Galen Rupp has had a good year. In related news, the sun is hot, textbooks are expensive and former NBA player Jayson Williams has some legal issues to attend to.
Ever since Rupp returned from Beijing, finishing 13th in the men’s 10,000m – in the fastest time an American had even run the 10,000m at the Olympic Games, no less – he has led a one-man assault on record books, honors lists, journalistic metaphors and several runners’ psyches. Here now is an attempt, however feeble, to summarize the senior from Portland’s 2009-10 academic year:
Cross Country
? Runs only three events – Pacific-10 Conference Championships, NCAA West Regionals and NCAA Cross Country Championships – and wins them all
? Is named West Region and national athlete of the year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association
? Is named Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year in the Pacific-10 Conference, as well as Pac-10 scholar athlete of the year
? Oh yeah, leads the Oregon men to their second cross country national championship in two years
Indoor Track
? During the indoor season, named Sports Person of the Year by Ducks Illustrated (because hey, why not get some page reads with Rupp on the cover of your magazine?)
? Set American collegiate record in the 3,000m at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games on Feb. 7 in 7:44.69
? Broke the American national, American collegiate and Oregon indoor 5,000m record at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 13, running 13:18.12; USA Track and Field awarded him with Athlete of the Week honors for his performance
? Named USTFCCCA Scholar Athlete of the Year for cross country
? Broke the school record in the mile at the Husky Last-Chance Qualifier, running 3:57.86
? Completed one of the most improbable indoor triples in recent memory, winning the 3,000m and 5,000m at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and also running the anchor leg of the men’s distance medley relay and coming from behind to seal an Oregon win in that event
? Would have finished 10th at the NCAA Indoors if he competed as his own entity
Outdoor Track
? Received a Mountain Pacific Sports Federation All-Academic distinction from indoor season
? Led an Oregon sweep in the men’s 5,000m at the Oregon-UCLA dual meet on April 18 (Oregon won the meet)
? Set a personal best in the 800m (1:50.00) at the Cardinal Invitational on May 2
? Ran the anchor leg of the collegiate-record-setting team in the four-by-mile relay … perhaps you heard
? Won the 10,000m and finished second in a dramatic 1,500m at the Pac-10 Championships at Hayward Field
? Later that week, named to the Pac-10 All-Academic team, one of 34 Oregon runners
? Wins the 5,000m and sets a personal best in the 1,500m (3:39.14) in a second-place finish during the NCAA West Regionals
? With 12 varsity letters, becomes the most decorated athlete in school history after LeeAnn Warren
? He hasn’t even gone to the NCAA meet yet, where he’ll certainly add to this list
This doesn’t include, of course, four total individual NCAA championships, 12 All-American distinctions, and numerous, numerous other awards decorating his career throughout the years. If he’s not the Best Athlete to Wear Any Oregon Apparel in Competition, the conversation probably starts and ends with him, anyway.
You’ll never see a talent like Galen Rupp at Oregon. We’re all going to miss him when he’s gone.
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