Elias Gedyon 13:45 for Adams State?!

That's excellent news that he's back, running well, and looking toward graduation.

13:45 is very solid no matter how you slice it. Also, 5 seconds faster than the D3 record. D2's had some faster guys, though.

Cynics and disgruntled runner-ups believe that 55 national championships by a single school cannot be achieved without a combination of cheating on eligibility and lax academic standards.

The rest of us realize that 7500 ft. altitude, good coaching and a tradition of winning that makes recruiting easier are better explanations.

There is No doubt that Damon is a great coach. There's no disputing that. There is Plenty of disputing as to whether he's ethical.

This thread is itself proof that what you say is correct. The difference is, when I go on these boards disputing the ethics of successful coaches, (such as Mario Sategna and Beth Alford Sullivan) I stick to facts. The complaints on this thread are based on speculation and outright lies, which I have offered facts to disprove.

When an elite athlete who has washed out at a D1 school decides to try a second time to go to college and run, sometimes NCAA D2 and/or the NAIA is the only place they can still have eligibility. Track programs that are willing to take a chance on these athletes are likely to have a less than 100% success record at getting them eligible, but when they do make it, they can do a lot for the team and themselves. Elias Gedyon's story is an example of this system working, no matter how hard haters of Adams State or Coach Martin try use it to support it to support their conspiracy theories.

I agree with you, I appreciate that D2 allows runners that weren't ready for the D1 spotlight for whatever reason can come to d2 and have that second chance. While it's a lower division is teaches athletes a good lesson for life. But I have to say I don't believe what is going on at Adams state is accidental. Just in the past 3 years you have Oliver A debuted a 1:48 800 outdoor than suddenly ineligible and no longer competing for adams state after spring break. Then this past winter Austin A being one of the favorites in the mile suddenly being off the team right before nationals, and what bothers me the most about this one is if he competes at nationals they win the mens national title. Something just isn't adding up, and they always seem to be in the mix of riding the line between whats in and whats out of the rules. I do want to state I have nothing against either athlete they are great runners and were fun to watch at the D2 level, more speaking to the situations.

YMMV wrote:

And more important, at 26 Gedyon is still a competitive runner.

You must be unaware that Lukas suffered a catastrophic, career ending injury. Your welcome for enlightening you to this important fact.

YMMV wrote:

LV: 5000 Meters 14:06.78 New York, NY (USA) 11 MAR 2011

And more important, at 26 Gedyon is still a competitive runner.

I love how you subtly throw shade at LV, who not only was unable to compete, but comparing his high school time to something Elias ran as a 26 year old in college (I feel you are so stupid that I need to point out this is 8 years after he graduated high school).

zxcvzvcx wrote:

That's excellent news that he's back, running well, and looking toward graduation.

13:45 is very solid no matter how you slice it. Also, 5 seconds faster than the D3 record. D2's had some faster guys, though.

13:45 at age 26 is nothing noteworthy in the world of running. Faster than most people? Yes. Fast? No.

Something is wrong wrote:

Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the rules. Its the school's responsibility to make sure its athletes are eligible. Adams State seems to do a really bad job of this. Is it intentional? I hope not but it sure looks that way. Regardless, something is wrong

Im sure other D2 schools have questionable athletes but the success of Adams puts them in in the spotlight. And how much of that success is built off of teams that leaned on ineligible athletes? Austin Anaya, Kevin Batt, Oliver Aitchison... those are just the athletes that have been caught.

The accreditation issue is different. Not Damon Martin's fault that classes at Adams became so easy that the university almost lost its accreditation.

Props to Gedyon for a solid year. Good to see a former high school stud return to form after a tough 8 years since high school.

Fixed

Shadow Lurker wrote:

I don't know his situation wrote:

Whatever happened to Jantzen Oshier?

Probably stoned in a tent somewhere in Humbolt County, California.

I heard that he catches a turkey, kills it, cooks it and eats the whole thing every day.

Thanks for a fact based argument. I do not have any inside information on Atchison or Anaya’s situation, but I would suggest comparing this to a recent situation a couple of years ago involving another school whose colors are green and yellow and who is known for its distance running.

Remember when Jasmine Todd was withdrawn from the Western Preliminaries at the last second? The Oregon haters had a field day speculating about the reasons for her withdrawal, but in the end it proved to be an unintentional mistake by the athlete which the school’s vetting process was unable either to prevent or correct.

The NCAA’s enforcement arm differentiates between accidental and intentional violations. While you are free to deny Adams the benefit of the doubt, had the NCAA determined that Adams was guilty of repeated intentional violations in competing ineligible athletes, the penalties it would have received would have been severe. Instead, the NCAA’s D2 program of the year is called the Damon Martin award.

Some things just do add up.

Former Grizzly wrote:

Cynics and disgruntled runner-ups believe that 55 national championships by a single school cannot be achieved without a combination of cheating on eligibility and lax academic standards.

The rest of us realize that 7500 ft. altitude, good coaching and a tradition of winning that makes recruiting easier are better explanations.

Imagine thinking this is al it takes to be good. No it’s call throwing a bunch of money at the Irish runners and making sure you get someone who’s already run faster than all D2 competition. Then all you have to do is make sure they don’t get much slower and allow them to party all the time and then maybe.... just maybe they might have a chance of winning a D2 title that no one really cares about. 7500 feet is garbage to train in. Breaking more people rather than making them great. Crazy how Adam’s/Alamosa is synonymous for Jonestown.

FrenchDawg wrote:

Shadow Lurker wrote:

Probably stoned in a tent somewhere in Humbolt County, California.

I heard that he catches a turkey, kills it, cooks it and eats the whole thing every day.

In reality, he is an Air Force Para-Rescue Team Member, or was...

At least he moved on. Most of these OLD guys hang on too long and half ass everything.

I don't know his situation wrote:

Whatever happened to Jantzen Oshier?

In reality, he is an Air Force Para-Rescue Team Member, or was...[/quote]

Curious if this is accurate. I was a couple classes below these guys in high school and I was in awe of the times they would run. Always wondered where they all ended up.

It's D2, why would anyone care? NAIA is just as relevant.