Warrior Princess
Sarah Baxter and Mary Cain are going to be Kara and Shalane the Next Generation.
http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=13&do=videos&video_id=77474
Are we there, yet?
Watch for Mary Cain on the track. She met the US Olympic Trials standard in the 1500m last spring as a 16 year old breaking Jordan Hasay's HS record by several seconds running 4:11.01.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Caretaker/Overlook Hotel
That was cool. I screwed it up halfway thru by looking at another window which killed the video and I had to start over but I watched all the way thru. That girls is determined!
And what a muddy mess!!!
Randy
Chairman
Sarah Baxter and Mary Cain are going to be Kara and Shalane the Next Generation. http://www.runnerspace.com/eprofile.php?event_id=13&do=videos&video_id=77474
Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Many high school stars fizzle or fail to develop at the next level (e.g., Jordan Hasay). On the flip side, some runners are slower to develop, but go on to have very successful professional careers. Undeveloped potential is just that. They are not top pros until they get to that level, and there are many ways their path can be derailed.
Coalition for a Free and Independent New Jersey
uʍop ǝpᴉsdn sǝʇᴉɹʍ ʇI
I have seen Sarah Baxter run XC and track many times because my DD competes against her in some high school events. At the bare minimum, Baxter is a complete freak of nature. What a runner!!
Your standards must be quite a bit different from mine. Three top 3 finishes at the NCAA XC Championships isn't exactly a failure. It will be interesting to see what she does since she announced she will be moving up to the 10,000m. Her weakness on the track has been the lack of leg speed at the shorter distances.
Before you start arguing with me for the sake of arguing as you usually do, I didn't say she wasn't a good collegiate runner. But the names Flanagan and Goucher were thrown out. After a record setting high school career, she has improved her 1500m PR by a whopping 4 seconds, and is now a 21 year old with pretty unremarkable track PRs of 4:10 and 15:37. She is by no means ready to go out and compete with the top American professional women.
Contrast that with the career track of Mattew Centrowitz and Evan Jager, who are at the top of the game at around the same age.
Centrowitz and Jager are a couple years older and the 1500m is not Hasay's best event. She's competing at the top at the next level, collegiate competition. She hasn't lived up to others' expectations, but I think that's partially due to the nature of collegiate track and field where there's an emphasis on team competition. It's quite possible that she'll be one of those filling out the Olympic Trials fields without being a top contender, but I don't think she's found her event where she can specialize and develop her potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what she will do this spring if she does race at 10000m as her only event rather than doubling or tripling as she has at Pac-12 and nationals in previous years.
Truthfully, you do never know who will make it to the top of any sport. Some of those who come out of high school or even college fizzle at the professional level while some who were just good at a lower level get much, much better as professionals. Look at Desi Davila. Her highest finishes in college was 3rd in the PAC 10. That's good but nobody would predict that someone would go from 3rd in the conference to 2nd overall at Boston.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
I knew you guys would have a better analysis. I just watched it and thought whoa!
If you can track down and watch a video of last year's girls Foot Locker race, I think that was even better.
ETA: Here's a video of almost the entire race: 2011 Girls Footlocker XC Championship