October is a few days away and things are starting to get exciting on all levels. The big city fall marathons are just around the corner and Chicago looks to be quite the race. Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot , Tsegaye Kebede , Vincent Kipruto , plus top American Ryan Hall all are looking to defeat defending champion (and Olympic Chamion) Sammy Wanjiru. I wouldn't be surprised to see a sub 2:05 if the weather cooperates. A great story is on the women's side where the legendary Joan Benoit Samuelson (1984 Olympic Gold medalist) returns and hopes to run under 2:50 for the 3rd time as a 50plus year old. I really hope she does, Joan is such an important figure in US Marathon history. Amazing woman. Someday I will actually not run this race and join the spectators along the course to see some of the true greats battle it out in what is always an amazing race.
College XC is starting to get going and the top runners are slowly making their debuts. The much anticipated debut of German Fernandez led to a 6th place finish at the Cowboy Jamboree. It seems as he and teammate Colby Lowe ran it as a controlled tempo run as they finished together. OSU's Girma Mesecho won the race. It is a promising start for OSU who brought in a tremendous recruiting class. I did notice that Kirubel Erassa was held out. Stanford ran as a controlled pack as well at the Stanford Invite. Chris Derrick, Elliot Heath and Jacob Riley all came across the line together about 4 seconds behind winner David McNeill (NAU). Stanford looked very, very good as they did last year up until NCAA's. An interesting development is Jakub Zivec coming on at Florida State University. Refer to my blogs from the 2008 XC season if you need any info on this tremendous talent from Czech Republic.
On the womens side I haven't seen to much top level action. Lavinia Jurkiewicz , the IL 3a state champ last year, ran strong in her debut for Wisconsin. Top WI recruit Emily Sisson is yet to race. Megan Goethals (University of Washington) opened with a 4th place finish at the Sundodger Invitational. She ran as UW's number 2 behind former IL high school star Lindsay Flanagan.
On the High School side many of the nation's elite have yet to run. We are still waiting to see debut's from Lukas Verzbicas and Jim Rosa. It is very likely Joe Rosa is out for the entire season and we are still a bit in the dark on the status of Chelsey Sveinsson. We have seen strong starts from Craig Lutz(TX), Jack Driggs (IL), Ammar Moussa (CA), Elias Gedyon (CA) and Futsum Zeinasellassie (IN). I have been a bit surprised as I thought Zach Wills (OH) would be right there with them but he has faced 2 defeats against top level competition. As of right now, if most rankings were based on races already run (and not waiting for Verzbicas or Rosa) Futsum should be a strong US#1 right now. He has been extremely impressive and narrowly missed Chris Derrick's course record at the Culver Invitational.
With Joe Rosa probably out, one wonders if Lukas will now just run FootLocker again. It is known that due to schedules the Rosa's can only do NXN and many people anticipated them meeting in Portland. Lukas, as well as Lutz, had been expected to do both series. With the expectation that Joe is done until track, Lukas may only be in San Diego. The match up of Lukas and Fustum, one that failed to happen last year when Futsum didn't show in Kenosha, would still be epic. I can only speculate right now as I anxiously await to see these guys race.
Down in West Texas the Eastwood girls have silenced all doubters as they are the undeniable #1 team in the El Paso area. The Eastwood boys have been THE biggest and nicest surprise this season as they have finished no worse than 3rd (at the big Lubbock Invite) and have won twice. Right now they, along with Montwood, are the co-leaders as the top team in the city. Top runner Juan Blanco, who ran a great 15:52 in Lubbock, has had the luxury of having his teammates step up and run close to him.
It is my understanding that the course at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock has been changed up a bit and is now a slightly faster course. Still, the performance of Isaac Spencer of El Paso Austin was tremendous. He ran the fastest time of all 5 classes with a blistering 15:01. Very, very impressive run.
That's about it for now. Things will really pick up over the next few weeks as high schools start heading to the state series. College meets will pick up with the much anticipated pre-Nat's being the highlight. Here's to hoping the Chicago Marathon is another one for the ages. EDIT: Between the time I started this and the end it has been announced that Ryan Hall has withdrawn from the Chicago Marathon.
Showing posts with label Jakub Zivec. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jakub Zivec. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Talking a little Cross Country...........
As we head towards the State Meets in XC we see some more of the norm. York (IL) and The Woodlands (TX) are both aiming for yet another State Title.
The Woodlands (once known as Conroe McCullough) has been crushing teams dreams in TX for 28 years or so. They have quite a large enrollment (3800+) and a great Jr. High Program but the coaching of Dan Green speaks volumes. People enter the program there (as well as York with Joe Newton) expecting to contend for the State Title.
Since 1980 The Woodlands/McCullough has won 14 State Titles, 6 2nd place finishes and 2 3rd place finishes. That is 22 trips to the podium in 27 years. In 1984 they scored a record low 28 points in a race that my team (El Paso Eastwood) actually thought we had a chance at winning. We wound up 3rd but hey, there is no doubt we lost (badly!) to the best XC team in the country that year. The list of stars from the school over the years is endless. Kyle Wright, Jeff Moss, Stacy Sutter, Eric Henry, Shaun Barnes, Scott Cramer, Danny Green, Chris Emme, Brian Sullivan, Alex Neff and this year Reed Connor and Drew Butler should challenge Craig Lutz for the Texas Title.
