Penn State - OUCH

Doing JoePa proud

Did Creese take a natural break on the final lap? He must of run about a 4:20 leg

Fast Times at Early-February High.

Year after year.

looks like a Pennsylvania thing . . . Villanova performed at the same level

nova anchor dropped the baton. They were in the race the whole way until that.

ghost of harry groves wrote:

looks like a Pennsylvania thing . . . Villanova performed at the same level

That is seriously crazy.

Blew the Big 10 title too.

Women's program gets much more attention.

Split the programs and give Gondak the men's program?

If anyone has been following Creese that past 6-7 weeks you could see this coming. 7th in tactical Big Ten mile, 4:04 in a 3:57 type race.

Kidder just got caught in a slow slow 800 heat , had good position and just got pipped by guys last 15M. He should have been in the mile anyway despite his 800 mark, they try to stretch guys at this meet, it never will work, not at this level.

Did McEntee really drop the baton, how much did he lose? Could not see that in well covered commentary during race, what a joke..panning the crowd and no attention to it.

McEntee was getting tripped up in the pack and lost the baton towards the end when things started to ramp up. Not easy to bounce back that in what was already a tactical anchor leg

dfgegherh wrote:

McEntee was getting tripped up in the pack and lost the baton towards the end when things started to ramp up. Not easy to bounce back that in what was already a tactical anchor leg

Tactical anchor leg? The DMR I was watching had the Stanford guy get the baton way out on everyone. Every other team was trying to make up the huge gap.

no, every other team was running tactically for second, if not third, with stanford and columbia so far out. they got some help from the columbia anchor going backwards, but otherwise were only racing each other.

Yeah, I think most of us get that.

It seemed some settled for second and third a little too early in that one.

Nova was only 2.6-2.8 down at last exchange, no effort to engage immediately, and Atchoo, I think only ran about 59.x-60 going out, he was reachable thru 800M in about 2:00 if someone took a bigger chance.

It then became tactical for third place and even then McEntee had run himself into an iffy spot covered up on rail with 3 to go.

I am gutted for the kids on the team as they're clearly talented enough to place well...BAS on the other hand can suck it!

PSU IS 800 U!

Creese has had an injury for the last few weeks which has hampered training and, likely, racing.

Not Jo ppaas wrote:

That is seriously crazy.

Blew the Big 10 title too.

Women's program gets much more attention.

Split the programs and give Gondak the men's program?

I was under the impression that Gondak was the one getting them geared up to roll early season and fade by season end. I was basing this on his track record at UK where he once had. 8 guys under 1:48.5 and zero in the NCAA final.

What's the real story here ?

Gondak has his guys race ready right away. Hard to maintain that level for 2.5 months. Sullivan on the other hand has the long distance guys. She never gets them race ready. Hard to when your workouts are easier then what your women's team is doing.

I guess when you have a top indoor facility you have to use it. The coaches can't tell the AD and administration that they don't care about indoors.

By the way I was surprised to see Simko transferred. She was running well there.

Can someone with some actual knowledge of the program and their training please comment on these two issues?

1) It does seem like they tend to run fast times early indoors, taper off during indoor championship season, and even more so outdoors.

2) What about the balance/emphasis between men and women, and between mid-distance and distance?

Looking for some info/insight please. Thanks.

No one can deny that the Penn State guys did not have a great meet. If you have paid attention to Creese this year, after he ran on the DMR in Jan, he has been hurt and sick and only managed a 4:03 for the open mile this season when he had run 3:57 the year before and 3:58 as a frosh. It is probably why they entered their guys in the open 800 this weekend knowing the DMR was going to be a crapshoot. They were in the mix until Creese blew up with 500 to go.

Watkins made the final at Indoor NCAA's. Kidder missed it by .08 seconds I belive in a race where they ran 30+ seconds for the 2nd 200. In those type of races anyone can lose out - and the 2nd and 3rd seed in the whole meet Kidder and Rutto did. If Kidder makes the final - and again he missed by .08 - no one is saying any of this stuff. Oh, and Kidder doubled back and ran the fastest split of all DMR teams this weekend for the 800 leg.

Last year they were second in the DMR indoors and 2nd in the 800 indoors so that seems to be getting the job done in March. They were 2-3 in the 800 outdoors and 6th in the 1500. Kidder ran a PR of 1:46 at USA's - the last meet of the year. They advanced 5 guys in the 800 to the second round of the OUTDOOR NCAA meet last spring and 3 guys to the final round in Eugene. They also won the Penn Relays DMR and 4x8 last year and Loxsom went on to run his fastest 800's of the season in July overseas. That seems to to be getting the job done in April, May and June.