FRESHMAN TAKES DOWN ATHING MU - Wins 800 at New Balance Nationals

Raisin's mother is Breda Dennehy Willis, who ran at the 2000 Olympics for Ireland .

https://www.google.com/search?q=breda+dennehy+willis&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1280&bih=685&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=onrOet3GcpHCVM%253A%252CNzsgh12J-VKyZM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ0UBUzk0K2Q0ioJKjv8goZp1-q4A&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiOuNHXy_vgAhXCqp4KHSZ_DlQQ9QEwBnoECAQQCg#imgrc=Cm0WUKv8lD0i_M:&vet=1

Put a Willis quote on the homepage, not one from the LOSER. She wins a national championship, breaks a freshman class record, beats one of the fastest all time high schoolers, and you put a quote from the girl she BEAT?

Yes, Mu was classy about her loss. But she also choked. Put a quote from Willis on the homepage.

spedjo wrote:

Put a Willis quote on the homepage, not one from the LOSER. She wins a national championship, breaks a freshman class record, beats one of the fastest all time high schoolers, and you put a quote from the girl she BEAT?

Yes, Mu was classy about her loss. But she also choked. Put a quote from Willis on the homepage.

Good grief settle down. A lot of people like Mu. With posts like this Willis is not going to have any fans. Obviously a family member, friend or someone on her team wrote this.

bartholomew_maxwell wrote:

How old is she? Wondering if she has gone through puberty and the associated changes to female athletes' bodies.

Let me start by guiding you toward the Internet. There, you will find...oh. Never mind.

My favorite part was the announcer quite understandably treating the first three laps as 75% of a foregone conclusion, and then just going dead silent when he should gave been going nuts. When it was over, it was almost as if he had completely forgotten that Mu was even in the race.

spedjo wrote:

Put a Willis quote on the homepage, not one from the LOSER. She wins a national championship, breaks a freshman class record, beats one of the fastest all time high schoolers, and you put a quote from the girl she BEAT?

Yes, Mu was classy about her loss. But she also choked. Put a quote from Willis on the homepage.

Believe it or not, what Letsrun chooses to use as athlete quotes has absolutely no impact on anything at all.

asby wrote:

She is the poster story for hitting puberty.

In just the last few weeks? Her body has been so ravaged by female hormones between that 1:23 and yesterday that it cost her the win?

Mu ran 4:33 for 1500 meters in the summer after her freshman year, so while she is unquestionably a natural 200/400 runner, it seems obvious that she can extend her range to 800 meters, a la Jearl Miles-Clark. Only the terribly cynical goofs on this board could possibly write someone's half-miling ability off on the basis of one off day. however ill-timed.

well apparently she has strong genetics since her mother was an Olympian in 2000.

Maternal cellar dweller wrote:

asby wrote:

She is the poster story for hitting puberty.

In just the last few weeks? Her body has been so ravaged by female hormones between that 1:23 and yesterday that it cost her the win?

Mu ran 4:33 for 1500 meters in the summer after her freshman year, so while she is unquestionably a natural 200/400 runner, it seems obvious that she can extend her range to 800 meters, a la Jearl Miles-Clark. Only the terribly cynical goofs on this board could possibly write someone's half-miling ability off on the basis of one off day. however ill-timed.

So a 4:33 is a very good 1500 m time for a high school girl. But it is definitely weak compared to a 52 400 and a 1:23 600, showing a lack of endurance, definitely. Whereas I don't doubt she can run faster than 2:05, she still has to work a lot on her endurance/stamina to have a shot at a sub 2 800 m. I put her at 2:02 at best at the moment, but then she should have had less problems with a 58.xx s first lap.

And she is coached by her mother. Her father was also a decent recreational runner.

Partridge wrote:

So a 4:33 is a very good 1500 m time for a high school girl. But it is definitely weak compared to a 52 400 and a 1:23 600, showing a lack of endurance, definitely. Whereas I don't doubt she can run faster than 2:05, she still has to work a lot on her endurance/stamina to have a shot at a sub 2 800 m. I put her at 2:02 at best at the moment, but then she should have had less problems with a 58.xx s first lap.

That 1500 was also over 1 1/2 years ago.

There's no disputing that this gal needs to work on her basic endurance and is probably better suited for the 400 than the 800. In fact, she might be one of those unfortunate Eric Sowinski types whose true best distance is actually the 600 and is at a disadvantage when it comes to the Olympics.

But of the few girls who have run 23+ seconds for 200 in high school, basically none of them have run close to 2:00 for the 800 and couldn't even if they made it their sole focus.

Mu may go on to be a sub-51 400 runner and a 1:58 800 runner who sets a "world best" in the 600.

I wish her well because it was amazing to see her smile after losing a national championship in what can only be called a very ugly way

Mu also went out in 28.5! Even that was probably with a faster first 100m, but maybe she was ill or just run-down.

Willis is already tall as a freshman, and with those parents, her ceiling as a runner looks pretty high.

except for the fact that mu has a 1k time of 2:44 (iirc), which means she is capable of getting a better 800m time.

epo4brkfst wrote:

except for the fact that mu has a 1k time of 2:44 (iirc), which means she is capable of getting a better 800m time.

A 2:44 for 1k is only a 2:11.8 pace for 800 meters.

It converts to 2:06.

Yet it’s number three on the all time HS performance list.

Can I ask why everyone is being so critical of her? This was Mu’s only bad race this whole season and a large part of that was due to the hype of the media and the crowd.

Two weeks ago I’m almost certain she would have been content with a 2:02 or 2:03 performance at NBN, but with everyone egging her on and telling her to go for a sub two she threw her own motivations out and decided to just go for it.

Can we just appreciate that? That she took a risk to please the crowd and ended up blowing up because of it?

That being said, I think Mu is actually more aerobic than people give her credit for. Her top two performances last year were 2:04 at NBNO and a 2:05 at the Youth Olympics,

In both cases she ended up negative splitting with the latter being closed out in almost 59 seconds.

If she were thrown in a mile with actually competition, I could easily see her running around 4:45.

Maybe she just had an off day.

Her PB is 2:04.51 is that right?

So maybe aiming for 2:02 would've been better, that still is a large improvement.

So say 61 / 61 or 60 /62.

Are you her coach or parent? Otherwise, most of your post is speculation.

Nobody was hard on her. People said she went out too fast. That is the opposite of being hard on someone. That means people believe in her thinking she could have run faster.

Predictor wrote:

It converts to 2:06.

Only for someone who has no endurance.

No, that is the conversion so that is what the majority of people would run at that distance. 2:06-2:44-4:44 mile.