Friday, July 02, 2010

Yes/No: Will Smyth or Moen be Top-4 at USA 10K?

The USA 10,000m Outdoor Track Championships were held last week in Des Moines. Proving that there really is no rest for elite distance runners, this week will be the USA Men's 10k road championship. Galen Rupp, the USA 10,000m champ, is not scheduled to show up in Atlanta for the AJC Peachtree Road Race but two Team USA MN runners will be pulling double duty

Patrick Smyth (third last weekend) and Josh Moen (fourteenth) will see how quickly their legs can recover from twenty-five laps on the track last weekend. The Peachtree race hosts a strong international field in addition to the USA championship. The race is offering a purse of $111,300 with $15,000 to the overall winner and $10,000 to the top male American.

How will the Minnesotans stack up in Georgia?

Y/N: Will Patrick Smyth or Josh Moen finish in the top four at the USA Men's 10k Championship at Peachtree?

Patrick Smyth and Josh Moen both ran the AJC Peachtree in 2009 when it also was a National Championship. Smyth finished fifth among Americans and Moen was thirteenth. Smyth has been on quite a roll this year. The Notre Dame grad was second in the USA Half Marathon Championships and second at the USA Cross Country Championships before his third place finish last weekend.

Moen ran his huge breakthrough race last October at the Medtronic TC 10 Mile, giving Abdi Abdirahman a battle down the stretch before eventually finishing second. Moen ran at Wartburg in college and has run 28:26 for the 10k as a post-collegiate runner.

The American contenders at Peachtree are a deep group with no strong favorite. USATF previews the race and lists Ed Moran, Ryan Sheehan, Jorge Torres, Mo Trafeh, former Golden Gopher Andrew Carlson, Anthony Famiglietti, James Carney, Aaron Braun, and Bobby Mack as some of the major players.

A list of American elites is HERE.

To play our game, simply type "yes" or "no" into the subject line of an e-mail and send it to us at DtBFantasy [AT] gmail [DOT] com before 7:30 A.M. CST, Sunday, July 4th. Please put your answer in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail. We will continue to offer a bonus for participants making their debut in Yes/No - a correct answer will be worth two points for any first-time players.

My answer: Yes

The fantasy contest question from last week was: Will William Leer finish as the top Minnesotan in the finals of the 1500 Meters at the USA Outdoor Championships on Sunday? The answer was yes. Leer and Garrett Heath made the finals and Leer finished third with Heath in tenth. For the third week in a row, twenty six contestants answered correctly.

Jesse Schoen is now alone in first place with sixteen points. Schoen is riding a huge hot streak with correct answers in the last eight yes/no contests. The yes/no winners for June were Rachel Karel, Mike Henderson, Dimitri Drekonja, Andrew Nussbaum and Jesse Schoen. All five were perfect in June and scored four points.

For all the results, please visit DtB Fantasy Corner.

1 comment:

Doug said...

Josh Moen was 10th and Patrick Smyth finished 15th at the USA 10k at Peachtree.
The answer was no.