Casey Clinger Can BEAT Andrew Hunter

Look, Clinger is clearly a fantastic runner and it's amazing that he's a junior. And no HSer is invincible, as Hunter proved last year. But your premise is ridiculous. Hunter runs with fantastic tactics. Watch his Penn 3k or mile, his dream mile, USA 1500, or of course the Brooks Pr 2 mile. He can shift gears and kick like a maniac. Clinger ran something like 4:14 last year. Hunter CLOSED his 2 mile in 4:14 last year. With a last lap electronically timed at 54.5. Clinger is a great runner, and obviously you can never really be sure that someone will win, but that's a very bold statement you just made.

What if you move the caps to another word, so...

"Casey Clinger CAN Beat Andrew Hunter"

He has the ability and there is slim probability he could do it, but extremely slim. Hunter is proven and has shown a level of fitness untouched this year. But comparing to last year is tough, because Clinger has made huge gains as well. Might be an interesting race

OP is correct, he CAN beat Hunter, but isn't that true about anyone? The fact is that anyone can have a bad day, and anyone can have that fantastic day, especially in Cross Country. What I'd like to see is Clinger running with Hunter at Oregon in another year. They could make each other better on a team like that.

Look, Clinger is clearly a fantastic runner and it's amazing that he's a junior. And no HSer is invincible, as Hunter proved last year. But your premise is ridiculous. Hunter runs with fantastic tactics. Watch his Penn 3k or mile, his dream mile, USA 1500, or of course the Brooks Pr 2 mile. He can shift gears and kick like a maniac. Clinger ran something like 4:14 last year. Hunter CLOSED his 2 mile in 4:14 last year. With a last lap electronically timed at 54.5. Clinger is a great runner, and obviously you can never really be sure that someone will win, but that's a very bold statement you just made.[/quote]

Bierchad is that what he did close in 4:14 and the 54.5! I never really got the skinny on that 2 mile. That is freakin amazing. He obviously seems stronger this year already. Really hope he can stay healthy and have a great year. We could be on the verge of seeing something special this year.

Stupid premise.

The only way he would beat him is if Hunter had a terrible fall , was injured or terribly ill.

He doesn't have the tools to beat him as someone else said that he did.

He is 11 seconds slower at a mile and 21 seconds slower at the two mile coming into this year. Hunter is markedly improved as per his results.

Push that over 3.1 miles and it is even a bigger rout. If Hunter lost it would be an upset and something would have to be way off, his career has been managed masterfully, and he is an All Timer for sure. Maybe not in Cross but certainly on the track.

It is not so stupid a premise but it is still wrong. Hunter is way faster but he is not quicker to reach whatever speed.

If they were running a match race, quickness might matter but they are not. The other guys in the race will keep it fast enough so that quickness won't matter just the ability to run a 52-4 sec 400 when tired.

My guess is that at Footlocker Hunter isn't going to worry about tactics in the first mile. He is going to run the first mile aiming at the Footlocker course record, most likely he will just continue until he wins and sets the record.

If record pace proves too hard for him on the day of the race, he will cruise the middle 1.5 miles letting anyone who didn't go out with him catch up and those that did go out with him catch their breath, a little. Then he will kick the last 4-6-800m like a 3:58 miler until he breaks everyone and cruise in.

Bierchad wrote:

Look, Clinger is clearly a fantastic runner and it's amazing that he's a junior. And no HSer is invincible, as Hunter proved last year. But your premise is ridiculous. Hunter runs with fantastic tactics. Watch his Penn 3k or mile, his dream mile, USA 1500, or of course the Brooks Pr 2 mile. He can shift gears and kick like a maniac. Clinger ran something like 4:14 last year. Hunter CLOSED his 2 mile in 4:14 last year. With a last lap electronically timed at 54.5. Clinger is a great runner, and obviously you can never really be sure that someone will win, but that's a very bold statement you just made.

No dude, you don't seem to understand "Case Clinger is the purest racer (he's ever) seen".

LOL

lotta hunter jockstrap-sniffers on this thread. Obviously you guys didn't see what happened to Tamagno.

I'll take Clinger over Hunter 4-3

mehhhh wrote:

LOL

lotta hunter jockstrap-sniffers on this thread. Obviously you guys didn't see what happened to Tamagno.

