The biggest surprise to come out of last Saturday's NCAA Divison I regional races was Michigan State finishing second in the Great Lakes region.
The second place finish automatically qualifies the team for the national meet. This is the same team that only managed to finish eighth in the Big Ten Championships a few weeks earlier.
When Walt Drenth took over the program in 2004, he was seen as the savior and the one to progress the Spartans and reach their full potential. Compared to their rival Michigan, MSU is usually seen as the program that picks up the second-rate recruits from around the state (Only two out of the 27-man roster are from a different state). However, Drenth has only managed to get his boys to finish as high as fourth in the Big Ten.
How the Spartys make such a drastic jump? Maybe Drenth perfectly peaked his runners for this race, or maybe it was the switch from the usual 8K to the regional 10K that benefited the team.
Moving on to the funnier side of running, I present to you a steeplechase video. For those unaware, the steeplechase is a 3K race found in outdoor track, that contains barriers to hurdle over, as well as a water pit. Yup, athletes in the race are forced to jump into water. Whenever it comes time for this race at a meet, everyone gathers around the pit, not to see how well the runners are doing, but to see someone bite it. Being a steeplechase runner has to be one of the most frustrating things ever, because you can't escape the fact everyone is rooting for you to fall.
Sometimes a fall is no big deal, but sometimes you really bite it. In this amazing video contains one of the craziest steeplechase falls (the guy gets seriously submerged) I have ever witnessed. Between the fall, the commentary by the camera operator, and the music edited within, this is one of the funniest YouTube videos out there.
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why do they jump into a water pit? weird, but cool. the first dude was the best cuz he flew over the pit.
ReplyDeletedidn't know u were a runner! maybe we should all get together and challenge Sammy in a quick 400m! I actually until now never seen this clip, very interesting. i like your blog, its diffent, how did u get the poll on the side? its cool ;-)
ReplyDeleteoh, and good blog by the way. it makes running more tolerabe for me since i know nothin about the sport.
ReplyDeleteHow did anybody come up with the idea of a steeplechase, seriously? Cool blog, running is perhaps the least conversational topic and I read your blog from beginning to end. Nice touch with the video and poll.
ReplyDeleteI take offense to that Gabby, anyway good blog, why don't we play basketball and see who's better.
ReplyDeleteSammy
video was great. You know quite a bit about running, got to respect that since its not one of the major sports. I just dont understand why they do the steeplechase? is it for entertainment?
ReplyDeleteI like that your writing about running. I swam for ou and I wanted to blog about swimming but I didnt think people would be interested at all. I ran track though so I like to hear about whats going on.
ReplyDeleteI loved watching the Steeplechase races in the last summer olympics. Had never seen it before. Good blog. I try to run the 5K but I have a stutter so I always end up doing 10K
ReplyDeleteThat full submersion fall is awesome. How humiliating would that be after watching some guy clear the entire pool. Nice post.
ReplyDeleteNice original blog idea. I didn't know anything about college cross country, clicked your blog and now I do. Enough said.
ReplyDelete