Cole Sprout 14:38 5K in CO at Liberty Bell

Yes that why I wrote “(2.95)” above to indicate it was a short course.

NVruns wrote:

Seems right wrote:

Short course?

I’ve heard it’s short too. But nonetheless, crazy impressive time for a course at 6,000 ft altitude.

To put in it perspective, he ran 15:25 at Liberty Bell as a sophomore, then 14:48 at Desert Twilight.

Makes one think how fast he’ll run this year.

Definitely not short, but downhill and the last mile on asphalt after coming off of the very flat Highline Canal. It’s akin to a three-mile race, 30-40 seconds too fast.

Very few ever approach the time again except for going to sea level, so it’s kind of a fake time from that perspective. Still impressive though for Sprout & the girl’s winner.

Yeah. I saw Thomas Boyden at the Murray invite and he took over that race. Led the whole thing from start to finish and separated himself at 1.5 miles. Rumor has it he’ll be racing at both Bob Firman and Desert Twilight. Will be very interesting to see how he performs as I also think he’s going under the radar.

I PR’d there wrote:

NVruns wrote:

I’ve heard it’s short too. But nonetheless, crazy impressive time for a course at 6,000 ft altitude.

To put in it perspective, he ran 15:25 at Liberty Bell as a sophomore, then 14:48 at Desert Twilight.

Makes one think how fast he’ll run this year.

Definitely not short, but downhill and the last mile on asphalt after coming off of the very flat Highline Canal. It’s akin to a three-mile race, 30-40 seconds too fast.

Very few ever approach the time again except for going to sea level, so it’s kind of a fake time from that perspective. Still impressive though for Sprout & the girl’s winner.

I've run that course 4 times before. I would argue that it's closer to .1 short. My watch always got it under 3 miles and on a normal 3 mine course, my watch gets around 3.1. Definitely short.

dsadsa wrote:

Which one was he, Zack or Cody?

Beat me to it

It's shorter then advertised.

I was at the Murray Invite this year and all of my team got between 2.83 and 2.91 miles on their gps watches for the Murray Invite course. It is a historically short and inconsistently marked from year to year.

Boyden is an awesome runner, but not in the same league as Cole Sprout. Boyden would have likely ran between 14:40 and 14:46 if it was an actual 3 mile course, impressive, but not legendary like Cole's result.

LeadCyclist wrote:

He barely was breathing hard

Do you know what any of the words in that sentence mean?

Asphalt is hard on the joints, of course, but faster than grass.

Contrast Liberty Bell's XC course with one run on long grass (at least in segments), as was the situation eight days ago at the Great Meadow Invitational in Virginia. Some of the runners there commented on the slowing effects of long grass. Everyone faced the same conditions, but my point is simply that different surfaces lead to different times.

Or, thinking in terms of an oval track, we're all familiar with the talk that Jim Ryun's mile records on cinder tracks would have been faster on all-weather tracks. Imagine the times on grass tracks, with different thicknesses of grass.

Sprout's 14:38 result, and that of second-placer Parker Wolfe, nine seconds back, are just awesome, though. On a course that has been run many times, these two just wow'ed us. Here's the all-time leaders on the course, according to MileSplit:

1 14:38.40

COLE SPROUT

Sep 7, 2019

2 14:47.30

PARKER WOLFE

Sep 7, 2019

3 14:56.30

JOSEPH MANILAFASHA

Sep 12, 2008

4 14:58.00

ZACHARY ALHAMRA

Sep 12, 2014

5 15:04.80

WALTER SCHAFER

Sep 18, 2009

6 15:06.40

BOBBY NICOLLS

Sep 12, 2008

7 15:09.50

KEVIN CONLON

Sep 7, 2019

8 15:14.50

DART SCHWADERER

Sep 12, 2008

9 15:16.00

ISAAC GREEN

Sep 11, 2015

9 15:16.00

JORDAN LESANSEE

Sep 11, 2015

11 15:17.00

EASTON ALLRED

Sep 8, 2018

How awesome can a run really be by a 2:07, 4:19, 9:21 kid?

He's better as the distance goes up and appears to have improved a lot over the summer.

Also Kevin Williams ran 14:51.

Kevin Conlon, just 7 seconds a mile behind Parker Wolfe, is a 4:45 9:48 guy. Seems like this course runs really fast.

