German Fernandez Effort in XC

douchebags wrote:

I don't know if anyone can beat Sam Chelenga, but I think if anyone's going to upset, it will be German Fernandez. I have never seen anyone run with balls like German. no homo of course. When he ran the greatest distance double in HS history, pure balls. When he ran that XC state meet record, pure balls. When he won NCAA 1500m from start to finish, bowling ball sized balls. When the only people to beat him where Bolota, Jager, Teg and Solinsky, balls the size of Alaska.

When has he run with balls in an NCAA cross country race? Not just nationals, but any race. He either has controlled tempo efforts or he blows up/drops out. Maybe he's just tripping over his huge balls...

lucious leftfoot wrote:

When has he run with balls in an NCAA cross country race? Not just nationals, but any race. He either has controlled tempo efforts or he blows up/drops out. Maybe he's just tripping over his huge balls...

Not much for realism are you?

Granted this year he is just running tempo efforts and last year he was hurt/sick/anemic...

His one NCAA XC season when he was healthy was as a freshman in 2008. What happened at Pre-Nats? What happened at Big 12? What was happening at nationals before his injury?

The kid's a gamer. I don't know where his health/fitness is this year and I don't know what Smith is going to ask him to do next Monday. But if you don't think this kid runs with balls then you really have no clue.

Remember that German absolutely destroyed Derrick and Puskedra in USA JR Cross and World Cross.

End game.

What's with the balls analogy...

Chelenga and McNeil will be way ahead of everyone else. Fernandez will blow out his calf/achillies if he tries to run that fast. He seems to have an issue in his lower legs running 10 XC. His achillies was injured running hard 2 years ago at NCs and then the twinge from last Saturday.I don't know if it is a training issue or physical, however, just based on last Saturday, since he felt is calf going, I would thinkhe would go out conservative.

Also, I don't get the whole not racing cross country season thing. I would think in a 12 week period, you could run at least 2 all out efforts before nationals. I wouldn't make last week one of the efforts, but I would pick a couple of 8ks and have the team go for it.

Seems obvious to me that German is the biggest talent in the NCAA (3:55 solo mile? Noone else can do something that great),

but since he is ridiculously injury prone, they have to keep him off his feet.

I suspect that whatever mileage you think he is doing, he is doing much less than that.

While you can be a miler on 40-50 mpw, you really can't be a good 10k xc runner - So while he probably won't do very well at nationals in xc this year, if he can just keep it together for a couple years, his 3k-5k will be world class.

Point is, disregard xc results in evaluating German - wait for track.

Or better yet, ignore xc until he has run injury free for 2-3 years.

Lekuta wrote:

Remember that German absolutely destroyed Derrick and Puskedra in USA JR Cross and World Cross.

End game.

How did he do against Ahmed (Wisconsin, who is a year behind him, although close to the same age)?

26mi235, it's cool how enthusiastic you are about all things Wisconsin, but it's not always relevant to what's being discussed.

I wouldn't say Fernandez "destroyed" Derrick at WJXC - they were 11th and 15th, respectively. But Ahmed was 57th in the same race.

"I just wonder the last time he gave a truly 100% effort in a cross country race"

I think the same can be said of Derrick. He has not raced hard yet this year. Chelanga too.

I personally always felt I needed a few hard races before I was ready for a big one, however, I never tried it any other way. Maybe I did not need to.

German did run a sub 24 on OSU's home course, which is supposed to be a tough course. It did not seem, however, that he really opened up to his top gear at the end (or he just does not have the same gear this year).

Likewise, Derrick has run some fast times, but we have not seen him really open it up.

Heck, I'm not even sure if German or Derrick will completely open up next week. They may run with the team for as long as possible (not that it slows them down all that much).

Fernandez is a great Cross Country runner. Results speak for themselves. Only 2-time JR National Champion?

2009 Results - Junior Men

Results

Place Num Name Ag Hometown Affiliation Time

===== ===== ===================== == ================== =============================== =======

1 25 German Fernandez 18 Stillwater OK Oklahoma State University 23:20

2 303 Christopher Derrick 18 Naperville IL Stanford University 23:39

3 495 Luke Puskedra 18 Eugene OR University of Oregon 23:53

4 257 Ryan Hill 19 Hickory NC North Carolina State University 24:35

5 308 Patrick Dupont 18 Fairport NY Syracuse University 24:39

28 March 2009 - 15:00Position Bib Athlete Country Mark Difference

1 85 Ayele Abshero ETH 23:26 +0:00

2 165 Titus Kipjumba Mbishei KEN 23:30 +0:04

3 258 Moses Kibet UGA 23:35 +0:09

4 168 Paul Kipngetich Tanui KEN 23:35 +0:09

5 164 Japheth Kipyegon Korir KEN 23:36 +0:10

6 96 Atalay Yirsaw ETH 23:38 +0:12

7 86 Gashaw Biftu ETH 23:44 +0:18

8 94 Debebe Woldsenbet ETH 23:52 +0:26

9 160 John Kipkoech KEN 24:00 +0:34

10 158 John Kemboi Cheruiyot KEN 24:08 +0:42

11 270 German Fernandez USA 24:13 +0:47

12 24 Dieudonné Nsengiyuma BDI 24:16 +0:50

13 157 Charles Kibet Chepkurui KEN 24:17 +0:51

14 64 Goitom Kifle ERI 24:18 +0:52

15 268 Chris Derrick USA 24:20 +0

2008 Results - Junior Men's 8 km

Results | Splits

PL BIB NAME AFFILIATION CITY AG TIME

=== ==== ======================== ============================== =================== == =====

