Alexa Efraimson (HS junior) wins Dellinger Invitational

She beat all if the Oregon and Washington runners. I sure hope they were taking it easy. Otherwise they just got dusted by a high schooler. Props to Alexa.

i mean it wasn't nationals, so they weren't at their peak, but neither was efraimson. that girl is legit.. some CRAZY talented HS girls these days, each of whom would be a superstar on their own if they didn't happen to be born within a year or two of each other.

Mary Cain was on hand to witness the run by Efraimson. Looks like she was taking her OREGON visit as she was with a lot of Oregon athletes. I wonder what her thoughts were about this great run.

Anyone notice the men's results? in 24th place in 24:46 (winning time 23:55) was Webb Allen

Wha wrote:

She beat all if the Oregon and Washington runners. I sure hope they were taking it easy. Otherwise they just got dusted by a high schooler. Props to Alexa.

What's more, she is only a junior!

Alexa Efraimson attends Camas High School and is coached by Laurie Porter, who is the mother or Pro Runner Sarah Crouch (formerly Sarah Porter, married to Pro Runner Michael Crouch)

Noticed Stephanie Jenks a sophomore from Iowa finished 7th as well. She took highs school XC off this fall after competing in London in September at the world junior triathlon championships.

Camas wrote:

Alexa Efraimson attends Camas High School and is coached by Laurie Porter, who is the mother or Pro Runner Sarah Crouch (formerly Sarah Porter, married to Pro Runner Michael Crouch)

Michael Crouch is no longer a competitive runner, but thanks for the insight.

It just illustrates again the differences between male/female juniors. A 16 yo. guy could not possibly win a college meet against topflight recruited athletes.

Sixteen year old (some younger) girls can not only hold their own against would-be all-americans they can beat them on occasion.

Great 16:35! Efraimson.

Pinkney wrote:

It just illustrates again the differences between male/female juniors. A 16 yo. guy could not possibly win a college meet against topflight recruited athletes.

Sixteen year old (some younger) girls can not only hold their own against would-be all-americans they can beat them on occasion.

Great 16:35! Efraimson.

I disagree. These women were clearly being held back by their coaches. Efraimson would easily get beaten if they wanted.

I dislike what college running has become. Races are no longer races. They are just tempo runs, workouts, and half efforts. What happened to trying to win and race more than once per season???

I disagree. These women were clearly being held back by their coaches. Efraimson would easily get beaten if they wanted.

There is no way that UW and UO came into this meet and agreed to let a high school kid steal the show. A MF high school kid beat all of these blue chippers?! That was real.

Being from Washington I've seen Amy Eloise Neal and Katie Knight battle it out for years and there is no way that they would not pull out all of the stops to beat a high school kid.

Alexa Efraimson is on another level. She's not alone. There is also Sarah Baxter and Elise Cranny and, of course, Mary Cain, but we should celebrate the future of American distance running. These new kids are doing unreal things and it should translate into medals down the road.

To Oregon credit Oregon didn't run it's top 4 Women for the 2nd week in a row no freaking Way Washington beats Oregon if the 2 transfer Woodward and LeBlanc run this race :(

hcou wrote:

There is no way that UW and UO came into this meet and agreed to let a high school kid steal the show. A MF high school kid beat all of these blue chippers?! That was real.

Being from Washington I've seen Amy Eloise Neal and Katie Knight battle it out for years and there is no way that they would not pull out all of the stops to beat a high school kid.

Alexa Efraimson is on another level. She's not alone. There is also Sarah Baxter and Elise Cranny and, of course, Mary Cain, but we should celebrate the future of American distance running. These new kids are doing unreal things and it should translate into medals down the road.

No, it was not necessarily real. Coaches force their teams to not go past a tempo effort all the time until "the race that matters". Regardless of whether or not a high schooler is in the race.

Fact is Oregon's team is not as extremely talented as it has been the past few years, with their best athletes graduating last semeseter.

jsis wrote:

No, it was not necessarily real. Coaches force their teams to not go past a tempo effort all the time until "the race that matters". Regardless of whether or not a high schooler is in the race.

You don't know these girls do you? You cannot pronounce Efraimson? You say Any Neale don't you?

Do you think Metcalf said "AE, feel free to break 17 but don't run the extra 13 seconds to run down the high school kid that you beat last year." ?

Efraimson was the best runner on the course. You even had an Olympics trials finalist in there for added emphasis.

jsis, meet your national champion.

I would imagine the training loads for the collegiates are quite a bit tougher than what Efraimson is doing, and so their races probably weren't as indicative of their potential. That would especially be true for true freshmen that are still very much acclimating to the training load, and that's a perfectly reasonable explanation - along with greater year-to-year improvement - why Efraimson beat Neale by 13 seconds and Knight by 31 (and Jenks beat Knight by 9), despite it being the other way around in the past (Neale beating Efraimson by an average of what, 15 seconds? last year, and Knight ahead by an average of something like 5 seconds), with Jenks far behind them (a full minute behind Efraimson at the only meet she ran against the Washington trio last year, NXN).

Cranny ran almost as fast and did it at 5ooo feet alt. Alone!

hcou wrote:

jsis wrote:

No, it was not necessarily real. Coaches force their teams to not go past a tempo effort all the time until "the race that matters". Regardless of whether or not a high schooler is in the race.

You don't know these girls do you? You cannot pronounce Efraimson? You say Any Neale don't you?

Do you think Metcalf said "AE, feel free to break 17 but don't run the extra 13 seconds to run down the high school kid that you beat last year." ?

Efraimson was the best runner on the course. You even had an Olympics trials finalist in there for added emphasis.

jsis, meet your national champion.

Yes, that is what I think Metcalf may have said. It's certainly a possibility. As someone who has run for a national level program in the past, I can say that our coach said the same things to us.

If you look at the college xc results so far across the nation, it's obvious that lots of teams were ordered to pack run and do a tempo even if that meant losing to other runners.

pac12fan wrote:

To Oregon credit Oregon didn't run it's top 4 Women for the 2nd week in a row no freaking Way Washington beats Oregon if the 2 transfer Woodward and LeBlanc run this race :(

Woodward is out for the season, so cross her off your list. It'll be interesting to see how the UConn transfers open, considering they've yet to race at all!