Pierce Murphy NOT a Blue Collar/Walk-on Type Guy

99.99

Look, we all know you got beat by him in high school and all that...so it's okay to be upset at his recent success. But 9:14 isn't too good. Really mediocre time. Wouldn't even make the California state meet from southern section! Bury the hatchet man. This guy is a great case of non-talents putting in good ol' fashioned work!

dsrunner wrote:

99.99

WRONG! Out of 8,000 seniors with a time on athletic.net, 162 have run 9:14 or better, so faster than only 99.5% of participants. He has reduced his rank from about #141 in the nation in HS in 2011 to #3 in college (and #1 American). Good improvement.

9:14 really doesn't mean much now. Very far from a blue chipper. I was a 9:10 guy 6ish years ago and I was a walk on at a program that never made XC nats-got close, but never made it.

Of course, it's all relative. To most people 9:14 is great, but to the top D1 programs, a 9:14 guy is a scrub. Not someone you would expect to ever be all-American, let alone a top 5 NCAA athlete. Pierce has improved impressively. Maybe that's not too surprising since Hawaii is probably not a great place to train as a runner.

2:00, 4:29, 9:14 3200m today is probably not even a top 100 high school guy--the 800m time does not rate and the 1600m time . The 2M is by far the best of those. However, look at it in context. Surfing dominates Hawaiian life and he was a surfer. He set state records at both 1500m and 3000m. The speed decay alone showed promise but it was that he did this well while training in Hawaii that probably suggested to Wetmore (and obviously meeting him) that he could be much better and he has improved an enormous amount, frequently beating guys who ran 8:40s and 8:50s in high school (and sub 4:10 milers).

his 3200 time in HS was off of pure talent (sounds like he didn't train much) so CO did a fantastic job of scouting him out! think about finding a kid like that; huge talent and not much work yet. that's a great improvement potential that you don't really see (most 9:14 or faster guys have put in a lot of mileage already to get to that time).

Also, 2:00 and 4:29 as a senior. Not exactly electrifying D1 level. The 9:14 is good, but not great. More of a candidate for DII scholarship or mid-major partial walk on or scholarship.

OP, my god lighten up.

He ran 4:19 at arcadia after running the 9:14

Agreed.

Mad? wrote:

Look, we all know you got beat by him in high school and all that...so it's okay to be upset at his recent success. But 9:14 isn't too good. Really mediocre time. Wouldn't even make the California state meet from southern section! Bury the hatchet man. This guy is a great case of non-talents putting in good ol' fashioned work!

9:14 "isn't too good"??? Non-talent??

It's excellent and indicates great talent.

Eh I don't know wrote:

9:14 really doesn't mean much now. Very far from a blue chipper. I was a 9:10 guy 6ish years ago and I was a walk on at a program that never made XC nats-got close, but never made it.

Of course, it's all relative. To most people 9:14 is great, but to the top D1 programs, a 9:14 guy is a scrub. Not someone you would expect to ever be all-American, let alone a top 5 NCAA athlete. Pierce has improved impressively. Maybe that's not too surprising since Hawaii is probably not a great place to train as a runner.

Sure he improved a lot- but he was already a state record-holder coming in. A 9:14 2-miler has every ability to make All-American if he goes to CU.

isad;fj wrote:

his 3200 time in HS was off of pure talent (sounds like he didn't train much) so CO did a fantastic job of scouting him out! think about finding a kid like that; huge talent and not much work yet. that's a great improvement potential that you don't really see (most 9:14 or faster guys have put in a lot of mileage already to get to that time).

He was 50 mpw, which is perfect. When HS'ers are at least 60 mpw, you guys say too much & counter-productive for the future. He exceeded trajectory, which many do- but was already a state-record holder, running 9:14. What next?? 5 laps to a mile on a normal track??

an elevation revelation wrote:

Also, 2:00 and 4:29 as a senior. Not exactly electrifying D1 level. The 9:14 is good, but not great. More of a candidate for DII scholarship or mid-major partial walk on or scholarship.

OP, my god lighten up.

...winning by 10 seconds and setting a new state 1500m record of 4:01.92. Later in the evening he dominated the 3000m, winning by 29 seconds and setting another state record of 8:52.44.

I remember you guys bashing a collegian's 3:40 1500m PR.

Pierce obviously has bucket loads of talent. The lack of regular competition and the warm, humid weather of hawaii are the major factors in not producing fast times in high school.

If he was brought up in California, he would almost certainly have run faster. Traveling to one or two races from Hawaii to the mainland does not nearly make up for that, you need consistent pressure from competition. I also went to Arcadia, expecting a huge PR against top level competition. The race turned out to be tactical and my whole trip over was in vain.

Kudos to Wetmore for realizing this and giving Pierce the chance. Wetmore was also one of the only coaches to respond to my emails as a high schooler which just shows his class.

In summary; Large talent with lack of consistent opportunity in HS. Then add in world class coaching, training partners, altitude and racing opportunity and you've got a great recipe for success.

isad;fj wrote:

his 3200 time in HS was off of pure talent (sounds like he didn't train much) so CO did a fantastic job of scouting him out! think about finding a kid like that; huge talent and not much work yet. that's a great improvement potential that you don't really see (most 9:14 or faster guys have put in a lot of mileage already to get to that time).

Funny that you think wetmore looks for undertrained athletes, when ALL of his hs coached athletes were over trained and did nothing in college

ttc wrote:

isad;fj wrote:

his 3200 time in HS was off of pure talent (sounds like he didn't train much) so CO did a fantastic job of scouting him out! think about finding a kid like that; huge talent and not much work yet. that's a great improvement potential that you don't really see (most 9:14 or faster guys have put in a lot of mileage already to get to that time).

He was 50 mpw, which is perfect. When HS'ers are at least 60 mpw, you guys say too much & counter-productive for the future. He exceeded trajectory, which many do- but was already a state-record holder, running 9:14. What next?? 5 laps to a mile on a normal track??

You mean State MEET Rscordholder. The state record is 4:06 for the mile set in 1970.

HardLoper wrote:

dsrunner wrote:

99.99

WRONG! Out of 8,000 seniors with a time on athletic.net, 162 have run 9:14 or better, so faster than only 99.5% of participants. He has reduced his rank from about #141 in the nation in HS in 2011 to #3 in college (and #1 American). Good improvement.

Well what you are forgetting is you are only looking at the people with distance times. Think of all of the non-runners out there - whether they be shot putters, artists, stoners etc. Even the 'slow' 11 minute guy is probably actually more talented than most.

And please don't be sexist. If you consider women he's definitely in the 99.9 group.

HardLoper wrote:

WRONG! Out of 8,000 seniors with a time on athletic.net, 162 have run 9:14 or better, so faster than only 99.5% of participants. He has reduced his rank from about #141 in the nation in HS in 2011 to #3 in college (and #1 American). Good improvement.

Best post on this thread. No BS. Truly shows us where he was in high school.

The subjective part is how "good" is # 141 in the nation. Is it elite? No, I'd say that's top 25 probably. Sub-elite is maybe top 100. I'd say very good is top 250, so I'll classify him there.

Eh I don't know wrote:

Not someone you would expect to ever be all-American, let alone a top 5 NCAA athlete.

Disagree. This is exactly the kind of background I'd expect of an All-American.