1 1524 German Fernandez unattached Riverbank CA 17 24:18

2 1586 Ryan Sheridan Iona College Melville NY 18 24:19

3 1540 Emil Heineking University of Virginia Chardon OH 18 24:34

4 1571 Bobby Moldovan North Carolina State Universit Fort Wayne IN 18 24:38

5 1602 Kevin Williams unattached Lakewood CO 17 24:39

high on stanford wrote:

douchebags wrote:

I don't know if anyone can beat Sam Chelenga, but I think if anyone's going to upset, it will be German Fernandez. I have never seen anyone run with balls like German. no homo of course. When he ran the greatest distance double in HS history, pure balls. When he ran that XC state meet record, pure balls. When he won NCAA 1500m from start to finish, bowling ball sized balls. When the only people to beat him where Bolota, Jager, Teg and Solinsky, balls the size of Alaska.

It is when I see posts like this that I wish dyestat was still around to keep retards like you off this board.

Don't get upset! I honestly beleive he just likes to say the word "BALLS"

agip wrote:

Seems obvious to me that German is the biggest talent in the NCAA (3:55 solo mile? Noone else can do something that great

A mile is nothing compared to a 10k, especially a 10k in 27:08.

This is equivalent of a mile in 3:49, but still not a 10k.

How well is Acosta doing in cross country?

It is easy to see someone's passion or lack of it in an interview, especially a number of interviews. If you can't see it that's fine.

The calf issue might be a result of their training, as someone said Colby fell down after the race with a calf cramp, maybe too much mile training and not enough for a 10k.

Also if everyone will remember, German went to OSU for the specific purpose of running cross country AND competing with the best runners in the world, but Smith immediately kept steering him away from that, saying it would take him 3 or 4 years go get ready for a 5k, and 10 years for a marathon???!!! What's he supposed to do in the meantime, forget about running? Forget about the things he cares for and why he went there in the first place??? I am not surprised at all at what's happening.

It is possible that German could win a race that he's totally not prepared for but not likely.

I agree- 27:08 is in another ballpark. In fact, if Chelanga is in that type of shape, there's no reason to even mention McNeill in the same sentence as him either. What's McNeill's best 5K? 13:25? 13:20 maybe? Chelanga ran 2 x 13:34 with no rest. Who cares about the stupid NCAA 5K when you're running those types of times. (Though he needs to work on some finishing speed for Christ's sake!)

26mi235 wrote:

And Colby's move was a trivial little move? How many seconds did he chew up in a mile?

Colby's move was not trivial. It was impressive. The kind of thing you used to see from German two years ago.

Colby cut a 29 second lead down to nothing in about a mile, and then preceded to kick with Schwab for the next 500 meters. German cut that same lead down to 16 seconds in about 2000 meters, looking fresh and easy coming in. Nobody else put more than 5 seconds into that lead at all, and only 4 more guys could even manage that.

Or to look at it another way, Colby ran away from the entire pack to the tune of 25 seconds and looked strong with a kick at the end. German put 9 seconds on all of them. And while those guys were no Chelangas, Mcneills or Derricks, they were strong runners. Putting 25 and 9 seconds on them in a short time at the end of a 10k is noteworthy.

Colby looked ready to rock. He might not be able to go with the top 3-4 guys, but he looks ready to roll with anybody else in the NCAA. I'm looking forward to fast times in the spring too.

giffypop17 wrote:

26mi235 wrote:

And Colby's move was a trivial little move? How many seconds did he chew up in a mile?

Colby's move was not trivial. It was impressive...

Ummmm, you do know that "26mi235" was saying the same thing don't you?

twenty 7 O 8 wrote:

I agree- 27:08 is in another ballpark. In fact, if Chelanga is in that type of shape, there's no reason to even mention McNeill in the same sentence as him either... (Though he needs to work on some finishing speed for Christ's sake!)

Somehow I doubt that Christ's well being is dependent on Chelanga working on his finishing speed.

light and up wrote:

Ummmm, you do know that "26mi235" was saying the same thing don't you?

Yes, I do. I was agreeing with him. Some people had implied the opposite. I was disagreeing with them.

Why don't people go all out in a race anyways! How long does it take to recover from an 8k or 10k anyways (5-7 days?). If you save something maybe you cut recovery to three days, but I think the mental advantage of knowing yourself is worth a lot more than a couple extra workouts. Once you are within 6-8 weeks of the taper race you can't be afraid to start getting after it IMO.

I mean when those runners get into a really competitive race and go to find that next gear they will quickly find out that its not there or it hurts more than they anticipated it might and they will fall off. That is why Sam Chelanga runs well when it counts, because he is not afraid to put it all out there early (and maybe fall a little short like he did at Pre Nats).

Sandbagging it really doesn't do a whole lot. Everyone knows who the top dogs are anyways.

I mean I guess Stanford and OSU are only concerned about finishing conservatively and going to try to win the team battle, because neither team seems like it is ready to go all out next Monday.

bobby e. wrote:

26mi235, it's cool how enthusiastic you are about all things Wisconsin, but it's not always relevant to what's being discussed.

I wouldn't say Fernandez "destroyed" Derrick at WJXC - they were 11th and 15th, respectively. But Ahmed was 57th in the same race.

I thought he was further back than GF but could not remember how far back.

It does show how good GF is.