Why do Texans suck at distance running?

Not trying 2 be clever wrote:

Congratulations, you succeeded.

Maybe the weather is just too hot for distance training.

Like others have said, football is king in the fall, so a lot of kids don't go out for xc. Soccer, also in the fall, is very big in the Hispanic community, further detracting from xc.

Also been said, it is incredibly hot in the summer, which doesn't help, but it's nice the rest of the year. I've lived in Chicago and Houston, and I'd take the Houston summers over the Chicago winters.

One thing that wasn't mentioned is that Texas hasn't been the second most populous state for long. It's grown faster than most states.

Overall, with the growing population and more fast times being ran at the prep level, I wouldn't be surprised to start to see that translate into more elite times at the professional level.

wejo

rojo

Craig Lutz

Steve Magness

...

list of quality TX runners is endless.

Not all native Texans, but most on this list called Texas home during their careers:

Mary Davies (NZ marathoner trains in Houston)

Becky Wade

Jon Warren

Justin Chaston (Olympic Steeple for GB, but trained in Houston)

Pablo Solares (Rice grad)

Al Lawrence (Aussie runner, went to UH and trained in Houston)

Steve Sisson (UT grad)

Texas high school XC and track programs have had very poor coaching. There have only been a handful of schools that have been able to attract and retain top coaching. For many schools, XC and track are after thoughts with all the resources going to football, basketball and baseball. I knew a guy who coached at a school that was a top baseball program. The kids on the baseball team got free gear (bats, gloves, uniforms, cleats). The team basically had the same number of coaches on staff as a MLB team. The went to tournaments around the country. Meanwhile, the XC/distance coach had to be a teacher because the school would only approve a supplemental for the position. The kids had to carpool to meets and pay for their uniforms. The school would only pay for entry fees and limited them to only doing the meets necessary to get kids to district and state. No invitationals.

Out of Texas recently, you've had kids like:

Leo Manzano

Duncan Phillips-3:38

Kyle Miller- 3:36

Darren Brown- sub 4 miler

Colby Lowe- multiple top 10 @ NCAAs

Reed Connor- sub 13:40 5k

Jake Morse- 8:30 steepler

Scott Macpherson- sub 8:40 steepler to 1:03 half

Rod Koborsi- 13:20s 5k

Still in school competing:

Craig Lutz-Texas- sub 13:50 5k

Ryan Dohner-Texas- Top 10 at NCAA XC

Brian Barraza-Houston- World Junior 5k

Parker Stinson- Oregon- 13:30s 5k

not to mention the middle distance success with a bunch of 1:45-48 guys.

So maybe not life changing talent, but those are all kids who have done something on the national seen out of TX in the last few years.

If you take Native-Americans out of equation (Billy Mills and Lewis Tewarnina) Texas has more Olympic 10K medalists (Al Lawrence) than 49 states. It is tied with Oregon. Quite impressive!

Polly P wrote:

If you take Native-Americans out of equation (Billy Mills and Lewis Tewarnina) Texas has more Olympic 10K medalists (Al Lawrence) than 49 states. It is tied with Oregon. Quite impressive!

So Native Americans don't count, but a guy from Australia who hadn't even set foot in Texas when he won his medal counts as a Texan. That is rich.

Post collegiately, I wouldn't say there has been much success. As in, all-time top lists for 5k and up.

But Boerne Champion High School won NXN about 5 years ago, Lutz won NXN individually (also 3rd NCAA 10k?). Colby Lowe and Southlake Carrol had a very good period. Reed Conner. Chelsea Svienson. Rachel Johnson. Scotty Mac.

There's solid talent. Just never seems to be world beaters if it's over a mile.

This

There is plenty of talent in Texas

Just not the coaching

If you look at State meet results from last year the times are laughable from a state of Texas's size.'

