TSR Mailbag: Part 8

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Was it just me, or did Justyn Knight's 1500 performance at Bucknell come off as a little underwhelming? - Personal Contacts

This past weekend, Justyn Knight made his spring track debut against a relatively smaller and less competitive field at the Bison Outdoor Classic. He would end up pulling away from the field to secure the win with a time of 3:42 (NCAA #10). After his performance, I had two texts from two of my friends who are both close followers of the sport. They both asked a question similar to this regarding Knight's result.

Was the performance a little underwhelming? For someone like Justyn Knight, a little bit, yes.

Is the performance a cause for concern? For someone like Justyn Knight, not at all...

Knight was likely just shaking off the rust and wanted to do so against a field that wasn't quite as intense as maybe the Stanford Invite was (where he scratched from the 10k). If he was truly going after a super fast time, he would've waited a week to enter the 1500 at Bryan Clay...a meet that saw four men (three collegiates) go under 3:40 last year.

Of course, it didn't help that there was unrealistic hype for a matchup between Knight and Harris (who isn't even the fastest miler on his team). The hypothetical duel added only more fuel to the fire in terms of what they could both run this weekend.

It also didn't help that the pace began to lag after 700 meters, forcing Knight to drop a huge 55 second last lap to separate himself from the rest of the field. If the pace was quicker, could he have dropped under 3:40? Most definitely.

Finally, let's not forget that this isn't even Knight's best event. In fact, not once in his career has Knight raced the 1500/mile in a national championship.

There are more big things to come from Knight, but maybe we should temper our expectations the next time a big-name star makes his season debut.

How did Arizona State suddenly recruit three talented transfers for next year's team? What kind of impact will they have? - PAC12

A little less than two weeks ago, Arizona State assistant coach Cory Leslie announced via Instagram that the Sun Devils would be adding three notable transfer names to their roster next year. Fearghal Curtin (via Charleston Southern), Garrett O'Toole (via Princeton), and William Paulson (also via Princeton).

I will admit that it surprised me to see those three names end up at a program like Arizona State, a program that isn't exactly known for it's distance running. Nonetheless, that's what happens when you bring in a former professional runner for Nike as an assistant coach. It's an attractive quality for any distance program to have.

Curtin, currently a freshman from Ireland, has already had a strong year of performances. Personal bests of 4:09 and 8:17 from the indoor season matched with times of 3:50 and 14:02 so far this spring have made Curtin a surprise name to watch. Not only that, but Curtin will give ASU three years (nine seasons) of eligibility. With the times that he is putting down already and three more years to develop, Curtin has the potential to leave ASU as one of the program's best ever (or at least since CJ Albertson).

The Princeton duo are an interesting story. Despite both coming from the same program, their resumes are very different.

Garrett O'Toole was one of the biggest names to come out of the 2014 high school graduating class. Expectations were high for him during his first few years at Princeton and, for a few seasons, he matched those expectations. The Massachusetts native ran a 3:39 (unattached) at Swarthmore in 2016, the same season where he ran 3:41 (attached). It's still unclear why he ran that 2016 Swarthmore meet unattached.

Despite his strong personal best in the 1500 and recent PR in the 5k (14:06), O'Toole hasn't always been the most consistent. He's never qualified for a national championship as an individual and the number of races that he runs in a season can vary from one to nine, ten, or even eleven.

Paulson, on the other hand, brings a little more stability to the table with a little less firepower. His personal bests of 3:42 and 8:07 are solid times that complement his NCAA qualifying performance from last spring. With that in mind, you know what you're going to get with Paulson. He's a solid 1500 runner and is one of the more underrated milers in the nation when it comes to race tactics. He did, after all, defeat Drew Hunter in a head-to-head matchup last year. Still, we have yet to really see a monster performance from him like we have from O'Toole.

In terms of eligibility, Arizona State will only get a year with each of these guys. O'Toole will have a season of outdoor and cross country eligibility while it appears that Paulson will have just outdoors. If you look at Paulson's TFRRS profile, you'll notice that he doesn't have a single performance recorded for any season between Winter 2015 through Spring 2016 (almost a year and a half). Important? Not really, but it is interesting.

The recruiting haul is impressive and it's rare to secure that many talented recruits in one year. That said, the Sun Devils still need a few more big-name pieces if they want to become actual contenders in the PAC 12 (specifically in XC).

How legit is Zach Long? - StanfordSpectator

Very.

I opted to wait until we saw Long again to answer this question and it turned out to be the right decision

For those of you who aren't aware, Long had a breakout performance at the Stanford Invite in the beginning of the season where he ran a personal best of 13:39 to defeat Tyler Day and take the win. There was plenty to like with Long this past season as he battled with some of the best in the SEC and continued to improve his PR's. However, I don't think anyone was expecting him to race like he did at Stanford.

Fast forward to now and I can't find an argument against Long. The Tennessee senior dropped a 3:45 this past weekend to defeat established rising stars Ben Veatch (Indiana) and Diego Zarate (Virginia Tech). The time isn't jaw-dropping, but it does show us that he's developing speed, executing race tactics, and improving his range. A racing skillset like that is huge in tactical championship races.

Right now, I don't see why Long can't be an All-American. In his two races this season, he hasn't given us a reason to doubt him. However, now that we've seen him drop down in distance for the 1500, I'd like to see how he handles the 10k.