HSer Cole Sprout runs 8:49.02 3200 at 5,000+ feet in CO

Solo?

Looks like he might've had some teammates pace him but there was some joke about the pacer always staying 6 feet in front of him.

Am I the only one thinking too much too soon? Like too much cy focus on outcomes vs. process. He’s basically a pro runner in his teens. The insta-based runners seem to flame out early. Goucher trained way too hard in college and looks like an old man now.

birdbeard wrote:

According to his Instagram. That would break the CO state record (which he owns) by 8 seconds. Might be near sub 8:40 at sea level. Kid is gonna be a beast in college. He has a good mix of speed and strength, reminds me of Goucher. I bet his best event for his first few years will be the 3000 indoors and then he’ll move up to 5000 by the end of college. I don’t really anticipate him being able to hang with Young in XC, but you never know. He is comparatively undertrained, I believe. Nothing overly difficult, I think he averages like 50mpw.

It’s probably worth a sub-8:35 at sea level actually. Did he run it in VaporFlys though?

birdbeard wrote:

Looks like he might've had some teammates pace him but there was some joke about the pacer always staying 6 feet in front of him.

That may have been Jackson Schwartz of Tulsa. His stats are perhaps a little shy of Sprouts but maybe a good pacer for quite a bit. Any way you slice it 8:49 at 5,000+ ft is a pretty solid time.

I too think he has a very bright future.

oh Goucher... wrote:

Am I the only one thinking too much too soon? Like too much cy focus on outcomes vs. process. He’s basically a pro runner in his teens. The insta-based runners seem to flame out early. Goucher trained way too hard in college and looks like an old man now.

Weird comment, in that Goucher graduated from college in 1999, I think, over ten years before Instagram was founded. Or do you mean "insta-based" in some other way? Also, Goucher won an NCAA cross title and several track titles, and was an Olympian: seems like a decent set of outcomes to me. This is just an overall forced comparison.

TKTKTK wrote:

oh Goucher... wrote:

Am I the only one thinking too much too soon? Like too much cy focus on outcomes vs. process. He’s basically a pro runner in his teens. The insta-based runners seem to flame out early. Goucher trained way too hard in college and looks like an old man now.

Weird comment, in that Goucher graduated from college in 1999, I think, over ten years before Instagram was founded. Or do you mean "insta-based" in some other way? Also, Goucher won an NCAA cross title and several track titles, and was an Olympian: seems like a decent set of outcomes to me. This is just an overall forced comparison.

My understanding of Cole’s training from interviews with him, his coach, etc (and his dad once posted on LR) is that he only runs like 50-60mpw. If anything it seems like they have been holding him back a bit. Which is good.

I’m impressed wrote:

birdbeard wrote:

According to his Instagram. That would break the CO state record (which he owns) by 8 seconds. Might be near sub 8:40 at sea level. Kid is gonna be a beast in college. He has a good mix of speed and strength, reminds me of Goucher. I bet his best event for his first few years will be the 3000 indoors and then he’ll move up to 5000 by the end of college. I don’t really anticipate him being able to hang with Young in XC, but you never know. He is comparatively undertrained, I believe. Nothing overly difficult, I think he averages like 50mpw.

It’s probably worth a sub-8:35 at sea level actually. Did he run it in VaporFlys though?

Not VFs. Looks like Matumbos or something from the photos but I am not up on what the most popular nike distance track spikes are these days, my last spike was the Lanang!

Vaporflys and spikes are about even for 2 miles. Under 2 miles spikes are way better and over 2 miles Vaporflys are better. So it really doesn’t matter what he ran in for a 2 mile.

He wore spikes either way. His training's all on Strava. He runs ~55mpw according to that, and you can spot some tempos and track workouts.

I'm just really in awe of the talent/work ethic/results of the current group of American High School runners. There are really so many incredible accomplishments taking place right now. On both the girls and guys side these all seem to be really good, motivated, and well grounded individuals. The results from Nico, Cole, Leo, Methner, Cruz, Strangio, as well as a few more, have been pretty remarkable over the past year. Big times, great kids, bright futures. Love it.

oh Goucher... wrote:

Goucher trained way too hard in college and looks like an old man now.

