Grant Fisher's Career: Disappointment?

Who cares about Grant Fisher?

just another import who stole the scholarship from a deserving American born runner.

This one is sillier than the Allie O post. He isn't the only Footlocker or NXN champion in college you know. Yet he finished 2nd only losing to a foreigner in the meet. What place was Reed Brown or Dylan Jacobs? Where are guys like Rocha and Gessner? How did hacker finish yesterday after being runner up in both NXN and Footlocker in the same year? What about sub 4 guys Maton and Slagowski? He and Hunter appear to be on track to be the top American runners over the next decade. Youi can come up with a list of disappointments that I started above but he isn't on it.

Insane Posters wrote:

This one is sillier than the Allie O post. He isn't the only Footlocker or NXN champion in college you know. Yet he finished 2nd only losing to a foreigner in the meet. What place was Reed Brown or Dylan Jacobs? Where are guys like Rocha and Gessner? How did hacker finish yesterday after being runner up in both NXN and Footlocker in the same year? What about sub 4 guys Maton and Slagowski? He and Hunter appear to be on track to be the top American runners over the next decade. Youi can come up with a list of disappointments that I started above but he isn't on it.

He IS a foreigner!

No. He competed in the US Junior Champs and the US Olympic Trials so they already verified his credentials. It doesn't matter where he was born.

US all the way wrote:

No. He competed in the US Junior Champs and the US Olympic Trials so they already verified his credentials. It doesn't matter where he was born.

lol, you must be new here.

If it didn't matter where he was born , then why does LRC go out their way to highlight 'AMERICAN-BORN' runners rather than just 'American' runners in their articles. Get with the PROGRAM!

If AMERICA-BORN was easy, everybody would be doing it.

The way I see it, if he had picked up a couple of titles, he'd basically be on rupp level. As you mention, he wasn't taking the cakewalk oregon courseload that rupp benefitted from, so certainly that had to affect his ability to maximize performance.

All things considered, I think he accomplished all that could have been asked/expected. I certainly don't think he *underperformed,* though it's a reasonable argument to say he did NOT *over*perform. Because he at least met (or exceeded) "reasonable" expectations, I think he still has a great future as a professional.

As far as Grant's personal feelings, he has NOTHING to hang his head about, and it seems he shares this view in his postrace words. I'm glad to see that, as it is just one more attribute that tells me he'll do very well after stanford.

He's had a very steady career thus far, and though I too expected he would win at least one XC title, 2nd place isn't shabby in an event that always seems to have foreign guys dominating (with 2 other top 5 finishes).

I think we will see a few more wins for him. He still has 3 more seasons with eligibility (2 indoor, 1 outdoor).

How about we start saying “Americas born” instead of “American born.” It’s not like being Canadian gives you an advantage as opposed to being born in East Africa.

Anyway, he ran for the US already so I don’t think he can ever run for Canada, but I might be wrong?

You guys are being tough on him. 10k is probably 5k too long for him. Look out at the 2020 Olympic trials.

Anyways, coming in second is nothing to be ashamed about. He always sits and kicks though, and this time he got beat at his own game! I would love to see him dictate races more, and run some fast times.

Kid is a stud, and if I had to put money on it, I think he’ll claim another NCAA title or two before he graduates and has a very long and successful pro career.

How many of the best US distance runners have even one NCAA title to their name?

I mean strictly distance, so not counting Centro and Brazier.

Former MI runner wrote:

How about we start saying “Americas born” instead of “American born.”

I mean, if we really want to be technical, American-born would refer to anyone born in America which isn't the same as the United States OF America... He ain't the first US-born runner but he's still on this super continent.

I don't know too much about him so I did some googling.

First, I think he's naturally a shorter distance guy anyway. Mile/5K. It's not unreasonable to think that someone in the NCAA might just outkick him at 10K. He won the 5K as a junior(?) so it seems like he's on track to me.

Second, how many footlocker winners have gone on to win NCAA XC anyway? According to Wikipedia it's Cheserek, Ritz, Torres, Goucher, and Kennedy. 5 guys since 1979. That's it. 5 out of 34.

There have been 5 guys that won Footlocker twice, but only 2 out of 5 (Cheserek and Ritz) won NCAA XC.

By the way, someone mentioned Rupp, who never won Footlocker or NCAA XC.

Overall I think there's a substantial difference between high school and college and there's no reason to be disappointed.

wtfbbq wrote:

Former MI runner wrote:

How about we start saying “Americas born” instead of “American born.”

I mean, if we really want to be technical, American-born would refer to anyone born in America which isn't the same as the United States OF America... He ain't the first US-born runner but he's still on this super continent.

this continent is above average, at best.

asdgasfasdf wrote:

By the way, someone mentioned Rupp, who never won Footlocker or NCAA XC.

Rupp did win NCAA XC

asdgasfasdf wrote:

I don't know too much about him so I did some googling.

First, I think he's naturally a shorter distance guy anyway. Mile/5K. It's not unreasonable to think that someone in the NCAA might just outkick him at 10K. He won the 5K as a junior(?) so it seems like he's on track to me.

Second, how many footlocker winners have gone on to win NCAA XC anyway? According to Wikipedia it's Cheserek, Ritz, Torres, Goucher, and Kennedy. 5 guys since 1979. That's it. 5 out of 34.

There have been 5 guys that won Footlocker twice, but only 2 out of 5 (Cheserek and Ritz) won NCAA XC.

By the way, someone mentioned Rupp, who never won Footlocker or NCAA XC.

Overall I think there's a substantial difference between high school and college and there's no reason to be disappointed.

WRONG

Also, I don't think Fisher has ran the mile distance since high school, which is interesting and makes me wonder what he could run these days.

surprised fan wrote:

How would you view Grant's collegiate career so far? As a 2x FL champ, a sub 4 high school guy, and with that long unbeaten streak he had for a couple years, I would have expected more. No NCAA XC wins. Only 1 NCAA title 2 years ago in the 5k outdoors.

Do you think he has underperformed? Or is it tough that he had to deal with some pretty crazy talent: Ed Ches for 2 years, a 5th year McDonald who has essentially been in Australia for a significant amount of last year training, Justyn Knight.

Curious on other people's thoughts. Obviously I know he's more talented than me and has taken tough classes and I tip my hat. But as a fan of the sport, curious what people think of his career thus far and his post college potential

yeah, he did just awful.

he raced 6.2 miles against the best college runners in the country and was .5 seconds out of first place.

just awful.

i bet you won everything you did in life, eh? if not, then wow, what a huge disappointment you turned out to be

Fisher is starting to remind me of Pete Sampras. Composed, measured, extremely professional. Fans like flair. They like crazy surges, taking things out hard, doing crazy things. Fisher doesn't do that. He runs within himself each time, doing exactly what he needs to finish as high as possible. He wasn't going to run away from the field. He wasn't going to break McDonald with a surge. His best chance was to have it come down to a kick, and then time it just right. He did that. McDonald was simply better than him.

I've had some problems with Fisher's racing style, especially in indoors last year, but I'm realizing that's more down to me being a fan and isn't a fair critique (mindset aside, which Fisher publicly acknowledged to be something he was working on). He's going to be just fine in indoor and outdoor, and I'd be surprised if he didn't win a couple more NCAA titles. People hoping that he's going to be the next Pre or Agassi need to tamp down their expectations a little bit. He's too smart for that.

His collegiate career is not as disappointing as Knights or Ches' pro careers...