End of Season Awards

Now that NCAA’s have finished up and the season has ended, it’s time to reflect. There were some outstanding performances this season as well as some disappointingones. There were surprises that made each race and each individual unique in their own way. I feel that it’s only appropriate we reward these individuals for their efforts (orlack thereof) this season. Below I have given out 13 awards with the winners, other nominees for the award, and explanations. Keep in mind that the entire season is being accounted for. Not just NCAA’s. So with that, here are the Indoor 2015 Zatlin Awards.

 

The “Who is that?” Award (Best Breakout Runner)

Winner: Cristian Soratos (Montana St.)

Other Nominees: Alex Amankwah (Alabama), DylanCapwell (Monmouth)

Why: I have a feeling there isn’t going to be too much backlash with this choice. The guy that was running 4:11 last season, put his name at the top of the mile this season by running a 3:55 at the Husky Invite. Soratos went from being “just ok” to elite and that’s why he earns this award.Amankwah and Capwell both ran 1:49 last season so that’s probably why they weren’t getting a lot of attention back then. A couple great 800’s make them very relevant for outdoors.

 

The Sculpture Award (Biggest Bust)

Winner: Patrick Rono (Arkansas)

Other Nominees: Zavon Watkins (Penn St.), LukeLefebure (Stanford), Brandon McBride (Miss. St.), Craig Lutz (Texas)

Why: Get it? Because another word for “sculpture” is“bust”? No? Well all awful puns aside, Patrick Rono(unfortunately) takes this award. I came in ready to watch him run big times and take names. Instead, he only cracked 1:50 once (running 1:49) and struggled throughout the entire season. I expected him to be one of the top 800 guys this season like he usually is but he just didn’t have it. Other guys like Watkins and Lefebure were high on my radar but let me down every time they raced. Had it not been for Watkins excellent DMR 800 split, he might be having this title.

 

The 24/7 Award (Most Consistent)

Winner: Adam Bitchell (New Mexico)

Other Nominees: Edward Cheserek (Oregon), Eric Jenkins (Oregon), Shaquille Walker (BYU), Edward Kemboi (Iowa St.)

Why: Some may question me here but Adam Bitchell is a winner. Bitchell ran multiple events quite often and would win them too. He won the Mountain West indoor 3k and 5k titles and then only lost the mile title by less than a second. His name often came up on my computer. Shaquille Walker never lost a race this season before he came into NCAA’s. He gets some love. Of course you have to add the Oregon duo in here. In all honestly, they should get this award but you’ll be seeing plenty of them later in this post.

 

The Living Machine Award (Runner With the Best Racing Range)

Winner: Edward Cheserek (Oregon)

Other Nominees: Robby Creese (Penn St.), Ahmed Bile (Georgetown), Eric Jenkins (Oregon), Martin Hehir(Syracuse)

Why: There doesn’t really need to be an explanation.Cheserek was the best at every event from the 1200 through the 3k (I’m convinced he let Jenkins pass him) and if he ran the 5k fresh, I believe he could’ve won that too. Other’s have also showed they are capable of winning from every race from the 800 to the 3k. However, no one has that range AND the 5k ability that Cheserek has.

 

The Qdoba Award (Most Underrated Runner)

Winner: Jason Witt (BYU)

Other Nominees: Niki Franzmair (Oregon), AmosBartlesmeyer (Georgetown), Brandon Lord (Georgia)

Why: As my friends came over to watch NCAA’s, one of them was nice enough to bring us chips and queso fromQdoba (S/O to Thomas Doran). Not that it was ever close, but the jalapeno bacon queso is outstanding and catapultsQdoba way ahead of any other Mexican cuisine establishment. That wasn’t really relevant, but Jason Witt was just as underrated as Qdoba is this indoor season. He very quietly dropped a 13:42 all by himself and broke a meet record. In a loaded 5k field at NCAA’s, he ran smart and got himself a fourth place finish. Brandon Lord ran well all season but started to falter during championship season. Amos Bartlesmeyer wasn’t really underrated, but I believe he had a heavy contribution to the overall success of that Gtown crew. I think he deserves credit for that.

 

The Chipotle Award (Most Overrated Runner)

Winner: Craig Lutz (Texas)

Other Nominees: Kyle King (UVA), Keffri Neal (Kentucky), Sam Penzenstadler (Loyola Ill.)

Why: I hate to be the negative guy and I know this issimilar to the “Biggest Bust” award, but I felt that it’sneeded. Much like Chipotle, Craig Lutz was set to a standard I don’t believe he has earned this year. His races were very inconsistent and he simply just came up short at most meets. A solid 5k towards the later half of his season got him qualified for NCAA’s. However, I wasn’t prepared to pick him to medal regardless of his past success. My decision turned out to be a good one. Sam Penzenstadlerhad an excellent mile at Notre Dame, but I saw very little of him after that and when he came to NCAA’s he couldn’t hang with the pack. Others like Neal and King didn’t have bad seasons, but they didn’t hold up to the expectations I had for them either.

