---

epon wrote:

...in looking at many of these schools' schedules, it strikes me how short the college outdoor season in the Northeast can be. It has already been mentioned that the squad limits at the Ivy championships are 36, so many (or even most) of the athletes on these teams will have their last competition on May 1. There is the Ivy meet on May 7 or so for the top 36 on each roster but certainly not all will go on to IC4As or NCAAs...therefore it strikes me that the vast majority of Ivy athletes will be done by May 7 and many as early as May 1. Since most outdoor meets in the Northeast begin the April 1 weekend you are talking about a 4 or 5 week outdoor season. That's not very long to have a great showing, unless you've been getting started through indoors and are ready to go come April. In high school, kids have the luxury of racing themselves into shape with dual meets and a longer outdoor season. These college kids may not have the same luxury. (Although it does seem like the very top athletes at the NCAA level don't race much, but remember we're talking about the Ivy level and those elite athletes have seasons that go until June).

Anyway, these aren't 28 year old, professional runners who have lots of experience and can show up and expect a high quality performance right off the bat. Even college athletes still are learning a lot by competing (I'm not talking about just distance runners, remember, but really all the technical event people as well) so I'm not surprised that teams like Cornell, Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Dartmouth have so many meets on their schedule. They really do have big rosters and seem to be catering not just to a few NCAA-level people on their team but developmental athletes as well.

---