Each year the week prior to the XC District meet,The Woodlands has it Red and Green Time Trial, under the lights at night. They run the 3200. If this years results are accurate then look out. Connor ran 8:54 and Butler 9:01. Wow! This school, by the way, has more sub 9:20 3200 runners than any other school in State History by a long shot. Henry and Sullivan both went 8:52.
I mentioned Craig Lutz earlier as the Lewisville Marcus Sophomore has established himself as the favorite for the TX 5-A Title. After a very impressive Frosh season, he has gone undefeated turning back many of the state's best in the process. Don't count out CJ Brown (Southlake Carroll) quite yet but he has not had the season many expected.
In IL, York is looking tough as usual, as well as Naperville North, Geneva and defending National Champs, Neuqua Valley. Look for Kyle Gibson (NN), Danny Pawola (NV) and the York Duo of Steve Sulkin and Jordan Herbert to contend in Peoria for the State Title. Another early season fave, Freshman Record Setter Lukas Verzbicas (yes Freshman!) is out for the season with a pinched sciatic nerve.
The future is looking bright right now on the National level with Lutz (Soph) and Verzbicas (Frosh) and Futsum Zeinasellassie (Frosh, In) all with potential to finish high at the National Level this year. Another challenger may be Jakub Zivec. Jakub has been running amazing times in the JV races in MN. In these cases he is running faster than the varsity times and coming close to course records. He has track PRs of 3:57.07 for the 1500 meters and an 8:19.35 for 3000m so he is for real. Jakub is a Czech exchange student who attends his MN high school without being part of a recognized international exchange program. Because of this he is not allowed to compete at the varsity level.
The future is also looking bright on the NCAA level with the prized Frosh Chris Derrick (Stanford), German Fernandez and Colby Lowe (Oklahoma State), Luke Puskedra (Oregon) all looking like potential All-Americans this year. We shall see. Terre Haute, IN is the place to be Nov 24Th.
The Woodlands (once known as Conroe McCullough) has been crushing teams dreams in TX for 28 years or so. They have quite a large enrollment (3800+) and a great Jr. High Program but the coaching of Dan Green speaks volumes. People enter the program there (as well as York with Joe Newton) expecting to contend for the State Title.
Since 1980 The Woodlands/McCullough has won 14 State Titles, 6 2nd place finishes and 2 3rd place finishes. That is 22 trips to the podium in 27 years. In 1984 they scored a record low 28 points in a race that my team (El Paso Eastwood) actually thought we had a chance at winning. We wound up 3rd but hey, there is no doubt we lost (badly!) to the best XC team in the country that year. The list of stars from the school over the years is endless. Kyle Wright, Jeff Moss, Stacy Sutter, Eric Henry, Shaun Barnes, Scott Cramer, Danny Green, Chris Emme, Brian Sullivan, Alex Neff and this year Reed Connor and Drew Butler should challenge Craig Lutz for the Texas Title.
Each year the week prior to the XC District meet,The Woodlands has it Red and Green Time Trial, under the lights at night. They run the 3200. If this years results are accurate then look out. Connor ran 8:54 and Butler 9:01. Wow! This school, by the way, has more sub 9:20 3200 runners than any other school in State History by a long shot. Henry and Sullivan both went 8:52.
I mentioned Craig Lutz earlier as the Lewisville Marcus Sophomore has established himself as the favorite for the TX 5-A Title. After a very impressive Frosh season, he has gone undefeated turning back many of the state's best in the process. Don't count out CJ Brown (Southlake Carroll) quite yet but he has not had the season many expected.
In IL, York is looking tough as usual, as well as Naperville North, Geneva and defending National Champs, Neuqua Valley. Look for Kyle Gibson (NN), Danny Pawola (NV) and the York Duo of Steve Sulkin and Jordan Herbert to contend in Peoria for the State Title. Another early season fave, Freshman Record Setter Lukas Verzbicas (yes Freshman!) is out for the season with a pinched sciatic nerve.
The future is looking bright right now on the National level with Lutz (Soph) and Verzbicas (Frosh) and Futsum Zeinasellassie (Frosh, In) all with potential to finish high at the National Level this year. Another challenger may be Jakub Zivec. Jakub has been running amazing times in the JV races in MN. In these cases he is running faster than the varsity times and coming close to course records. He has track PRs of 3:57.07 for the 1500 meters and an 8:19.35 for 3000m so he is for real. Jakub is a Czech exchange student who attends his MN high school without being part of a recognized international exchange program. Because of this he is not allowed to compete at the varsity level.
The future is also looking bright on the NCAA level with the prized Frosh Chris Derrick (Stanford), German Fernandez and Colby Lowe (Oklahoma State), Luke Puskedra (Oregon) all looking like potential All-Americans this year. We shall see. Terre Haute, IN is the place to be Nov 24Th.
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