I'll take Clinger over Hunter 4-3

Please tell those of us that did not get a chance to see what happened to Tamagno what happened to Tomagno.

Thank You

Hy

No jock sniffers here , buddy.

It is simple analysis.

Would you pick any guy in this field to beat Ritzenhein in HS shape, ? I thought

Hunter is as good or better than he is, at this point in time.

Just do the analysis. If Fisher a two time winner was not in last year's field Hunter would be going for back to back and with 4:02 and 8:42 returner credentials.

Hunter got 4th at FLN last year, not 2nd. He did have the biggest balls going after Fisher... and perhaps that's why you're saying he would have won last year (implying that he died a bit more at the end and got caught because he tried to go with Fisher's move)?

Trialswatcher wrote:

No jock sniffers here , buddy.

It is simple analysis.

Would you pick any guy in this field to beat Ritzenhein in HS shape, ? I thought

Hunter is as good or better than he is, at this point in time.

Just do the analysis. If Fisher a two time winner was not in last year's field Hunter would be going for back to back and with 4:02 and 8:42 returner credentials.

Bierchad wrote:

Look, Clinger is clearly a fantastic runner and it's amazing that he's a junior. And no HSer is invincible, as Hunter proved last year. But your premise is ridiculous. Hunter runs with fantastic tactics. Watch his Penn 3k or mile, his dream mile, USA 1500, or of course the Brooks Pr 2 mile. He can shift gears and kick like a maniac. Clinger ran something like 4:14 last year. Hunter CLOSED his 2 mile in 4:14 last year. With a last lap electronically timed at 54.5. Clinger is a great runner, and obviously you can never really be sure that someone will win, but that's a very bold statement you just made.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking. Clinger is clearly a great runner, but Andrew Hunter is in a different league. Barring injury or illness, no one in the Footlocker field can beat Hunter. He could win by running away with it or waiting to kick later on. Crazy talent.

The dude runs 75 mpw. That's college training. He'll burn out, stagnate iin college and Clinger ultimately will show more upside. Bump this thread in a few years

Prognostication wrote:

The dude runs 75 mpw. That's college training. He'll burn out, stagnate iin college and Clinger ultimately will show more upside. Bump this thread in a few years

He may run 75 mpw, but it's all aerobic training and he's not destroying his body with intervals. Burnout is unlikely, although it's possible he's not going to get much more aerobically fit. Anyway, Clinger runs for AF, and they do serious mileage, so he doesn't have any more upside than Hunter. Finally, Ritz ran 100 mpw in high school with serious intervals and ended up having a very good professional career. Will Hunter end up like Michael Fout or Bob Kennedy? Who knows. He is the talent of this class.

Hunter is not even close to "burning out". His training has gradually increased over the last 3 years. He does just about zero hard anaerobic work. His workouts are probably easier than about 90% of the other top high school guys. He just runs more volume than they do. Big engine, and not injury prone. Lots of room in college to improve.

Ya know I'm not so sure Casey Clinger's coach trains/pushes Casey to target the top elite HS times. I may be wrong but his coach is known as a very protective coach. I mean they do NOT run high mileage. They are specific in phases/periodization, precise on recording and documenting dates etc. I'm just saying I wonder if Casey and his coach would do things a bit different if Casey's coach was just training Casey alone and targeting say the 4:00 flat mile and Footlocker. I mat be wrong I don't know.

I don't know anything about Casey's training or his coach, but I would think that Casey has guys to train with on his team, which Hunter really does not. That does change the way a coach approaches training somewhat. The next guys on Loudoun Valley's team are all right around 16 minutes for 5K, and are sophs and a frosh (Hunter's brother), so are probably not able to run much with Hunter.

I don't know if Hunter is totally focused on just breaking records, but I doubt it. It appears that he concentrates on improvement from one season to the next, and if records, fall, they fall.

Regardless, it will be great to see what these two guys do this year.

My error on Hunter's last year finish, not sure what I was thinking. Maybe , because I watched it and saw him go with Fisher, but clearly I should have known that result.

I know this thread is on Hunter and Clinger..but wanted to shout out to ALEX PARSONS of Ogden Utah, I believe. Alex was one second behind Casey at NXNSW and I think like 3rd? at NXN. Sorry to lazy to go back and check. Just really interested in Parsons. He has been moving up bit by bit. Should be an interesting rest of year. Good luck!