Logan Schaeffler had a tough race on Thursday night, placing 13th and running a subpar (for him) time of 9:42.48 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The early pace was slow, and Shef's hurdle form from the start seemed off (aka, Not Good). And then, the lead pack gapped him, and it just kind of unraveled from there.
We've seen this movie before. Freshman athlete has strong first year of collegiate running, qualifies for (what we used to call) Junior Nationals, we have a fun and exciting trip to Oregon (or some other far-off destination) and we get there, race time comes and ... pffft. Why? My theory = it's a long grind of indoor/outdoor and trying to carry that for another month -- especially for a distance runner -- is very difficult (maybe even impossible). Add to that training at home, with no coach or teammates to motivate/guide you ... and, you get what you get.
As we sit in the PHX airport on a 5-hour layover, we ponder this and realize that most of our athletes who have had subpar U20 meets in June/July bounce back to have strong to great sophomore years and/or strong to great collegiate careers. So there you go. Another trip to Oregon is in the books. We look forward to getting home, even if the forecast is calling for 100-degree days!
