Of Course He Lost: 2016 is the Year of the Upset

by Jarrett Felix

No one was expecting King Ches to lose this year. He had won the previous three NCAA individual titles. He’d built up a list of heroics so fantastic, the kid was rapidly approaching alien levels. Remember that time he won the 5k at NCAAs, came back some half hour later, and kicked down Iziac Yorks of Washington with a 3:51 anchor leg? Because that wasn’t a dream. It actually happened.

But in 2016, the favorites were under attack across the board. It’s kinda crazy. Take a trip back down memory lane with me. Jump to the 2016 NFL playoffs. Remember the Denver Broncos? They not only beat the New England Patriots, but they also beat out the Carolina Panthers, a team they were 4.5 point dogs against, for the Super Bowl title. They not only bested the defending champs in an upset, they also routed the Panthers. But perhaps the biggest upset? Peyton Manning, notorious big game choker, was the quarterback for the Broncos.

Take your next look at the basketball season. First of all, hometown team Villanova, who had choked their way through a couple NCAA tourneys as of late, came up incredibly clutch against one of the most historic and celebrated programs in the country in one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen. Then, OKC upset the Spurs. The Warriors came back from 3-1 against OKC. The Cavs came back from 3-1 against the Warriors. And may I remind you that Cleveland, who was known as the city God himself hated, won a championship. By defeated the winningest team in NBA history. On their turf.

The Cubs won the World Series. Enough said.

We also had perhaps the greatest upset in the history of the Presidency. No matter your feelings on the result, it’s hard to deny that very few people saw it coming.

But these results weren’t just limited to the popular sports. If you’ve been following the great sport of track and field, you know that the world of distance running got turned on its head as well. Should we recap the Olympics real quick?

- World record holder Genzebe Dibaba lost her 1500m final. A year after she closed well under 2 minutes for the final 800, she was torched down the final stretch by Mercy Cherono. Almaz Ayana, right after she dropped an otherworldly 10k world record, then turned around and was upset in the 5k final.

- Matt Centrowtiz, who runs for the USA, won the 1500m gold medal. That’s the first one since 1908 for those keeping score. The world record back in 1908 was 3:59 for 1500 meters. Centro ran 3:50 to win the Olympic gold, a time that was considered so absurdly slow that it was kind of embarrassing to the field. Times changed a lot. Yes, pun intended.

- Clayton Murphy and Paul Chelimo got Olympic medals. Paul Chelimo, who barely made the US team over Eric Jenkins, dropped about 20 seconds off his PR to grab the Silver medal behind the most decorated long distance runner of our era, Mo Farah. Ironically, sticking with the theme, Eric Jenkins pulled off an absurd upset of his own when he won the 5^th Avenue mile over the aforementioned Centro.

- Robby Andrews didn’t make the 1500 Olympic final. He got DQed and, unfortunately, it was deserved. This wasn’t really an upset in the whole “unpredictable, surprising event sense”, it was more an upset in the “I’m upset about it” sense.

So maybe you don’t follow any of these professional sports. Maybe you don’t care about the Olympics. But if you are reading this blog, you probably have some interest in PA High School distance running. Well, guess what, the PA landscape had their own set of upsets to drop in 2016. It started when Cardinal O’Hara’s DMR pulled off a crazy victory over squads like GFS, State College, CB West and CB East. It was a pick that nobody had and some predictors even dropped them outside of the medals completely.

Then outdoor states happened. Remember outdoor states? Matt Kravitz pulled off a massive upset in the 3200m. The District 2 runner had a PR some 20 seconds worse than the top guys in the field and hadn’t won any of the flashy early season meets. But the District 2 sleeper left Shippensburg with a gold. Then, Alex Milligan of State College, just after a hard anchor carry on the state championship 4x8, pulled off a stunning upset in the 1600, running a roughly 6 second PR to top the field and help State College win a surprise team title. Perhaps Milligan’s chief competition in this field was, ironically, Josh Hoey who had himself pulled off a massive upset by winning the Penn Relays Mile as just a sophomore.

But maybe the biggest upset of them all was Joe Espinal in the 800. He went from 1:55 to 1:51 over the course of a weekend and defeated one of the deepest 800 stables in recent history. Even now, I’m not sure the majority of our readership would be able to tell us what school he attended.

So realistically, we had an overwhelming set of statistical data that 2016 was going to be the wonkiest year of my life. Considering that just before Ches raced, his own Oregon women’s team pulled off one of the biggest surprises in XC history, that should have been the last drop in the overflowing bucket of signs that Ed Cheserek might end up losing the title.

Congrats to Patrick Tiernan and Justyn Knight on awesome seasons and a pat on the back to Mr. Cheserek for an epic streak of NCAA titles. He’ll be back and hungrier than ever next time out. And, hey, maybe 2017 is going to be the year of revenge.

But it also could be the year of cat memes. We just don’t know!