Stanford CLEANED UP at Cardinal Classic

Stanford is one of the very best. I would put NAU best on the turf and BYU best on the track. Stanford is probably 3rd best overall distance program. BYU has 5 sub 29 and 7th is 29:19.

And yet they can’t win an XC title. All the best talent in the USA. Reminds me of the Chris Derrick era. Are academics too much to handle? Is it coaching? Culture?

Ratcliffe is an unbelievable talent, good to see him back on track. Is there a video of the race?

I woukd think after this college scandal, people would realize that the highly slective schools are actually the easier ones to receive passing grades at. They are tougher to get through the door but the schools like to tout the 99% graduation rate. Fall behind and you are pushed to a tutor and the professors are forced to give a B to the kid for effort. So you can rule that out at Stanford. NAU and BYU are just so focused on winning right now while the Stanford students are being exposed to crazy liberal professors filling their heads with hate speech regarding police and other authority figures. Scramble the brain and running all of a sudden doesn’t seem so important. Ask Gabe Jennings.

NAU is no slouch on the track. Several guys at 3:39/well under 14/sub-29.

NCAA indoor mile champ

NCAA indoor 3k champ last year

Just like in XC, BYU seems to falter at NCAAs.

Stanford is looking good this year but BYU has incredible depth and has had such depth for years.

Stanford often has a few studs but not the depth of BYU. Derrick, Heath brothers, Rosas, McGorty, Fisher, Ratcliffe.

NAU seems to do more with “less” talented athletes coming in. I mean less when you compare the times of the athletes before college (NAU recruits aren’t like Derrick, McGorty, Rosas, Fisher, etc. in high school).

Gimme that title wrote:

And yet they can’t win an XC title. All the best talent in the USA. Reminds me of the Chris Derrick era. Are academics too much to handle? Is it coaching? Culture?

Yeah, they need to be careful or they'll end up producing people whose lives don't peak in college.

I'd rather be a really good runner with a Stanford education than a national champ with an Oregon education any day.

You are pretty broken if you really think NAU is faster than Stanford because of “crazy liberal” professors.

Academics jokester wrote:

I would think after this college scandal, people would realize that the highly slective schools are actually the easier ones to receive passing grades at. They are tougher to get through the door but the schools like to tout the 99% graduation rate. Fall behind and you are pushed to a tutor and the professors are forced to give a B to the kid for effort. So you can rule that out at Stanford. NAU and BYU are just so focused on winning right now while the Stanford students are being exposed to crazy liberal professors filling their heads with hate speech regarding police and other authority figures. Scramble the brain and running all of a sudden doesn’t seem so important. Ask Gabe Jennings.

You are right and wrong.

1) You are right in that the hardest part about an Ivy/Stanford is getting is getting in. Yes the graduation rate is like 93-95% at schools like that but so what. The have more valedictorians applying than spots. They could accept people on lottery and be fine. The only reason not to graduate would pretty much be mental health issue or someone insisting on majoring in math/hard sciences.

2) You are wrong that there isn't WAY more academic pressure. I had guys at Cornell that did a 5th year at the likes of Ohio St and Florida St. They said the academic were a joke. I knew a guy on the track team at Yale with my brother that was like a B/C student. He took a test for a buddy of his at Florida State. He said he had to purposely miss questions as it was too easy.

We should probably do an interview of someone like Jason Vigilante who has coached at a state school and Ivy so he can tell you how different it is.

Gimme that title wrote:

And yet they can’t win an XC title. All the best talent in the USA. Reminds me of the Chris Derrick era. Are academics too much to handle? Is it coaching? Culture?

Seems like they're doing fine.

All I really have to compare is my son who scored 35 on his ACT and 2 of his friends who scored 33. My son is attending our state school and the friends are at Princeton. The indications are that they put in the same amount of effort as my son even though they are attending a tougher university according to your assertion and my son came out of high shool with better credentials.

Despite all the unworthy children and grandchildren of alumni and the superwealthy haunting the halls of the Ivies and Stanford, the fact is that the standards are incredibly high for admission, because the quality of applicants is extremely high. Maybe the SAT numbers today are hard to compare with the past because of various changes but we're talking about classes that could be entirely composed of valedictorians, National Merit Scholars, and single-subject specialists of national or international renown, and the general averages are 1500 and up at the top schools. At state schools, the material taught is often the same but the standards for an A or B are far, far lower, and many teachers just give multiple choice exams, many nowadays being mostly online quizzes where cheating is rampant and the questions themselves are simple enough that any educated person could do very well on them without taking the course.

I am very pleased to see Ratcliffe running 13:32, only three seconds back of Fisher. He nearly broke 4 in high school, ran some insane time his first xc race, low 23, and then had disappeared for years with injuries. Now he's a genuine threat to hit the Olympic standard next year. Er ... hit the old Olympic standard (was typically around 13:20-22). The new one is 13:13.5 and that would take some work to get to. But great to see him back and to see their athletes healthy and running well again.

If they don't, oh well, they still get in on the ground floor of future unicorns.

Gimme that title wrote:

And yet they can’t win an XC title. All the best talent in the USA. Reminds me of the Chris Derrick era. Are academics too much to handle? Is it coaching? Culture?

Just plain bad luck. Although we can infer you're a bit jealous of The Cardinal for some reason. Bizarre.

Academics jokester wrote:

All I really have to compare is my son who scored 35 on his ACT and 2 of his friends who scored 33. My son is attending our state school and the friends are at Princeton. The indications are that they put in the same amount of effort as my son even though they are attending a tougher university according to your assertion and my son came out of high shool with better credentials.

It's all bunk like the guy posted above. If anything schools like Princeton are now average. The US is a mess and has been a mess since the mensheviks took over. Your son's friends might have been lucky or they might have had better connections or more money. Or they fit some ethnic criteria. All of that seems to be more important than grades and test scores.

I am jealous of everyone that is faster than me. Bad luck is the Saints not getting that call last year in the NFC championship game. Stanford has had plenty of opportunities to win now. Is keeping athletes healthy really luck?

The sad fact of our sport is yes they ran fast but its more or less meaningless. Lets wait and see how they run June 5-8 before we go crowning the "premier" distance school

Cardinal boi wrote:

This board just loooves to hate them, but Stanford keeps proving why they are the premier distance school in the NCAA. These were the results from tonight:

Fisher 13:29

Ratcliffe 13:32

Fahy 13:34

Parsons 13:47

Mendez 13:57

All in one race except Mendez, who won the slow heat.

Impressive!

NAU looked real good as well with 3 guys under 3:40 in the 1,500.

Contemplating the versatility of both Grijalva, and Hoare as they finished top 25 in XC at NCAA's as well.

In addition Fisher/Mcdonald look to have sub 3:40 running ability, would be nice to see them attempt a 1500 this outdoor season..

Meanwhile a national champion flew across the country to tempo a 5k at Brian Clay.

Why can Wisconsin just hold their own home meet like Stanford? They can call it the Tempo Invite.

Oh c’mon rojo,

That is nonsense.

Half of your athletes were actually in the NYS colleges at Cornell.

Academic pressure at Cornell is non-existent.

Only the Asian American kids were in the library on Sunday morning.

Everybody else was at Viva doing the fabulous house margaritas late into Saturday night....

Oh yes, I was there!

No DJ Principe at the Cardinal Classic. His College PB still stands at 3:49.20. He is a Sophomore now.

Even his ex teammates are doing better than him at Georgetown.