Tribune Boys Cross Country Runner of Year: David Graham

3 comments:

• Prep_fan posted at 3:51 pm on Sat, Dec 24, 2011.

  Posts: 1

  Although this was a bad choice, it doesn’t approach the snubbing of Joel Huerta for Scottsdale football player-of-the year in 1997 as the worst injustice the Tribune has committed in a player/athlete of the year selection.

  The choice comes down to the two runners referenced in the earlier comments, Jake Wynn and Eduardo Roa. Either one would have been a good pick, but the nod should have gone to Jake, for the following reasons:

  1) Division 3 in boys cross country is far tougher than Division 2, on both the individual and team levels, so Jake winning that championship carries more weight than Eduardo winning D2.
  2) Jake won the only head to head meeting between the two of them, at the Desert Twilight meet on September 30. Among Arizona runners in that race, he finished behind only Bernie Montoya of Cibola (clearly the best runner in the state), Tyler Stamp of Sabino (a setback Jack avenged at the state meet), and Ryan Silva of Rincon.
  3) Jake had the best time run on the course at the state met, albeit in a different race than Montoya and the others.

  A considered list of the top runners in the state, regardless of classification, would read: 1) Bernie Montoya 2) Jake Wynn 3) Tyler Stamp 4& 5) Very close between Ryan Silva and Eduardo Roa. David Graham might head up the second five but good as he is, he doesn’t rate higher than that. Perhaps the selection committee confused him with the golfer of the same name who won the 1979 PGA championship and 1981 US Open.

  
  
  

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• fishpaste posted at 11:08 pm on Fri, Dec 23, 2011.

  Posts: 1

  This was an egregious decision. I can't say I understand this choice at all. Jake Wynn had the best race at state out of all divisions, not to mention that he beat Graham at the two meets they physically raced head to head this season.
  Here you can see the milesplit comparison.
  http://az.milesplit.com/athletes/compare/879999+1033826

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• jdleslie1 posted at 1:19 pm on Wed, Dec 21, 2011.

  Posts: 1

  Wow. Graham's a good runner and all, but Roa beat him head to head all three times they met and had a better time (albeit different divisions, though same course on same day) at state. And Roa actually is a state champion, whereas Graham finished third. So on what basis is Graham the better choice? That he had a better team around him? Poor Roa, in that case. Tribune fail.

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