Ping...Ping...They go 1 and 2 at Minnesota 3200m

Minnesota 201x GOATS?

I was there, standing near the finish line.

It was 88 and rather humid.......ugly weather for running a 3200.

They clearly took it easy for the first 800 or so (simply sitting in the pack), and then each slowly began to pull away. No PR for either, of course: they simply did what was needed to go 1 and 2 under the conditions.

Later this afternoon they're running in the 1600. They are heavy favorites to go 1 and 2 again---we'll see in which order.

They are both incredible runners but Grace is moving backward and Lauren is peaking. Grace beat nearly all of the NCAA women 3 years ago and they now run her 3200 pace for 5k-10k.

Girls 1600 class A

1. Grace Ping (sub 5!)

2. Lauren Ping

Why is Grace Ping getting worse all the time???

13tgfgf wrote:

Why is Grace Ping getting worse all the time???

Why are you getting dumber? Mysteries abound. Grace just won a state title. You, on the other hand, posted a stupid message. Grace had the better day.

As I've pointed out previously on this board, the two best 5K XC times of Grace's career were run by her last Fall, as a 10th grader, both on courses that she had previously run on in the 7th and/or 9th grades. So to the poster above who thinks she's gotten slower, you have to ignore the evidence.

Minnesota XC Fan wrote:

As I've pointed out previously on this board, the two best 5K XC times of Grace's career were run by her last Fall, as a 10th grader, both on courses that she had previously run on in the 7th and/or 9th grades. So to the poster above who thinks she's gotten slower, you have to ignore the evidence.

This. Also, she is trained by Tinman whose utmost priority is LONG-TERM development of athletes.

Tinman is not burning her out like they did Mary Cain, he is laying a solid foundation for great success in her collegiate and possibly post-collegiate (pro) career.

I saw the 1600 yesterday in person, and I've watched a video of it three times since.

Like the day before for the 3200, the 1600 was run in hot and humid weather. Grace & Lauren did not go for the lead from the start, but were content to simply run in the pack for the first 2+ laps. With a lap to go, Grace decided it was time to make her move, and pulled out of the pack. Coming off the curve to start lap 4 she surged ahead, pulling away with a kick that no one else was able to respond to. Lauren tried, and unleashed a furious kick of her own in the final 100m or so, but Grace was too far gone at that point.

1) Ping

2) Ping

Sounds like passing kidney stones into the toilet.

13tgfgf wrote:

Why is Grace Ping getting worse all the time???

She's not getting worse. She may not be improving at the speed in which other HS girls do (probably because she was already close to her ceiling early-on) but she's better now than she was in years past.

wtfbbq wrote:

13tgfgf wrote:

Why is Grace Ping getting worse all the time???

She's not getting worse. She may not be improving at the speed in which other HS girls do (probably because she was already close to her ceiling early-on) but she's better now than she was in years past.

This happens in high school girl swim & dive also. Often, the girls who have been doing year around club swimming since age ten years and younger, peak in ninth or tenth grade or early. Some of the swimmer girls go on to swim in college. Often their personal bests were performances for their early teen years. We can look on Athletic.net. It happens. I do not know why you are denying the personnel bests were set in past years. One or more D-1 or D-2 program(s) will still reach out to her. The truth is the truth.

Being an ardent running fan in Minnesota I'm very familiar with the state's best runners, among them Emily Covert. In a previous post on this board, I posted this comment comparing Grace to Emily (copied here verbatim):

"Emily Covert had a fantastic senior XC season, no doubt about it. Here are some highlights:

Minnesota 2A State Meet: 1st

Nike Heartland: 1st

Foot Locker Midwest: 1st

NXN: 4th

Foot Locker CCC: 5th

Wow!

--------------------------

Out of curiosity, I wondered how Emily's 10th grade XC times compared to Grace's 10th grade times, on a course-for-course basis. So here are times from each of their sophomore XC seasons:

MN State Meet (@ St. Olaf College course):

Emily: 18:35 (2016)

Grace: 17:19 (2018)

Nike Heartland (@ Yankton Trails course):

Emily: 18:25 (2016)

Grace: 17:10 (2018)

Roy Griak (@ Les Bolstad course):

Emily: 19:19 (2016)

Grace: 18:18 (2018)

Course-for-course, Grace ran faster than Emily as a sophomore."

For those of you who are convinced that a 15-year old runner's best days are already behind her, I submit (again) the above. Having seen close-up the burst of speed she exhibited to surge to the front in her 1600 race on Saturday, I myself am very hopeful to see how she does in her junior and senior seasons. I'm thinking she will prove to be a formidable competitor in the next two years.

We can remain convinced. She won Griak as a 7th grader and finished 2nd at NBN.

Ping< wrote:

We can remain convinced. She won Griak as a 7th grader and finished 2nd at NBN.

Katelyn Tuohy's 2019 season hasn't produced Outdoor PR's for any distances (800, 1500, Mile, 3000, 3200, et al.....). Her Outdoor PR's for each of those distances were set during her 2018 season. Should I therefore conclude that she's washed-up?

Fast girls. Glad to see they are both still competeing and doing a marvelous job of it. Must be cool to be 1-2 in the state with your own sister.

RunHillsinHighWaters wrote:

Fast girls. Glad to see they are both still competeing and doing a marvelous job of it. Must be cool to be 1-2 in the state with your own sister.

Video of the two following the 3200 finish:

Lauren (8th grade) is on the left wearing the 3200 Gold medal; Grace (10th grade) is on the right wearing the Silver 3200 medal. For the 1600 run the next day, the medals were reversed.

Minnesota high school athletics just finished the T&F season. You want to now start a debate regarding XC performances. You are doing a scope shift.

Swimming also ... wrote:

Minnesota high school athletics just finished the T&F season. You want to now start a debate regarding XC performances. You are doing a scope shift.

Says the poster who thought "swim & dive" was a more apt comparison.....