Denard 9th in 60 meter dash? Hogwash!
In all seriousness, what he's doing as a freshmen and a late addition to the track team is impressive. He was 9th out of 40+ participants. Results can be found here.
http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/012910stats/
Any track gurus here? A couple of professional and "unattached" runners participated in the event including Adam Harris, who was a senior at Michigan last year. (Harris ended up clocking the best time.) Is this typical for invitationals? Do the times at these events count towards NCAA qualifying times?
Also, Kentucky has some speed.
EDIT: Notes of interest. The finals were run in two heats, based on their prelim times. Denard "won" heat 2. Everyone in heat 1, except for a false start DQ, were faster than Denard. That's some consistency.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:59 PM ^
Denard Robinson ='s fast
That is all.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:08 PM ^
thats pretty crazy. I hope he keeps running track as long as it doesnt interfere with football of course. Sophmore year if he keeps at it he would be number one at this meet. I was looking at the 400 dash its what I ran in high school and I would have finished 31st lol.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^
This is not a great time for Denard, but as a Freshman he's doing very well. Yes, it's common for guys to run unattached at these events. Yes, this counts toward NCAA qualifying.
Distik is right, if he keeps this up he could be a national contender in the sprints.
EDIT: Also, I noticed that Je'Ron Stokes ran the 60 hurdles. Not a great time, but also not bad at all for a freshman, especially for hurdles.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:24 PM ^
was running track.
Hopefully that DNF in the finals wasn't due to injury.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:20 PM ^
I'm surprised they have Je'Ron Stokes doing hurdles. That seems a little risky.
Edit: Beat me to it.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^
not really, hurdling events arent all that dangerous, and it would probably be just as likely that he would get hurt doing hurdles as denard would pull something doing sprints. i would think it would benefit his football skills with the combination of jumping and sprinting. its not too uncommon for WR's to do this event either, Zion Babb was a hurdler before he left the team
January 31st, 2010 at 11:20 PM ^
Hurdlers do NOT jump. They simply bring their lead leg up higher while striding to get over a hurdle and then continue with their normal sprinting stride. If you watch a race you see that the best hurdlers keep their body at the same height/level while going over a hurdle as they do while they are in their normal stride
January 31st, 2010 at 9:38 PM ^
Stokes has been on the track roster for a while, always listed as a hurdler. He hurdled in high school. Yes, this could be very good for a WR to work on sprinting, jumping and flexibility.
January 31st, 2010 at 9:42 PM ^
because he gave everyone else a 1 second head start to make it fair.
February 1st, 2010 at 8:52 AM ^
And he was running backwards... on his hands.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:23 AM ^
While under the impression it was a 40 yard dash...
January 31st, 2010 at 9:49 PM ^
who sees a Shaq vs drob in our future?
January 31st, 2010 at 9:51 PM ^
and only appeared to be ninth after lapping the competition 8 times.
January 31st, 2010 at 10:45 PM ^
The problem with running the 60m dash is that if you have a sub-par start, you don't have enough time to make that up during the race. If they have some outdoor meets, and is able to run the 100m dash, I expect some better results consistently.
January 31st, 2010 at 10:50 PM ^
I was hoping somebody would get to this. A bad start in the 60m will kill you every time; that's why so many false start the event.
January 31st, 2010 at 10:59 PM ^
...for having the dedication (and academic discipline) to run track as well as participate in football, I don't think we are going to see this positively effect his football performance. I'm pretty sure that Barwis would be putting Denard through a tougher off-season workout than he's getting from the sprint unit on the track team. Maybe it has changed, but when I ran, the sprinters seemed to spend most of practice stretching... And hitting on the trainers.
January 31st, 2010 at 11:44 PM ^
Wow, take it easy. While we may deify him already, he's still a freshman in college. There's nothing wrong with stretching and hitting on trainers. Let the guy be a freshman in college. I'm quite sure he'll get his football work in too.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:13 AM ^
I'm pretty Barwis would devour his soul if it was getting in the way of football workouts. Same goes for RR, he's not going to let the backup/possible starting QB and WR, and a starting DB run track if it is detrimental to football. They're not dumb and they know what they're doing.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:19 AM ^
...really so offensive? Robinson is an amazing athlete and if he wants to run track he should - he's certainly good enough to earn his scholarship. My comment was directed at those in the previous Denard/track thread who seemed to hold that a season of indoor would improve him as a football player. It won't. The guy is already faster than just about anyone he'll come up against on the football field.
What Robinson needs to excel on the football field (and I assume that this is what most folks on this site care about since I've yet to see 108,000 people at a Michigan track meet) is more time with the coaching staff, in the film room, and with team leadership... All things that won't happen while he's in the track building.
I don't expect him to do that just for my benefit, but after watching us suffer through two consecutive seasons of inexperience at quarterback, I'm still going to wish that he would.
February 1st, 2010 at 1:58 AM ^
1. The coaches wouldn't let Denard, Woolfolk, Stokes and anyone I'm forgetting run track if it interfered with football. They are on a football scholarship not a track scholarship. They're main focus was/is/will be football.
2. They can't talk to anybody but the S&C staff right now anyways. The 7 on 7's and things like that are player organized.
Don't you read the Freep? They have a bang-up, completely unbiased piece explaining the rules and what not. Just brilliant journalism.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:26 AM ^
I'd be willing to guess that the sprinters on whatever team you ran for didn't do a lot of winning.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:16 AM ^
Pretty nice showing. As others have noted, the 60m is basically all starting time with a little bit of kick. In that way, it is like the 40-yard dash, since a good start can be the whole difference between a dynamite time and a pedestrian finish.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:32 AM ^
I saw the video. He stopped during the race to fix his shoe.
February 1st, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^
I was gonna say he tripped on a shoelace...
February 1st, 2010 at 7:36 AM ^
C'mon, people, know your history. There is a long, long tradition of UM football players running track at UM—and winning championships in many cases—going all the way back to 1902, when Neil Snow won the B10 championship in the high jump. Since that time, football players Willis Ward (AA, B10 champ), Bennie McRae (AA, B10 champ), Butch Woolfolk (AA, B10 champ), Harlan Huckleby (AA, B10 champ), Tyrone Wheatley (AA, B10 champ), Thomas Wilcher (NCAA, AA, B10 champ), Rob Lytle, Rodney Feaster, Desmond Howard, Braylon Edwards, and Troy Woolfolk have competed for the UM track team.
If these guys had enough time for both track and football, so do Denard and Stokes and anybody else who plays for RR. The number of football players and coaches who showed up for Denard's first race against OSU is testament to the support that the football program has for guys who run track.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:41 PM ^
I had a hard time seeing Denard run because I was on the infield watching shot. I did see him in the lobby area before he ran and I pointed him out to a friend of mine. Her response, "He's kind of short to play quarterback isn't he?"
February 1st, 2010 at 8:33 PM ^
he was racing suckeyes, clearly demonstrating an understanding a hatred for all things suckeyes..Go Blue!