Chris Derrick in elite company

Wanijru could have made it if he had trained right his freshman year.

will he get a chance to contend for the individual title next year?

giffypop17 wrote:

Wanjiru is also obviously now on the 3 time list.

Man, I'm a dork. Make that Chelanga, not Wanjiru. Give me a break, I just watched the 2008 Beijing Marathon the other day...

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

will he get a chance to contend for the individual title next year?

Yes, and so will placers 2-10, all of whom were juniors!

If by "getting a chance" you mean run for individual glory, I would imagine next year's race, sans Chelanga, will be different, with no superstar favorite pushing the pace from the beginning.

yes, that's what I mean, get the green light to go for the win, rather than just sticking with Riley and any other fast teammates.

sambau will win next year

boss wrote:

sambau will win next year

Mo Ahmed the year after - he is following the pattern of Bairu (although he won it twice).

Bairu - 38, 9, 1, 1.

Ahmed - 30, 12, ?, ?.

Make no mistake I know Chris Derrick is an awesome talent; however, his mindset leaves a lot of questions. All season long the team knew how strong their 4-6 runners were and despite the rankings they knew the chances of winning a NCAA title weren't as strong as their ranking.

Chris Derrick and his coach knew afte 3km that they were basically out of the team title as they weren't even in the top 5 team wise and had over 250 pts at 3km. At the 5km they weren't in much better shape. My thing is that Chris Derrick had the ability to be top 2 or 3 this year; however, he didn't make any attempt despite his team flatlining early in the race.

Chris Derrick is using his the excuse of running for his team instead of pushing himself to the limit to try and win an individual title.

Chris Derrick had about as much chance (very slim) of winning the individual title as Stanford had of winning the team title (NONE) in my opinion.

You cannot make this comparison. Tons of people improve. Bairu improved by 29 places, Ahmd by 18....not close

Canadeh wrote:

boss wrote:

sambau will win next year

Mo Ahmed the year after - he is following the pattern of Bairu (although he won it twice).

Bairu - 38, 9, 1, 1.

Ahmed - 30, 12, ?, ?.

I'll agree that Derrick had no shot of winning today. At best, we can speculate that he might have been able to beat Puskedra. But you could say the same of Riley, Mecheso and German.However, the whole point of your post is ridiculously off, and based on an assumption that may be completely incorrect.

VIPAM wrote:

Chris Derrick and his coach knew afte 3km that they were basically out of the team title as they weren't even in the top 5 team wise and had over 250 pts at 3km.

How do we really know this? Sure, I'm sure his coach knew, but we don't know that Derrick did. It's a loud race, there's lots of shouting, and at the point where the announcers are reading off team scores, the athletes generally aren't near the loudspeakers. It's possible his coach could have shouted or hand signaled to him, but also possible that he couldn't get a signal through. I'm not saying that Derrick didn't know that, but we can't say that he did, and if you think it through, it could go either way. The only thing we know that he knew is that Heath wasn't right next to him.

Besides that, even if your assumption is correct, you made an awfully harsh judgment there. The guy went in to race for the team, and though he looked like he was jogging the first 5k, from about 7k on, he was all out. He has fire, he has drive, and with the exception of this meet the past two years, and maybe doubling NXN and FL his senior year of HS, he has rarely compromised his chance at going for it individually for the sake of the team. Seems to be an all around quality guy and if he's healthy in the spring, we'll see him chase some fast time and individual glory.

VIPAM's right on this one Chris Derrick didn't compete for the win like the top 3. Team battle my butt the object is to score as few points as possible and placing 2nd or 3rd would have bode better for his team than the position he settled for with his too conservative run.

Stanford went in as the favorite the last two years and bomb bigtime both times maybe their too smart to run with heart in x-country.

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

yes, that's what I mean, get the green light to go for the win, rather than just sticking with Riley and any other fast teammates.

Yes, the influx of good African athletes will magically stop next year. Something that has not happened in decades. Derrick has no chance. Aknowledge, move on.

giffypop17 wrote:

giffypop17 wrote:

Wanjiru is also obviously now on the 3 time list.

Man, I'm a dork. Make that Chelanga, not Wanjiru. Give me a break, I just watched the 2008 Beijing Marathon the other day...

you have time to watch an entire marathon?

Dude...find something to do? Do you have a girlfriend?

DeBeSo wrote:

giffypop17 wrote:

Man, I'm a dork. Make that Chelanga, not Wanjiru. Give me a break, I just watched the 2008 Beijing Marathon the other day...

you have time to watch an entire marathon?

Dude...find something to do? Do you have a girlfriend?

Everyone has spare time. I watched 6+ entire marathons this year. Maybe that's why my grades suck.

African freight train. wrote:

jjjjjjjjj wrote:

yes, that's what I mean, get the green light to go for the win, rather than just sticking with Riley and any other fast teammates.

Yes, the influx of good African athletes will magically stop next year. Something that has not happened in decades. Derrick has no chance. Aknowledge, move on.

..................

No how about I Acknowledge?

giffypop17 wrote:

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/special-articles/411

If I'm not mistaken, he just added his name to the list of guys who have finished in the top 10 at NCAAs 3 times, with a chance to make it 4 next year. Also, looking over that list, a pretty good percentage of those guys did end up winning one eventually.

Wanjiru is also obviously now on the 3 time list. I believe Puskedra and Lowe have a chance to join it next year, but Derrick is the only currently active runner with a chance at the 4 time list.

I am betting that several of those guys who competed before 1968 would have been 4 timers if they had the opportunity. Lindegren for sure.

You're an idiot. He committed to being a team runner, that's how you win team titles, but I'm assuming you have never won one so you wouldn't know.. you wouldn't know what being a top 5 runner, with the chance of winning Nats, is like. I'm impressed he put the team first. Oklahoma St did great, same kind of thing. Good for both teams for seeing the bigger picture.

On top fo that list is Pre 3,1,1,1 ...hey thats pretty good.

You stupid trick (ROFLMAO)! I have much more experience in all aspect of track and field then you could ever dream.

The fact that you're buying into Chris Derrick team running is beyond stupid.

THE BEST WAY TO HELP YOUR TEAM in x-country is to score as few points as possible- how do you do this by finishing the course as quick as possible.

Luke was running for his team as well but didn't he go with THE LEADERS? I see how Luke did his best to help his team, so how did Chris Derrick help his team when he didn't attempt to beat all the runners within his capabilities?