Thursday, April 05, 2012

Yes/No: Three Locals Sub-3:45 at Stanford?

When track athletes, especially distance runners, go looking for perfect running weather, they often find themselves in Palo Alto in early spring. This makes Stanford a natural host for another huge track meet this Friday and Saturday. Most of the distance races at The Stanford Invitational, including the mile we're concerned with below, will be run Friday evening.

A large number of Gophers and other Minnesotans are among the athletes heading to Northern California in search of good competition and fast times. The men's 1500-meter has an interesting blend of runners from all over the country who either ran in high school or college in Minnesota.

We will take a look the metric mile with our question this week...

Yes/No: Will three or more Minnesotans break 3:45.00 in the 1500-meters at Stanford on Friday night?

For the purpose of this contest, we will define Minnesotan as anyone who ran high school or college track in Minnesota.

The start lists reads like a who's who of the top middle distance runners out of Minnesota in the last five years. Garrett Heath from Winona/Stanford is seeded at 3:37. Next up is Justin Tyner, Brainerd/Air Force who has a seed time of 3:42. Rob Finnerty, Burnsville/Wisconsin, was originally in the entries, but it looks like he will only compete in the 5K. Former Gopher Chris Rombough is seeded at 3:44. Donny Wasinger from Winona Cotter and now at Kansas has a seed time of 3:44. Jordan Carlson has the third best high school time in the 1600 in Minnesota history when he was at Rosemount. Carlson now runs for Notre Dame and is seeded at 3:45. Moving up in distance is Zach Mellon, Buffalo/Wisconsin, and is seeded at 3:46. Gopher Paul Hilsen was originally in the entries, but it looks like he has scratched. Another current Gopher, Travis Burkstrand is probably better known in the 800, but he is seeded at 3:49.

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 8:30 P.M. CDT, Friday, April 6th. Please put your answers in the subject line of the e-mail and make sure your full name appears somewhere in the e-mail.

My answer: No

Last week's question was: Will Andrew Carlson run faster than 14:00 at the Carlsbad 5000 on Sunday? The answer was no. Carlson ran well, finishing ahead of Anthony Famiglietti and in fifteenth place overall with a 14:13 clocking. Fifteen people answered correctly this week and Heather Jelen is now in alone in first place with nine points. One point behind are Jim Glazer, Mike Mason, and Ryan Aylesworth.

For all the results, please visit DtB Fantasy Corner, HERE.Yes

2 comments:

Jim from MN said...

NO?

Garrett Heath 3:40.37
Justin Tyner 3:42.69
Rob Finnerty (14:15.81)
Chris Rombough 3:48.92
Donny Wasinger 3:53.18
Jordan Carlson N/A
Zach Mellon 3:53.03
Travis Burkstrand 3:50.83

Doug said...

Jim is correct - the answer is no.

Here are a few more:

Marcus Paulson - 3:48.40
Sean Olson - 3:48.90
Matt Volz - 3:50.33
Nick Hutton - 3:52.72