Sammy Silva joins Bowerman TC - Does Harvard waste more talent than anyone in the country?

Dunno but she is so damn cute

http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/252167-Payton-Jordan-Invitational-2015/video/768911-Sammy-Silva-joins-Bowerman-TC#.VUJnqGRViko

I think most would agree her potential exceeds her times; she did split 4:29 on an indoors DMR. I don't think she has ever been in a Peyton Jordan type race and I expect her have about a 5 second PR on Saturday. Also, OTC don't have time to waste, they have done their research on Sammy.

She probably had a lot more time to run as a 5th year grad student at New Mexico

+ 1 more year under her belt

+ She also could be an altitude responder

+ ABQ is at about 5000'

It has been my observation over the years that most of the talented runners in my area who have chosen to go to Harvard have used their high school running success to get themselves into Harvard, and then been far more focused on their academic education at Harvard than on their running performance. They've used running as a ticket to get a Harvard degree, not to maximize their running potential. I suspect that attitude is far more prevalent than high schoolers going to Harvard to pursue elite running.

You do understand that 8th place does score at NCAAs? Also, that it is EXTREMELY hard to score at NCAAs. Top 8 is in the .000001% of college runners.... Top 8 NCAAs = you're veryy good

Colleen Quigley is joining too. Doesnt seem like a fit at all, but money and the swoosh talks!

No way Quigley doesnt go to OTC; her brother already runs for them. Any idea if her focus will be on 1500 or steeplechase?

dude...... wrote:

You do understand that 8th place does score at NCAAs? Also, that it is EXTREMELY hard to score at NCAAs. Top 8 is in the .000001% of college runners.... Top 8 NCAAs = you're veryy good

He meant 8th at conference, not NCAAs, but only top 6 score at Heps.

As for "Harvard wasting talent"... yes and no. The Ivy League does not allow 5th years to compete, so that restricts their timeline. The distance coach, Saretsky, has had his fair share of runners that went on roller coaster rides during their Ivy eligibility (Korolev, Leakos, Chenoweth). Korolev is finishing up his NCAA eligibility at Stanford, so we'll see how his outdoor season pans out with the Cardinals. I'm not sure is he directly coached Silva at Harvard as for the track season, she was more mid-distance since the mile was her best event.

But as another poster said, the athletes tend to focus more on the academics while they are there, and when/if they get the option to compete while in graduate school, it's easier to focus on the athletics portion as the 1st year of graduate school is just more general classwork than getting the degree done.

I don't know what caused Silva to lose a season at Harvard (overtraining? illness?) so it's hard to say if Harvard DID indeed waste her talent or not.

Don't really know anything about Silva, but there are a few things with Cotton. First and foremost, from what I know, his Achilles hasn't been healthy for more than a few months at a time ever since he got to Harvard (whether or not the Harvard training has anything to do with it, I can't say - but it is partly just bad luck). Second, he seems to be extremely invested academically - as others have mentioned about many Harvard athletes. And third, before he got to Harvard, he was training at a high level - going to Kenya with the GB team for a stint at altitude, and it resulted in a really good year in 2011. Not that it should be impossible to build on that, but spending part of the winter in Kenya is a lot different than spending most of it in Boston.

Really ABQ is only 5000 feet? I agree with your points, but efff I wouldn't consider 5000ft high altitude. If you're right though I wonder how BTC being in Portland will affect her training. The whole altitude camp business sounds like garbage to me since you go up for a few weeks and when you go back to sea level your hemoglobin returns to normal.

My opinion is Harvard is too academically rigorous that their runners end up having to chose between a great college career or staying eligible to run.

In any case she is going to spice things up at BTC (GF's GF gonna have to step it up)

NE DIII guy wrote:

1) Does Harvard waste more talent than anyone?

Harvard is battling for the cellar with Duke for that honor.

Harvard took the best distance runners from the DC and Baltimore metro areas and they both regressed a little this year.

Now, they'll both be laughing all the way to the bank in four years when they receive their Harvard sheepskins, but they just won't be very fast is all.

Sounds like they have their priorities about right...

Which is more valuable, a Harvard degree or an NCAA championship? I would go with the Harvard degree.

Speaking as a non-fan (for a variety of reasons) of Harvard*, I still think a little nuance is called for in discussions like these.

I coached in the League for a few years and I can safely say that *every* Ivy has had multiple talents that just didn't pan out. If Harvard seems more prominent in this regard (percentage-wise, I doubt that it is), it's probably just that they do a better job of bringing in top-flight talent--so we pay more attention to their athletes' careers.

Over the last few years Saretsky et al. have established their women's t&f program as the class of the Ivies--they're doing something right--and have elevated the men's program to where it's often spoken of (along with Penn) as a strong candidate to break up the Cornell/Princeton hegemony in the near future.

However, I actually doubt that the focus-on-academics thing plays a significantly larger role at Harvard than elsewhere in the League. Many Ivy athletes are multiple-achieving individuals who find--as people do at all college levels--that the discipline and schedule-structuring that sports promote also pay off in academic success.

And in any case, as long as you don't actually flunk out (tough to do at Harvard) you've got a very good shot at graduating with honors--something like three-quarters of their grads do--so I don't think the academic pressure there need be overwhelming.

*For inquiring minds that want to know: no, I was not dinged by Harvard admissions. I didn't apply there; I attended a different Ivy (turning down Stanford and Caltech to do so).

Don't most college athletes regress, at least early in their college years?

Diver wrote:

Don't most college athletes regress, at least early in their college years?

Absolutely.

A little secret here: this is one reason why college coaches so routinely move their recruits to longer races--the kid isn't able to directly compare her/his college performances with high school ones.

Yes, that's right: Harvard is eager to let in runners who can use their high school athletics accomplishments to get an Ivy League degree.

old runner parent wrote:

They've used running as a ticket to get a Harvard degree, not to maximize their running potential.

Harvard coaching is mediocre , at best , Joe Franklin is the best coach in the country , Just shows what quality coaching does.

Sitting in a Joe Franklin Lecture right now and he brought up Silva . Said she was continually injured at Harvard because they did speed work on track 3 Days a week all year . At UNM they emphasis strength and tempos not griding out on the track . Smart guy ,

Noer of things wrote:

Yes, that's right: Harvard is eager to let in runners who can use their high school athletics accomplishments to get an Ivy League degree.

old runner parent wrote:

They've used running as a ticket to get a Harvard degree, not to maximize their running potential.

Harvard is eager to let in exceptional applicants. Someone who is very good at something, maybe running, stands out.