How would Jakob have done at NCAAs?

So you mean he was 16?

Since American XC courses are grass tracks he would absolutely crush everyone in the ncaa. Hes lucky to run on real XC courses in Europe.

You know the answer. wrote:

He would have destroyed them, Morgan Mcdonald dominated the distance events in the NCAA and he got spanked by Jakob over 5k in London DL.

Was Morgan's season initially including these diamond League events? NO So there is still room for speculation

Jakob would clearly have won NCAA's, which is more equivalent to the European BYu28 XC, where Jakob could be right with the leaders.

I'm European and honestly, in 2018, as a 18 yo, he could have won u20 AND senior race at European xc in the same day

Yeah but still, that win in XC at Chia when he just turned 16 (2 months after his birthday) was extremly impressive :

https://youtu.be/ITJXyw5RjY4

Considering he was younger than the others by 3 years and that Chiapinelli finished 5th at world u20 before, that was impressive. His best strength seems to be in his mind, just look at that race, when he was gapped by the ultra favorite, Chiapinelli, second place did not seem like an option for him

The question is: Would he be able to run as fast away from his complete training system? This would include his training partners, his coach/dad, and the other factors that are parts of this system that is working so well for him and his brothers.

JI has run fast on American soil several times. Just ask Centrowitz who has still not been able to beat the youngster being it in the US or elsewhere.

Of course JI would easily win the NCAA Cross Country as he would win all track events from 1500m to 10,000 if he decided to run the latter seriously. None American (professional or not) would be able to beat him.

I agree with another blogger that he would have been able to win the European SENIOR Cross Country Championship at least in 2018 and 2019 (if he had been allowed to run in these years). He is far better than brother Filip on the longer distances.

Easy win for Jakob. 3:30.16/13:02/27:54 road, with high mileage, a lot at 10k-1 hr pace, and easy courses. Even this year's Euro was a slow, tough course and he would not likely have won the senior champs, where last year's senior champ, Filip, was a minute back with good competition, but Aarhus, where he finished well beaten behind a bunch of athletes with no comparable track times, was a killer. You needed to be a great hill runner to win that race and he is not built for the big hills.

You need a place like Uganda to really train for that. NCAA's, against a bunch of 13:20 type runners wouldn't be a problem normally, although there are times when you have some really strong 10k runners. In 2010, Chelanga ran a collegiate record 27:08 against Solinsky (26:59) and Rupp (27:10ish) after the latter two were out of college. I don't think Jakob could have beaten Chelanga at ncaa xc in that form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Rkvd5dfwMQ

fred firth wrote:

So you mean he was 16?

Someone claimed, that he was barely 16 but the Euro u20 when he won 5k and steeple was in fact about 8 weeks before his 17th birthday. And it is customary (like for eligibility in u18 u20 etc.) to use the age at Dec 31st of a year. So in summer 2017 Jakob was 16 but much closer to 17 and in his last year of u18 eligibility.

FrenchDawg wrote:

I get that the NCAA is the highest level of competition that we have before professional competition here in the US, but really? We are talking about a 3:30/13:02 runner. The US has had less than 5 of those ever. Jakob already makes short work of our professional athletes, what trouble would he have with our professional athletes in training?

Last time I checked, NCAA xc wasn't 1500 or even 5000 meters long. It's 10,000 meters long and on the grass.

Why do people assume he'd easily win an NCAA xc title? Jakob was just 12th at World Jrs last year. Matt Tegenkamp was 5th at World Jrs and never sniffed a world xc title. When Ritz was a junior, he was third at World xc and even he only won 1 NCAA xc title and that was years later.

Yes, I'd expect a 13:02 5000/10,000 guy who is good at xc to win NCAA xc. I wouldn't necessarily expect a mile who runs 13:02 to win a 10k xc meet in the mud. Is he a toe striker? Then definitely not in the mud.

D1 hopeful wrote:

Wu Ming wrote:

This year he has run 3:30.16, 13:02.03, and 27:54 (road). Who in the NCAA field had comparable PBs?

I don’t think the runners at World XC last year had PBs anywhere close to his at the time and he got crushed pretty bad. I think it’s interesting how track bests don’t always translate over and this would have been a tougher race for him over 10k.

True.

But the 2018 WC XC is not the NCAA.

Not even close.

Try comparing to U23 WCs and perhaps it's a better comparison.

Jakob is a beast at XC too, just not equal to, say his 1500 ability.

The kid crushed Josh Kerr @ 1500 last summer and beat Morgan McDonald at 5k by 15 seconds.

Those two were the NCAAs best the past 2 years, period, and a then 18 year old Jakob easily handled them.

westsouthrunner wrote:

You know the answer. wrote:

He would have destroyed them, Morgan Mcdonald dominated the distance events in the NCAA and he got spanked by Jakob over 5k in London DL.

Was Morgan's season initially including these diamond League events? NO So there is still room for speculation

No there's not.

Jakob not only crushed McDonald in that race, he was on, like his buhjillionth race of the year. McDonald didn't come close to matching JIs number of races entered, nor the quality of races entered, nor the range of distances/types of races entered.

+1

I said that he was barely 16 when he won u20 euro XC bro, in 2016, not track in 2017

Sorry for bad English if you misunderstood

Bad comparison. Africans do not run the 5k and 10k on the track very often as the roads are more lucrative and opportunities greater. The juniors at Worlds ran well under 28 on the track last year so finishing as high as he did at World cc juniors was awesome.

ric flair woooooooooooooo wrote:

+1

I'm surprised you didn't use the opportunity to remind us that Tefera is U20.

Rojo idiot status confirmed. Can't handle that a 18 year old white guy would stomp everyone. The the ncaa just isn't that good. A bunch of old men won this year. Ncaa really sucking it up.

With his xc and track credentials, I think he would clearly have been the favorite. However, given the muddy conditions this year for a bigger guy (see Solinsky’s senior year), I think he still wins, but Kurgat gives him a legit race. The OP’s question is better than most are giving credit for.