i think the women will be strong because of the solid 1-2 punch of Koll/Kemmey add in Paige Teis, Meghan Nelson And Dani Stack who all ran solid this past year
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i think the women will be strong because of the solid 1-2 punch of Koll/Kemmey add in Paige Teis, Meghan Nelson And Dani Stack who all ran solid this past year
we have a new semester transfer from Africa, probably equal to Grace.Quote:
Originally Posted by DolphLundgren
Train a few, buy the rest.:no:Quote:
Originally Posted by jt tailgater
Dolph- you clearly know what you are talking about. I have to ask you, while ISU had a tradition of developing top female runners (pre plane crash) don't you think that right now we need to do both?
We will always have to develop runners and we have some frosh. that have potential. Having said that, should Lisa and Grace return next fall and be healthy, we would have a chance at a conference title WHILE we develop young talent. At least the new kid is a frosh as well.
My question is, why can't we do both?
Buying runners has absolutely worked for Okie State men and Texas Tech women.
My biggest beef with the way that Ihmels operates is not that he is a bad coach. He ISN'T. He is a spectacular coach who, it seems, focuses on a few select athletes (read Uhl, Koll, etc.) and then just buys the rest of his team from the depths of Africa.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mowilly
Look at the men's team this year:
Joel Limo
Rico Loy
Guor Marial
Yonas Mebrahtu
In the past, he's been notorious for buying up kids as well. This isn't a new phenomenon for Ihmels.
Ihmels is a pretty good coach who seems like he takes the easy way out and loses a lot of respect from people with the way he works.
I am never in the camp of "well, we've got a few really good runners now, so let's use scholarships on overseas kids in order to win a title (read: secure my job.)"
Just food for thought about your comment re: the Okie State men..
they've only got two Africans(Chuchir/Kosegi) on their team, and they're much, much better than ISU can ever be at XC.
is she here now???Quote:
Originally Posted by jt tailgater
I guess my thought was "buying" a runner was a full scholly runner regardless of ethnicity. My definition may well be different than what you are going with.
Not totally disagreeing w/ you.
I feel that we can win a national championship here. It has been done before (although the landscape of XC has changed). It would take some luck but if you can become a top ten program, you can win it in a given year.
Alabama men would be an example of buying runners as well.
Great discussion- thanks
Dolph, with the exception of Marial, who was an AA this season, take a look at the results of the rest of the Africans, terrible. I personally think that Ihmels will run the program into the ground with his foreign recruiting and "quick fix" policy, see Loy, Mebratu, Limo, Sang. I'll give him credit for Bor and Marial. Spread the money out and develop more Iowans and midwesterners in all areas; sprints, hurdles, throws, etc. Both track teams are at the bottom of the conference.Quote:
Originally Posted by DolphLundgren
The template for success has already been created by Bill Bergan. Why would you deviate from that? Coach Lynn (as nice as he was) tried sprints and hurdles and failed miserably. You will not have success here w/ hurdlers and sprinters as they will not be able to even get into the finals of the Big 12 w/ athletes from the Texas schools and OU competing. The weather and recruiting base are too much to overcome.
You win at ISU or Nebraska w/ distance, middle distance and throws.
Rico Loy is not a failure. He had a nice fr. campaign and will be a very nice runner for ISU. 17th in XC as a team is a nice starting spot to improve upon. While Corey was the coach here before, he didn't have the ability to allocate $$ to distance runners.
OSU allocates ALL of their $$ to the distance runners. If we did that, we would have the success that they are having IMO.
Additionally, ISU has GREAT history and connections in Africa w/ Bob Verbeeck, Yobes and Barnaba Korrir(sp?) training and coaching athletes down there. All 3 were ISU AA's and Yobes a former world record holder.
ISU needs to win back recruiting Iowa and getting every good kid like it used to before Steve Lynn took over. Lynn's inability to get the Iowa kid made Cris Bucknam a star and propelled him to the Arkansas job.
Keep Iowa, get the Africans that you can get and make sure that they are distance runners or throwers and you will do well at ISU.
The NCAA Championships and many conference titles won here prove that theory is a good one
Why is Sang a failure? He has run two meets for ISU as an 800 m guy and we already have him pegged?
MoWilly is exactly right.. and it also applies to the other college sports. There are stars in every sport that left Iowa for other states. We have plenty of talent here. There are Haluskas all over this state. I can name Iowans in almost every pro sport. Come on..lets recruit locally (how about a Flood in track from Des Moines.) and go after the occasional star from elsewhere when we can.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mowilly
In Track Uhl had great success in high school, a multiple state champion. He was junior national champion in xc his freshman year at isu and has been a consistent performer for the clones.
Koll had moderate success in hs and has risen to the national scene. There are many young athlete's right here will make the commitment to take it to the next level. She has proven it can be done right here in Iowa. I believe that when we have Iowa stars our crowds cheer a little deeper from their hearts.