Pick Ten: Olympic Marathon Trials

We will kick things off for this year's Down the Backstretch fantasy contests with a big one - the Olympic Trials in the marathon.  By our count there are twenty-eight marathoners with Minnesota ties in the race, fourteen men and fourteen women.  This is a group that includes runners with legitimate Olympic dreams and others that just snuck under the Olympic trials qualifier time.  The race will be run in Houston, Texas on Saturday, January 14th at 8:00 A.M.

Pick Ten has a simple concept: predict the finish place for each of 10 Minnesota athletes at the Olympic Trials Marathon.  However, there is a bit of a twist.  You will choose places for Minnesota athletes among Minnesota athletes only. We will only score the fourteen Minnesota men and fourteen Minnesota women that we have indicated.  You will score points for each athlete that scores at or above the finish place you predict for them, following the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system.

For example: If you pick Katie McGregor to place first in the women's race, and she places first among Minnesota women, you get 10 points. If you pick McGregor to place first and she finishes second, you get zero points. If you pick McGregor to finish third in the race and she places first, second or third, you get 8 points, since that's the place you picked her for.

To play Pick Ten, cut and paste the list of names/events below into an e-mail and add your place predictions -- 1st or 2nd or 3rd...10th. Send your predictions by 8:00 A.M. CST on Saturday, January 14th to DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com. Make sure your full name is in the e-mail. As with our Yes/No contests, we don't offer any prizes, so no one needs to fear running afoul of NCAA or other anti-gambling regulations.

We'll announce the winner of this week's contest and compile results of all of the year's Pick Ten contests to name a grand champion for 2012.

Pick 10 ... Olympic Marathon Trials:

Katie McGregor:
Kara Goucher:
Jenna Boren:
Meghan Peyton:
Leah Thorvilson:
Matt Gabrielson:
Josh Moen:
Chris Erichsen:
Luke Watson:
Michael Reneau:

Here are a few links to help you make your picks ...

- USATF lists all the entries and their qualifying times.
- Down the Backstretch lists the Minnesota athletes in the race.
- An update on Josh Moen.
- Runners World Olympic Trials Cheat Sheet.
- An article about Kara Goucher.
- Team USA Minnesota Press Release.

Good luck!

This is the first contest of the year so all standings will reset.  Last year, Bryan Tolcser won the Pick 10 contest and Mike Henderson topped the field for Yes/No.

For full standings of both contests, please visit DtB Fantasy Corner.