There was a slight breeze through out the day but nothing to indicate why times are so slow in the largest class in Texas. If i can recall they wen out with a 61 first 400m in the 1600 and a 4;30 mile split during the 3200

1 Austen Dalquist 12 Keller 4:07.53 10

2 Christopher Williams 12 College Park 4:15.01

3 Logan Emery 12 Woodlands 4:15.68

4 Ian Cazares 11 Cy-Lakes 4:16.19 4

5 Wesley Ward 12 Flower Mound 4:19.82

6 Robert Ammons 12 Strake Jesuit 4:20.31

7 Chris Myers 11 Northside Holmes 4:23.15

8 Zach Kirkland 12 Northwest 4:23.62

9 Cesar Moreno 12 Del Rio 4:23.97

1 Austen Dalquist 12 Keller 8:57.75

2 Connor Meaux 11 College Park 9:07.25

3 Zachariah Hamstra 12 Flower Mound 9:15.61

4 Juan Uribe 12 Brownsville Hanna 9:21.02

5 Alex Rogers 11 New Braun.Canyon 9:23.60

6 Caleb Hollifield 11 Round Rock 9:30.53

7 Chris Myers 11 Northside Holmes 9:33.54

8 Robert Ammons 12 Strake Jesuit 9:41.58

9 Enrique Perez 12 North Shore 9:50.64

Texican wrote:

Here are some wrote:

Leo Manzano

Alan Culpepper

Todd Harbour ?

The Brojos

Leo Manzano 3:30 1500 '12 Olympic Silver

Alan Culpepper NCAA Champ 5k Olympian in Marathon

Reuben Reina NCAA Champ 3k Olympian 5k

Todd Harbour 3:50 miler

These are the best runners out of TX. 1500 to Marathon.

The climate is not good for distance running in TX and most of the best athletes are ball players Football, Baseball, and Basketball.

Todd Harbour played Baseball in H.S. and ran track for port Isabel High school.

He may have played football and basketball too. He was known to be an all around athlete.

Jeff Wells

2:10:15 at Boston, Bill Rodgers called won by 2 seconds and called it his "hardest win ever"

I didn't realize there is a quality coaching shortage in TX. I'll let my coaching friends know that perhaps they should take their talents to Lonestar.

I'm sure they wouldn't enjoy getting sh!t on by ADs that only care about football, though.

I would argue that TX had a weak group of individuals last year. Look back to the state meet a few years ago when they had 4-5 guys that were sub 4:10

Additionally, the state meet is held towards the end of May in Texas when it's usually 90+ degrees and humid. Tough to run fast in those conditions

Off topic but; Texas produces some great jumpers/vaulters such as Billy Olson, Charles Austin, Louise Ritter etc... among many others along with sprinters/hurdlers. Maybe we don't need distance runners from Texas. Even though their population base is pretty high the environment isn't as conducive. Southern tier states = heat & humidity.

Genetics

Environment

Coach/Plan

Motivation

Which one(s) can you control?

It is extremely hot down here in the summer so I think a lot of kids when they are younger do not train year round or as much as other kids and thus aren't as good as they could be.

A lot of hs kids may not go out for the team even because it is so hot. Their parents may not run as much as parents in other states because it is hot.

College kids come home and I bet some don't train as much as they would if it wasn't as hot.

Take the same population and put them in Texas and California and you're going to have more runners in California because its better weather for running.

As others have said:

1) The best athletes play football in Texas

2) It is beastly hot in the Summer

and also:

1) The boys are all corn and brisket fed big boys.

2) The runts of the litter go out for CC

Sally V wrote:

Baylor coach Todd Harbor still holds collegiate mile record,I think, which he set like 35 years ago. Reina holds FL record he set 30 years ago.

This is a troll attempt right? Not even a little bit correct

Lawi has the indoor mile record, and if you are counting outdoor mile which isn't run anymore it would be Sydney Maree

uh no wrote:

Sally V wrote:

Baylor coach Todd Harbor still holds collegiate mile record,I think, which he set like 35 years ago. Reina holds FL record he set 30 years ago.

This is a troll attempt right? Not even a little bit correct

Lawi has the indoor mile record, and if you are counting outdoor mile which isn't run anymore it would be Sydney Maree

Magness gets a lot of credibility because he takes walk ons and makes them good. All of the money at UH goes into the sprints and field events and almost nothing goes into cross country. Magness did turn Brian Barraza a 9:05 HS two miler into quite a good runner. He ran the 5k at World Juniors. Magness is also incredibly smart and post very good informative articles.