 

Most Likely to Have Alex Fox Throw Something At Them During a Race

Winner: Parker Stinson (Oregon)

Other Nominees: There are none.

Why: I wasn’t really sure about the Stinson hatred, but Alex Fox made a case for it. Fox informed me that Stinson wore suspenders AND a belt together. That’s tragic and should never happen. Fox has also indicated that a strawberry smoothie might be thrown in Stinson’s direction in the near future. This is just too much evidence to suggestthat anyone else should be nominated. Although, I will say that I’m a fan of the guy since he came up big for me in my predictions.

 

Coming Up Clutch Award (Runner That Succeeds During Critical Races)

Winner: Edward Cheserek (Oregon)

Other Nominees: Edward Kemboi (Iowa St.), RobbyCreese (Penn St.), Brannon Kidder (Penn. St.)

Why: As with many of my Cheserek/Oregon picks, I don’t really need to explain this. Cheserek is the man and will win for you when called upon. He’s a sit and kick kind ofguy which makes his races that much more clutch. He’s the man and that’s that. Kemboi also showed some excellent 800 closing speed as well leading that 1200 at NCAA’sthrough in 2:55. He’s pretty clutch in his own right.

 

No Guts No Glory Award (Gutsiest Runner)

Winner: Tommy Curtin (Virginia Tech)

Other Nominees: Brandon McBride (Miss. St.), CristianSoratos (Montana St.), Ahmed Bile (Georgetown)

Why: I will always acknowledge my bias when talking about Virginia Tech, but there is a good case for Curtin being the gutsiest runner. After taking the ACC 3k out in 58, he closed in 59 and if that doesn’t say guts I don’t know what does. He also did something similar at NCAA’s. Had this category been solely about NCAA’s, Soratos would’ve won this award. His middle 800 during his mile was 1:51 which is absolutely insane. Soratos has no fear. McBride is also known for taking his races out hard so I’ll credit him as being a nominee.

 

The Juggernaut Award (Best Distance Squad)

Winner: Oregon

Other Nominees: Georgetown, Stanford, Colorado

Why: *See NCAA Championship results

 

Batman and Robin Award (Best Racing Duo)

Winner: Cheserek/Jenkins (Oregon)

Other Nominees: Creese/Kidder (Penn St.),Schnulle/Arroyo (Florida), Campbell/Kebenei (Arkansas)

Why: I could just tell you to look at the results again but what’s the fun in that? These two are unstoppable. You can’t beat them. If you somehow beat one of them, you sure as hell aren’t beating the other. Although, Schnulle and Arroyo are a favorite of mine. Schnulle is the experienced senior who led the young emerging stud throughout thewinter races. They compliment each other quite well and ifCheserek and Jenkins didn’t exist, Schnulle and Arroyo would be taking this award.

 

PA Don’t Play Award (Best Season by Pennsylvania Alumni)

Winner: Nate McClafferty (Duke)

Other Nominees: Tom Coyle (Stanford), Ben Ritz (Columbia), Wade Endress (Penn St.), Joey Logue (Penn St.), Ned Willig (Brown)

Why: There was a part of me that wanted to give this to Coyle. I felt bad for him after his unfortunate fall during thelead-off leg in the DMR. But McClafferty has been too good at the same distances. He’s split 2:52 for 1200 and nailed down a sub-4 mile. I believe his mile is also adjusted to a 3:58 with an altitude conversion. Willig and Logue had great 1k’s so I threw them on the list.

 

You Da Real MVP Award (Most Valuable Runner in the NCAA)

Winner: Edward Cheserek (Oregon)

Other Nominees: Eric Jenkins (Oregon), Edward Kemboi(Iowa St.), Cristian Soratos (Montana St.)

Why: There’s nothing that I can tell you that you don’t know already. Cheserek is the best. Period. Plain and simple. He is not only just the best, but he is the obvious and clear alpha dog of the NCAA. There is no one that can beat him. As I mentioned earlier, I am convinced Ches let Jenkins win that 3k. I’ll watch the tape again but I stand by my opinion. The Oregon Duck now has 7 NCAA titles under his belt with one season left in his sophomore year.At this point you have to begin asking what Cheserek’slegacy is. How good will he be and how will he compare to, not just the Oregon greats, but the all-time NCAA greats? I’ll admit it, I love an underdog. You can see through my predictions that I love to see the big guys go down. But Cheserek might eventually become unbeatable. He might become untouchable. He might become the greatest collegiate runner to ever step on a track. Only time will tell.

 

Comments, feedback, opinions, and everything else I can’t think of are appreciated as always! Feel free to throw up some of your own categories and awards. I’ll hopefully have a predictions reflection post up sometime this week. It will be a combination of reviewing my picks and recapping the meet. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to comment!

 

Run on,

Garrett