Remember, he's married to Kara.

The NCAA adjustment for steeple is about 15-17 seconds for an altitude of 5000-5900 feet.

Highlands Ranch is 5920', a bit higher than Cedar City, Utah (5782), which is listed in the adjustment. I don't know where in Colorado he ran this but as those adjustments are for a run of 9:20s for steeple, I'm guessing that this puts him around 8:33-8:35. 8:33 seems too generous. Mid-8:30s puts him already in the territory of the all-time greats for high school. I hope these guys get a chance to do it in competition this summer.

zxcvxczv wrote:

The NCAA adjustment for steeple is about 15-17 seconds for an altitude of 5000-5900 feet.

Highlands Ranch is 5920', a bit higher than Cedar City, Utah (5782), which is listed in the adjustment. I don't know where in Colorado he ran this but as those adjustments are for a run of 9:20s for steeple, I'm guessing that this puts him around 8:33-8:35. 8:33 seems too generous. Mid-8:30s puts him already in the territory of the all-time greats for high school. I hope these guys get a chance to do it in competition this summer.

The indication is it was run at Niwot 5,300 feet

zxcvxczv wrote:

The NCAA adjustment for steeple is about 15-17 seconds for an altitude of 5000-5900 feet.

Highlands Ranch is 5920', a bit higher than Cedar City, Utah (5782), which is listed in the adjustment. I don't know where in Colorado he ran this but as those adjustments are for a run of 9:20s for steeple, I'm guessing that this puts him around 8:33-8:35. 8:33 seems too generous. Mid-8:30s puts him already in the territory of the all-time greats for high school. I hope these guys get a chance to do it in competition this summer.

Yeah I hope that they run Music City or Brooks PR, or if they scrap all the HS-level stuff that he can jump into something at Prefontaine.

My guess is that everything gets cancelled though, which sucks. As a Colorado guy, I have been watching Rich Martinez's 1600m state record for a long time. Since sophomore year, it seemed like Cole would break it. Absent some weird weather, it seemed he and Cruz Culpepper would break it in 2018, as Cruz had run within 1-2 seconds and Cole was better than Cruz, but there was wind. I figured they had 2 more years--no way it survives. But Cole missed it by about .1 last year and then quadrupled the state meet, so he never did, and Cruz never really seemed to give it an attempt, just ran every race to win. It almost certainly would've been shattered by Cole this year. Not sure if Cruz was planning to run CHSAA meets.

Crazy to think two guys within 1-2 seconds of the record as sophomores are gonna leave HS without breaking that record, which has now lasted 39 years.

The future is bright wrote:

I'm just really in awe of the talent/work ethic/results of the current group of American High School runners. There are really so many incredible accomplishments taking place right now. On both the girls and guys side these all seem to be really good, motivated, and well grounded individuals. The results from Nico, Cole, Leo, Methner, Cruz, Strangio, as well as a few more, have been pretty remarkable over the past year. Big times, great kids, bright futures. Love it.

Posts like these are few and far between. The helicopter parent generation is too busy being concerned about “overtraining” and “burnout”, we should be appreciating the fact that we are in a golden age of high school and college distance running(the two most important levels in the US, viewership of professional events outside of the olympics and big city marathons is nothing like high school and college fan base) that just keeps getting better each year. It will end eventually, there have been a couple slower years here and there, but to have so many high schoolers at or under 4:00 in the mile in such a short time is amazing.

This is a great class but not quite as good as a few years ago with all of those guys breaking 4 and not as good as Ritz, Hall. and Webb.

Talent beats training wrote:

This is a great class but not quite as good as a few years ago with all of those guys breaking 4 and not as good as Ritz, Hall. and Webb.

Eh, I think this class is better than anything in the last decade or so at least. Leo and Cruz would've broken 4 this year. Cruz went 4:00.10 indoors, Leo is better than Cruz. Sprout would've given it a scare, and this class is far better in the 3000/3200/2-mile.

3200 or 3218 meters?