Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Which is more impressive?

Redwood senior Liam Anderson winning the boys race with a 14:57.8 personal best?

or...

Del Oro freshman Riley Chamberlain getting 2nd in girls' race with a time of 17:12.7?

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anderson. No boy broke 15 at Woodward Park last year, and 17:12 is fantastic but other girls are faster. Being a freshman means a lot less for girls.

Dan said...

I would go with Riley Chamberlain. Arguably her first big high school race and she was in the lead with about a mile to go. Obviously she believes she can run with the big girls and has proven it. Hopefully she remains healthy and can peak when state comes around so she will get that valuable experience of running on the national stage.
Anderson's run was very impressive, but pretty expected. He has been incredibly consistent over the course of his career. Running sub-15 at Woodward during your first competitive cross country race of the year is pretty amazing.

Albert Caruana said...

All good points but at this point only Tori Gaitan of Great Oak is faster. Only Sarah Baxter (16:57), Jordan Hasay (17:02) and Abby Miller (17:08) have run faster than Chamberlain as freshmen. I will post the updated NorCal list above for both boys and girls.

Steve Palladino said...

Liam Anderson's race was a season opener. Not bad for knocking off the cobwebs.

Anonymous said...

I’m not really impressed by superstar freshman girls. Now I will be very impressed if she is still this good her senior year.

Anonymous said...

I would think winning a race is better than taking second?
Liam won.

Albert Caruana said...

17:12 is a really impressive time for a freshman girl (4th fastest ever). Liam going sub 15 is also impressive. Liam did win but Riley lost to one of the top runners in the nation. I think they are both equally impressive and we can all make a case for one or the other.

Best of luck to both athletes. Both will be favored to win their division (I believe both are in Division III).

Anonymous said...

Great point Albert, however ( you knew an however was coming ) while Riley lost to one of the top runners in the nation in some peoples opinion. Liam is one of the the top runners in the nation, in some people opinion! :-)_

Anonymous said...

Agreed with 4:25PM...I was just going to post, no disrespect to Riley's awesome performance, that we are comparing a potential NXN Champion in Liam Anderson. The vote is easy...

Anonymous said...

Well said, we shall wait and see. Look at all the phenonms who faded off into the sunset. Probably state champ this year though....should make her dad happy with all the doubles they run.

Anonymous said...

The question was not to compare the athletes, it was to compare the performance and decide which was more "impressive." Liam being a potential NXN champion has zero to do with his performance on that day. The fact that he is already so accomplished and this performance was expected by most, would suggests that Riley's performance on that day was more impressive. It has nothing to do with whether she will be running that fast as a senior, as a junior or tomorrow, the question was about that day.

Anonymous said...

@5:24pm. Your argument cuts both ways. As you said, the question is what was more impressive, not what was more expected. Liam won and is now #8 all-time among NorCal runners. Riley lost and is not in the top 10. Case closed. I don't know how this is even a debate.

Anonymous said...

@9:24, you must be easily impressed. Personally, I am impressed by things that are not typical, by things that are outside the norm; so yes, the fact that something is unexpected can make it more impressive.

If you ask me what is more impressive, NAU winning pre-nats or Justin Gallegos, the athlete with Cerebral Palsy being able to run a 7 minute mile, I'll choose Justin, thank you. He's not on any all-time list and probably will never be. He's probably "lost", as you put it, every race he's ever run, but what he does is still pretty damn impressive. If you are only impressed by results on any given day as opposed to effort, ability and circumstance, that's a real shame.

In closing:
It's a "debate" because your opinion is not the only opinion.
Case reopened.

Anonymous said...

@11:53. You're right, and I'm ashamed that I think first place is more impressive than second place. Come to think of it, why have winners at all? After all, context is everything and objective results mean nothing. The last-place kid who jog/walks 30:00 at Crystal probably had a lot more hardships to overcome than the kid who wins in 15:00, and is the truly impressive one. Thanks for the education.

Albert Caruana said...

Anonymous keyboard warriors battling it out...very exciting!

Anonymous said...

So let me get this straight, you throw out a question that obviously requires opinions and then you insult people when they answer? Maybe you would prefer if no one posted anything. If you don't want debate, don't post questions that require it. If you don't like anonymity, you control the settings; change it. However, when you switched it last time and no one posted anything, you switched it back and now seem to want to have it both ways. If you don't want content, and respectful content at that, don't ask questions.

Albert Caruana said...

I think we have had plenty of conversation answering my original question. Time to move on. Thank you.

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