People claiming XC times as legit PRs for any distance has always bugged me. The distance for any high school course is rarely correct. That and surface, altitude, etc make every course unique and therefore times irrelevant. Rather than saying my "5K PR is ..." one should instead say "My Liberty Bell PR is..."

However, what this kid did is insane. Liberty Bell is always the exact same course every year with every kid in CO gunning for a fast time. Taking the course record at Colorado's most prestigious race is impressive. Doesnt even matter if it is downhill, short, and asphalt.

Before someone rips into me I will say that certified courses which are world record eligible do count for PRs in my book. Be proud of that sub 3 'thon

not hating just curious wrote:

Kevin Conlon, just 7 seconds a mile behind Parker Wolfe, is a 4:45 9:48 guy. Seems like this course runs really fast.

Yes, it is a fast course.

But Kevin Williams was an 8:51 2-miler and FL finalist his senior year when he ran his 14:51 there. Joseph Manilafasha was a 3x FL finalist that was vocally going for the CR at Liberty Bell and ran 14:56. Isaac Green was a 4:05 HS miler and ran 15:16, etc. etc. Easton Allred is a 2x NXN qualifier, and was 5th last year, and ran 15:17.

So both Sprout and Wolfe were legendary this weekend. Although I suppose it's always possible that the course was marked slightly differently or something, and the weather was a bit cooler than generally this time of year.

asdfvsdaf wrote:

meanwhile... Thomas Boyden in Utahran a 14:04 (2.95) at the Utah Murray Invitational... also at altitude... and beat Stetson Moss by 32 seconds. Destroyed the record by 40 seconds.

This was the short course. Still a very good time. But Talon Hull ran a 14:02 in the short course a few years ago. Garrett Barton was 2nd in 14:03 that year. Both great runners and ran faster than Boyden. Talon Hull got 4th at footlocker that year and had had a decent college career thus far. It definitely puts Boyden in the top group of kids nationwide, but Cole Sprout is on a different level right now.

For those saying "definitely not short," I'd like to know the criteria by which this was determined. Does "definitely not short" mean:

1. I have my PR there, and I don't want to even think about my PR being suspect, so I'll try to stonewall any questions?

2. I don't think it's short?

3. I heard someone else say it's not short?

or

3. I've gone out and measured it by some recognized means?

GPS watches are better than they once were for measuring, and, if anything, a GPS watch should measure a course as a little long (maybe as much as 1 or 2% long if it's a course without a lot of turns, like the Liberty Bell course is). If you run the Liberty Bell course and get 3.07 miles on a GPS watch, that's actually pretty good evidence the course is short. I've never run the exact course, much less with a GPS watch on, so I have no basis to say whether it's short or not.

I am curious, though.

It is true that Saturday morning's conditions were pretty good, but probably a bit short of spectacular, for racing. No doubt about it, Sprout owns the course record, but it's very difficult to say how his effort compares with the 14:51 mentioned for Williams, other than it was 13 seconds faster on the clock. Wolfe probably doesn't run a 14:47 on his own, but he is undoubtedly a very good runner and this provides nice evidence of that.

For those suggesting a problem with marking the course this time around, there really isn't much in the way of variability to be had in the marking. City streets and curbs don't move. The canal trail doesn't move. This course layout boasts far more repeatability than traditional cross country courses. There are no corners to be marked in a grassy field somewhere. I'd be stunned to learn there was a significant marking issue.

not hating just curious wrote:

Kevin Conlon, just 7 seconds a mile behind Parker Wolfe, is a 4:45 9:48 guy. Seems like this course runs really fast.

Clearly, Kevin Conlon got a whole lot better over the summer. It's rather remarkable how much his race has improved in four months or so. No current 9:48 guy runs 15:09 for something around 5K, even if it is mostly on asphalt and slightly downhill.

Also not sure if Conlon and Wolfe’s times were at altitude, but if so Wolfe was more like a 4:14/9:07 guy last year as a sophomore. He’s a stud.

Yes that is true, but you should also consider the fact that he did a 14:04 by himself beating NXN 11th finisher Stetson Moss by 30+ seconds. Talon hull had someone with him the whole race. Cole sprout is definitely on his own level, but people should start to recognize the name Boyden.