Do Rupp & Ritz have the balls to run World Cross?

road rashed wrote:

After the US Team comprised of Ben True, Chris Derrick, Ryan Vail, Bobby Mack, Elliott Heath, and James Strang completed the "miracle on dirt" in 2013, pro XC seemed relevant.

Will either of these guys attempt to make the team in Boulder this year? Ritz went to college there and used to love XC, before disparaging it for the marathon.

Has Rupp run an XC race since NCAA's? Maybe once in Scotland is all I recall.

If the US were to send a truly top notch team, could they win? Who would be on that team?

1. Derrick

2. True

3. Ritz

4. Vail

5. Mack

6. Rupp???

A better question would be why on Earth they would even bother with "World Cross". The vast majority of our best runners (male and female) don't even think about running it, and it's basically the same across the world.

There's absolutely no prestige in it. Even the Kenyans and Ethiopians barely bother with it now. As I recall, Kenya basically sent a C or D team, and Ethiopia more or less did the same, while adding Merga (correct me if I'm getting the wrong year for this).

The Kenyans and Ethiopians have never sent a B or C team, the USA is the country that does not take world cross serious.

Best they can hope for is a team bronze.

not if rupp & ritz run. they would have a shot

noIamnotmalmo wrote:

Best they can hope for is a team bronze.

Yep, thats what they said last year too.

salazar ran it got 2nd to muhammad kedir so he must have thought it was important enough, rupp ran it as a junior.

our junior womens team should be pretty good cain, efraimson, cranny, baxter and other good juniors.

some would argue world cross country is even harder than the olympics, so its a big deal.

when you think about it, world cross country is harder than the olympics and world track is about the same or even harder than the olympics because the defending champ and/or diamond league winner gets a spot in the world track champs so possibly 4 kenyans and 4 ethiopians in the distance events and 4 jamaicans in the sprint, whereas the olympics limits each country to 3 athletes.

the olympics though gets 1000 times the hype.

but most athletes care a lot more about going against the absolute best competition and their legacy far more than they care about hype or money.

so the athletes agents and fans want their favorite athlete to win the olympics.

but the athletes care most about going against the best competition even if its for less money, so they can look themselves in the mirror and say i am the best that has ever been.

example when rupp retires he wants to be recognized as better than gebreselassie ever was, and centrowitz wants to be better than el G ever was, they know they are not their yet so they will use it as motivation for the next 10-12 years, if they dont achieve it, even if they make 100 million or even a billion or more they will have an emptiness knowing they did nnot achieve their goal.

That was a once a decade fluke due to the mud. Ethiopia/Kenya/Eritria/Uganda won't lay down again for a while.

There's no prestige in winning it 7 times like bekele...or paul tergat....or john ngugi..

World Cross has tons of prestige. It's the US that doesn't hold it to be prestigious. And that may be, simply because we suck at it!

But it would be nice to see a cross dream team mix it up with Africa's best!

US Cross Team

1) Rupp

2) Derrick

3) True

4) Mack

5) Ritz

6) Solinsky

7) Sam Chelanga when given citizenship

Tough to beat

Walter White wrote:

US Cross Team

1) Rupp

2) Derrick

3) True

4) Mack

5) Ritz

6) Solinsky

7) Sam Chelanga when given citizenship

Tough to beat

Ritz is not doing world cross, he made a blog post about it last year

Solinsky is done

Chelanga probably won't have citizenship by then

0% chance of Rupp doing cross

No, they don't have the balls.

Some of the European countries don't even field full teams

It doesn't make sense that Ritz, Rupp and the rest of NOP don't run it. I mean, the whole philosophy of their program is to win medals that will last forever rather than to go for records which will only be broken. It only makes sense that they try to run world cross since it seems like it would be a better opportunity to win a medal since it has the team aspect attached to the individual one.

Is it Rupp-certified?

Had to be said wrote:

Is it Rupp-certified?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha you are original and Hilarious oh man....stop really, Rupp certified.... Wow, so good "it had to be said" so brilliant. Take that NOPers #truth...I love this web site

Salazar has stated Rupp doesn't like cross. No, this absolutely does not make him a pu$$y. Everyone either likes track or cross better, and Rupp is allowed to decide which he prefers. There is nothing wrong with focusing on track, its where the best money and COMPETITION is. So don't be disappointed in him for skipping cross and saving his time and energy for the big dogs come August in Beijing...

Do they have the balls to do it? Yes, I'm sure they do.

Should they do it? Why? I love cross country but it DOESN'T hold the same prestige as other championships.

You guys all sound so, so butch with your "does he have the balls for XC" or "he's wasting his time in the 1500 - he'd be great if he just had the balls to move up to the 5000".

The great thing about our sport is that there are so many races at which one can succeed, and the XC part of the season provides another path to success for runners who have the bodies (not the balls) to do that.

Success in our sport should be defined by how well one races at one's best distance. Curiously though, here at LR, it would seem that success is really found in your long run or one's ability to do a 60 tempo run, or by embracing a longer distance than one's body is made to run.

I get the love for XC - you don't have to share team time with other kinds of people. And it allows, say, the fifth best two miler on a HS team to feel like he's a big deal because he's gone to States, while the fifth best 200m runner on his team never runs in a Varsity meet.

But really guys. Balls?

Walter White wrote:

US Cross Team

1) Rupp

2) Derrick

3) True

4) Mack

5) Ritz

6) Solinsky

7) Sam Chelanga when given citizenship

Tough to beat

Rupp, Derrick, True - no doubt.

I'd put Jager and Mead ahead of Mack and Ritz.

Solinsky is done and I'm not sure how close Chelanga is to getting citizenship.

p.s. how much longer is Nike going to fund Schumacher? By my count he's down to two fully world-class athletes - Shalane and Jager - which is comparable to what Wetmore has while still handling his day job at Colorado. Speaking of Schumacher, what happened to Lopez Lomong this summer?