Check out S.M.U.'s CC Team

I'm thinking that there must be a pretty good market for athletic translators in Houston, right about now. What's "fartlek" in Afrikaans?

smu is in Dallas

Why would they need to know "fartlek" in Afrikaans?

WOW! Just think if SMU had let Alistair back on the team and kept him happy. They would be really hot this year. The tean still looks pretty solid. I know Rene pretty well and he'll get them ready for sure. the key is keeping them all healthy. Only time will tell!

Afrikaans is a South African language, not to mention the word looks really cool in print.

RSA - Rep. of South Africa

10 bucks says Graham speaks English

I'd bet they all do - if not, they're not going to do that well in an American university. I was merely commenting (I had hoped, humorously) that the team had a variety of native languages.

anyone, from Cambodia wrote:

10 bucks says Graham speaks English

English is still the official language of South Africa. It might not be the native tongue, but I doubt Graham is anything but from British descent. So, the joke loses its meaning a bit for me.

In fact, he probably doesn't even know Afrikaans

it does look good in print.

Afrikaans.

I wonder if I could get rich selling vowels in Croatia?

I Thought Afrikaans was a language used by White South Africans, and not a tribal language used by Black south Africans??? So my guess is like you said he is of British descent or Non Black and he probably knows Afrikaans, but the joke didn't lose any meaning because I believe the joke was a reference to Arkansas and their recruiting of foreign athletes, but not getting alot of heat because they are in general European i.e non black.

The joke was a reference to the fact that the HOGS are made up of roughly half american and half foriegn runners. I think the HOGS get too much heat for being a foriegn recruiting school only. In looking at their top ten list you can see that it is a very good mix. Coach McDonnell equally develops talent from any country, at any age. That is what I meant. The SMU team is kind of an anti-Stanford/Colorado. That is the joke, I guess they don't get any heat because they haven't won in recent memory if ever.

Steve OUT!

nm

For what it's worth (doesn't look like much), they also have a walk-on frosh coming in who ran something like 1:55/4:20 in Georgia. His name is Stephen Downey, ran for Westminster. Times aren't bad off the super-low mileage they run, so if he keeps his head in the game he might be able to run with these guys in a few years.

C'mon you guys have to admit that this is a very good team. But what bothers me is that some schools that compete with foriegn athletes, like Villanova, Iona, and Providence, etc, don't seem to take as much heat on this board as some others. Is this the case here? Blincoe, Kelly, etc. all are just as foriegn as a Kimani, or a Cheboiywo(sp). What gives?

A Fan!

My philosophy is: let the schools bring in all their foreign athletes. Then, let Stanford and CU beat up on them. Foreign athletes are not a bad thing for the NCAA. It keeps the complacent little Americans on their toes, literally. Age issue? Not an issue. Ask 20 year-old Sammy Kipketer who is one of the fastest runners in the world. Ask Dathan who as a 19 year old placed 25th? at World XC. If you want to bolster American running, bring on the foreign athletes.

Thanks for the heads up Fan.

This is the Mustang's deepest team I have seen. SMU has had loaded teams the last 4 years or so, but has usually either not run at its potential or not been quite deep enough as was the case last year in the conference meet and district meets (they won conference in 2000 but probably should have won the last 3-my boys at Rice won the other 2).

However, from what I have seen of this crop of returning runners (Allayger came in at semester last year so hasn't run XC, and Graham and Davidson have only run 1 year of XC) they are they real deal so they should turn a lot of heads (or else they will suck bad).

This is off topic, but we're talking about SMU and it is a bit funny.

A couple years ago I ran the SMU cross invite in Dallas. Abeline Christian was racing that day also (tons of African runners) and all their guys went straight to the front...not a problem nor unexpected. The problem came when they didn't know the course. So guys are yelling "left" to get them going the right way and they aren't responding at all. Then some guy jokingly lets out the comment "you've got to click at 'em"...I don't know, I thought it was real funny and quick.

SMU has had a decent history solid individuals. I can't recall how their teams have done. But they have been recruiting outside the states for some time now. I have no problem with furriners. In fact, I think they liven up a team by bringing a new life perspective to the group. I know our Irish runners were fun.

The presence of foreign runners on a team doesn't bother me, per se. But I do look askance when the team is almost entirely foreign. Questions like, "Why couldn't they get ANY American runners to go there?" and "Is this coaching or finding the defacto best runners, and all they have to do is stay healthy and eligible for 4 years?"

or "How important is these runners' educations to the school?"