Stephen Sambu: 12 NJCAA Championships in 2 years, how will he fair in NCAA

He looked really really good at Griak, running faster than many past greats on a decent day, but not a particularly fast one. He is looking like a top-10 guy right now, and possibly better, but it's still early.

Undefeated in junior college from 1500m to 10000m and to my understanding he also part of a winning 4 x 800m at NJCAA Championships. That is as impressive as the young lady from Great Britian who had over 110 win streak but Stephen Sambu is over a greater range of distances. Although its only one race but he is still undefeated in X-Country and the time he posted in contrast to former NCAA standouts is impressive.

Stephen Sambu looks like a definite top 3 placer at X Country Championships and a major contender for the title!

Plz do not suggest that Sambu could even come close to an xc title.

Are you crazy the kid's 10000m personal best is just as good as anyone in NCAA this year and the fact that he is undefeated in x-country is huge. Also he just ran the 2nd fastest time ever at Griak in which many talent collegians ventured for years.

Stephen Sambu in my opinion should be considered a X-Country title threat.

Methinks you didn't need to include the 4:14 1500m to give an idea of his ability. He is obviously capable of 3:51, probably quicker, and 4:14 is only slightly quicker than his 10,000m pace.

SambuSizzling wrote:

Are you crazy the kid's 10000m personal best is just as good as anyone in NCAA this year and the fact that he is undefeated in x-country is huge.

28:27 is just as good as 27:08? He won't crack the top 5, if everything goes perfectly maybe 6-10th, but that's

Lagat rates him highly....

tucsonn wrote:

Lagat rates him highly....

Lagat couldn't beat Chelanga at 10k XC, much less someone with mediocre PRs that he rates highly.

always a challenge to pick a winner. A contender? Absolutely.

Having reviewed last year's major invitationals (Dellinger, Notre Dame, etc), it seems as if the winners of the early season meets did not fare well at the NCAA meet. For example, Centrowitz finishes 4th at Dellinger, but the top 3 were all WELL behind him at the NCAA meet.

So is Sambu going to win? If general XC history tells us anything, he may be a contender, but these early season victories may be the only wins that he sees. (the asterisk here, is that his history in particular shows that he can win at the end of the season as well as the beginning). I wouldn't bet too much on him just yet though.

considering that 7 of last year's top 10 are returning, Sambu will have his work cut out for him.

Stephen Sambu wasn't undefeated, He was beat in the Indoor 3000m at the NJCAA National Chamipionships by Julius Bor who is at Alabama now and Eric Harasyn (an american) who is at the University of Oklahoma!

He is a great runner just stating the facts, he wasn't undefeated!

NOT UNDEFEATED! wrote:

Stephen Sambu wasn't undefeated, He was beat in the Indoor 3000m at the NJCAA National Chamipionships by Julius Bor who is at Alabama now and Eric Harasyn (an american) who is at the University of Oklahoma!

He is a great runner just stating the facts, he wasn't undefeated!

Ahh those 3000m cross country races.

Or did you not notice the undefeated in CROSS COUNTRY

isjdhhjdj wrote:

Lagat couldn't beat Chelanga at 10k XC, much less someone with mediocre PRs that he rates highly.

you really think that Chelenga could beat current Lagat that easily? If I had to guess, I'd say that Lagat is a 26:5X guy on the track.

What is Lagat's cross country history anyway? I see that he was an All American as well as won the outdoor 5000m champion. And we all know that he can run 12:55 at the slowest right now. He's definitely at least on Chelenga's level right now.

As far as I am concerned earlier it said undeafeated from 1500-10k. So maybe undefeated in cross but surely not track ..... get it straight!!!

He looked good at Louisville last year too. Dominated it in a lightning fast time on that course

boo boo poo wrote:

isjdhhjdj wrote:

Lagat couldn't beat Chelanga at 10k XC, much less someone with mediocre PRs that he rates highly.

you really think that Chelenga could beat current Lagat that easily? If I had to guess, I'd say that Lagat is a 26:5X guy on the track.

What is Lagat's cross country history anyway? I see that he was an All American as well as won the outdoor 5000m champion. And we all know that he can run 12:55 at the slowest right now. He's definitely at least on Chelenga's level right now.

That's just your ass-umption. Mottram's 10k is only 27:34 with a almost exactly the same 5k PR, which for 1500-5000m runner scales well, and who dabbled more with the 10k than Lagat. Don't expect every fast 5k time to translate in a Solinsky like 10k.

VIPAM wrote:

do you think Stephen Sambu can win this years NCAA X-Country and go undefeated in X-Country?

Did Sam break his leg or something and you're the only one that knows?

acouplequestions wrote:

Plz do not suggest that Sambu could even come close to an xc title.

You said that about Sally Kipyego when she entered NCAA form the Jucos, too.

Good call on that one, genius.

12 NJCAA Championships in 2 years, how will he fare in NCAA?

It seems to me like he has alot of raw potential but maybe lacks expirience and expertise