiots jumping over each other looking for PC points while they defended his being over age. The funniest part of this whole thing is that by the time Verzbicas graduates, he'll still be at least two years younger than Haile as a senior.

I posted this elsewhere, but what don't people understand about the fact that him being a year older than most freshmen DOES NOT make up for the additional year of training that he would have had if he were a sophomore.

Also, it seems like a bunch of people also haven't realized that he ran an 8:57y two days later.

Having just watched the videos of his races, I'm thinking that with his long, loping stride, and with a Stanford-type "pace bus" situation, this 16-year old could run sub-14 right now. The way he casually moved up from last place in the 2 mile to dismantle the field was truly impressive as well.

The fact that he still sees himself as a triathlete actually is an upside IMO for his running future.

somebody get beat by a black guy one too many times in life?

maybe because we don't want to over hype him so we dont tear him down when he doesn't race well.

remember the last guy > alan webb.

the kids just in HS, let him have fun and not have pressure.

Intergalactic wrote:

There are some good points but he's not "old enough to be a junior" any more than a 13 year-old is old enough to be a junior. He should be a soph, but he's a frosh.

Good points on the indoors, not born in US, not pumped about the future of American running, triathlon stuff.

thankyou! I am sick and tired of hearing this "he's old enough to be a junior" stuff. My kid is 15 and exactly a year younger than him, but is a Frosh, so quit with age talk already!

Chi Runner wrote:

Lukas may have enough people to run with next week at the Shuffle 8K. The Top 100 field looks to have at least 30 sub 25:00s based off the confirmation site. Hansons, Big River, Playmakers, WI Runner all will be there. Type in Top for the Start area and all the names post

I don't for a second think he'll win, but I'm very excited about the race and to see how he stack up. He can be top 10 (he's done that before but this year's field is much deeper/tougher up front than in the past) and I'm hoping for top 5. I think the kid's a stud and I look forward to following him for years to come.

I will tell you why.

It's for the same reasons nobody wants to talk about Solomon Haile.

1) They are both very old for their grades.

- There are plenty of kids right around his talent level for age. Just one off the top of my head is Graham Bazell who ran 9:04 as a junior. Graham has incredible grades and has thrown down some great times, why don't people talk about him more?

2) Both are not American.

- It's pretty simple. Americans want to see Americans winning. I gurantee that if Soloman Haile was of age (which he may be), but he was American and still won all of these races, peole would not care in the least bit about his age.

He is one year older than most high school freshmen in America. When he graduates high school (let's say in June 2012) he'll be 19 years, 5 months old. Ryan Hall finished high school when he was 18 years, 8 months old. That's a whole 9 months difference between one high school phenom to another. Big f***ing deal.

I have it on good authority that he's been doing some recent workouts with Matt Withrow and a few others.

Past results for Lukas from this race:

2007 - 26:34 (34th overall)

2008 - 25:31 (11th overall)

some notable entries in this year's race:

Johnson, Chad Hansons-Brooks Distance Project

Arciniaga, Nick Hansons-Brooks Distance Project

Sheehan, Ryan Hansons-Brooks Distance Project

Kilburg, Mike Hansons-Brooks Distance Project

Robison, Grant Playmakers Racing

Jonaitis, Jeff Universal Sole A

Costello, Gregory Nike

Kastor, Deena

Chicago actuary? 191N?

Ben Rosario, Big River Running

I think Verzbikas will try to run most of the race with Jonaitis and then outpace him the last 1k.

I believe he'll run bn 2330-2345! Not bad for a freshman finishing no worst then 3! He'll break 435 for his last mile in the process.