I thought we had seen it all, but did Portland just tank their conference meet?

rojo wrote:

Hopefully Conner gets back to Gault with his details. I've got less of a problem with it if they ran their top 2 guys.

Sounds like it's possible they knew they were going to get beat and maybe held out a few guys who were a little dinged up. I don't have a huge problem with that. If a kid in the top 5 has an Achilles issure or something, you dont' race him, that's fine as you'll still get 2nd.

But tanking in general? I have a HUGE problem with it. Conference should be very meaningful.

I mean how far down the road do we want to take this? Maybe guys should start skipping NCAAs to get ready for USAs?

Galen Rupp literally skipped an entire track season in 2008 to get ready for the Trials. This phenomenon is nothing new.

rojo wrote:

3 races in the span of 22 days? Geb ran the following 5 races in the span of 23 days in 1997.

Aug 3 27:55

Aug 6 27:25

Aug13 12:41

Aug 22 7:26

Aug 26 12:55

I'll bet my life that BYU wipes the floor of Portland at NCAAs. But that shouldn't happen under your theory as BYU should be too tired.

If Portland wanted to take it easy, they could chill at regionals.

Sandra Vi has been knocking out 60 miles a day. Why is Geb such a snowflake?

Seriously though, there's a very high likelihood Geb had access to things that the BYU and Portland are more than likely not on.

Portland knows they are not as strong as BYU. They are not stupid. They can only afford to take one real shot at beating them and even then Portland has to hope BYU has an off day.

If Portland beats BYU at conference they would have chance of beating them at Nationals. Why? Because BYU is the better team and they would be pissed to have lost to Portland. If you're going to beat someone better than yourself, it's better that you not telecast it way ahead of time. You have to surprise them.

The simple, and very obvious, answer is "No, they didn't tank their conference meet."

The best they were going to do is finish second, and second is exactly where they finished

If they chose to get there by resting some runners, it was probably a wise decision.

Anyone who thinks that Portland should have run its best team "just because" is below average in intelligence by the standards of Letsrun, which implies a maximum IQ of 83 or 84.

Portland is going to look very stupid if they don’t make the podium now. I’m a little conflicted because if you’re going to get 2nd anyways, what’s the difference? But it’s very poor sportmanship in my opinion.

NCAA needs to do something to make the regular season actually matter. Maybe only 1 AQ in the region. Maybe re-do the system entirely. I don’t know.

Very unfortunate that August-October are essentially meaningless.

It's not like Portland ran a bad team, pretty hard to call it tanking when you race:

Jeff Thies- 3:40

Nick Hauger-14:02

Reuben Kiprono- 29:36

Gabriel Haughey- 29:45

Tristan Peloquin- 29:58

Joe Horen 9:11 Steeple

Riley Osen 9:03 Steeple

great to see Rubis in the background of the interview

THIS

Keep it up cross teams and watch your sport go extinct.

Rest...these are college athletes, not geriatric patients. This whole idea that you can only run a few races a season is absurd.

Gotta bee wrote:

lmao at anyone who doesn't think BYU will beat the sh*t out of Portland at nats, Portland will be lucky to get 1-2 guys in their top 7

their 1-2 couldn't hang with the top 5 of BYU over 8k certainly wont over 10K gaps will only get bigger

BYU is the best team in the country right now NAU close second, I should compare how Portland did vs NAU to how they did vs BYU

btw I don't even like BYU, won't be rooting for them, but I'm just going to get our from under to rock some of you people are under and admit they are the best this year

What's not to like about this team though, amazing depth, great pack running, multiple guys stepping up to win big races. Dominant team wins, and all with local talent.

Sure you might not be a fan of potential age difference due to missions, but as far as I know, this year's team has no one older than what a redshirt senior be would be coming into college right out of high school. Then consider how many teams recruit top-tier international athletes to boost their programs. And how many of those come into the NCAA older than a typical high school graduate.

From my perspective, there's not much to dislike about this team. If you can get past any distaste resulting from missionary service or the religious affiliation of the institution.

Well if John dressel runs regionals then Colorado sandbagged pac-12s

I'm curious as to how many Mormons there are in the NCAA that would be in BYU's top-7 that aren't on BYU's team.

They basically have a lock on the top Mormon talent, right?

serial questioner wrote:

I'm curious as to how many Mormons there are in the NCAA that would be in BYU's top-7 that aren't on BYU's team.

They basically have a lock on the top Mormon talent, right?

Lots of the SUU, Utah, and Weber guys were passed over by BYU. Clayton Adams of MO for one.

spokane xc wrote:

This is the important element. Connor has almost always used the conference meet as a chance to let the JV guys get some shine, and maybe figure out the back end of his lineup for Regionals/NCAAs. So, not only has it never been a priority or that important of a race for him, he has trained his top guys through the meet and developed a plan over the decades that doesnt involve WCCs and emphasizes Regionals. He is also a pretty particular guy, who has developed a successful program under unique circumstances. To expect him to start caring about a conference meet now, and altering his well-proven approach, just because BYU joined for purposes of boosting the conference's basketball profile, is unrealistic.

Correct. Conner has run his true top 7 maybe once or twice at conference since he has been there, if that. This is nothing new. It just looks suspicious because now BYU is in the conference, and both UP and BYU are ranked so high.

Anyway, it's not like he didn't warn you!

serial questioner wrote:

I'm curious as to how many Mormons there are in the NCAA that would be in BYU's top-7 that aren't on BYU's team.

They basically have a lock on the top Mormon talent, right?

The answer is zero. The Mormons invented Valar Dohaeris, little know fact.

Lasse Viren loved his time at BYU running for the Cougars.

I guess it’s a referendum on cross country that the teams themselves don’t find conference meets interesting enough to fully participate.

There’s only one meet that matters to good teams and that’s nationals. I always thought conference meets mattered too given how it’s the big meet for most mediocre teams (including the ones I was on!). But the incentives for Portland I guess were better to rest. That team doesn’t value in season racing near crunch time.

I guess it’s no different than popovich resting every player he can until the finals. Except basketball is popular. And popovich does usually play his full team in early round playoff action.

Not accurate with regards to age. Every man of their top 7 except Clinger is at LEAST old enough to be a graduating senior. A couple are 23 or 24 already.

"as far as I know, this year's team has no one older than what a redshirt senior be would be coming into college right out of high school."

"Not accurate with regards to age. Every man of their top 7 except Clinger is at LEAST old enough to be a graduating senior. A couple are 23 or 24 already."

Yes accurate, class of 2012 is the equivalent of a redshirt senior, taking a look at the high school classes of their top 5.

Young, Carney, class of 2012

McMillan, Linkletter class of 2013

Clinger class of 2016

To bring the point home, look at the high school classes of Colorado's top 5 at Pac 12's

Peterman, Perrin class of 2012

Forsyth class of 2013,

Klecker class of 2014,

Herrera class of 2015

The age of BYU's top 5 is equivalent to Colorado based on high school classes, yet I don't see anyone complaining about Colorado. Furthermore, Colorado's top group has 5 red shirt years between them that's 5 extra years of development within the program. BYU has 1 red shirt year (McMillan), with 4 mission years which equate to little to no training whatsoever.

You can't spin it, the old mission age advantage narrative has no merit whatsoever this year.

Sandbagging wrote:

Well if John dressel runs regionals then Colorado sandbagged pac-12s

Considering Dressel didn't run Pre-Nats either and is apparently in a boot right now, I think there's a pretty good reason why he didn't run Pac-12s...