NCAA Division II West Regionals San Diego, CA

This is, w/out a doubt, the weirdest, wildest twist of events w/a dubious resolution I've ever heard of. If it were me trying to make the best of a bad situation, a redo over 8 km would suffice.

I've been to RIMAC and from the start/finish grass fields, the course crosses the street and goes into the trees. It's like most cross country races where you have to trust that the spectators are runners too and will get the mudder eff out of the effing way, and that the officials keep things in order. It didn't happen this time it seems. In the trees, the course is narrow, the trees are pretty dense, and it's hilly. Whomever the race director is will have to really change some things before the next cross country race at RIMAC.

Chico athletics has posted a recap of the races. It has a good description of what happened for the first running of the men's race.

http://www.chicowildcats.com/news/2008/11/8/MXC_1108082851.aspx

I was at SECs at So Car a few years back when on the last turn before the finish when official failed to direct the runners properly and the 1st 4-5 cut the course short by 10 meters or so. It was ruled that the order of finish would not have made a difference so the results remained unchanged.

I would guess that at the next cross race, RIMAC, will either chalk the course, have a narrow ATV lead with a knowlegeable person directing the driver, or both.

This is amazing considering that about the exact same thing happened at UCSD's Triton Cross Country Invitational in the fall of 2006. All but the first 20 guys cut the course by about 500 meters and it was total chaos at the finish line.

Shame on them. They should have learned their lesson.

I heard that a few years back (mid '90s) that D2 nationals went the wrong way and ran somthing like 9k and not 10k. Any truth to this?

They arrogantly hired their inside candidate over other and in fact better coaches, now they are reaping the "benefits" - I love it.

I've never taken a survey, but I think mishaps usually occur at the 1st XC race of the day. The mishap I saw at the SECs was the 1st race of the day, the men's race, I was at the finish area, and I saw the officials with the flag socializing with old chums. Perhaps they should always have an open race as the 1st race to work out the kinks. I don't know, just a thought. It wouldn't always work though, for instance I was on the lead press truck at the IAAF WC Outdoor marathon once and the driver went down the wrong road 5Km before the end of the race. The photogs went ballistic cursing in a dozen different languages, but the race went o.k. which is all that really matters.

The thing was is that the front runners of the first race got absolutely f***ed over. The race went on for between 5k-6k and most of the people that were in the lead pack ended up surging back up to the front after the turn-around, in essence just draining the f*** out of them.

This race was such a f***ed up experience I can't even explain it. I was one of the runners in the chase pack, and just seeing Scotty Bauhs and Cheseto coming back yelling to go the other way was such a f***ed up feeling. Why they didn't just stop the race right then I don't know, but it was so f***ed up because now you go from being like 8-9th to 100th or so, and you're just running through the trees because the course is only about 2 or 3 people wide at most.

It just sucks because this is a REGIONAL race where people are putting everything on the line, all the training and everything this year for this race to make nationals (at least was my case). And then to have it so royally f***ed up like this is just such a shitty experience. It just didn't seem real when it was happening. Then even near the start of the second race after the big pavement hill there was an old guy just walking on the course getting in people's way. Like no one was there to protect against shit like that. I dont' know what the hell was going on today but looking back on it just seems like a bad dream.

Although I was in the main pack without any shot of going to nationals team or individually, I completely agree that this meet was an absolute joke. After going for almost 4 miles all out then having to stop and get told that we were going to redo the race was a terrible thing that should have been prevented. The rerace was necessary but it took its toll. Lots of runners dropped out or fainted from heat exhaustion. Just a mess today.

Seriously, there needs to be some kind of reprimand for UCSD. In the least, they should be barred from any championship race for 10+ years. Crap like this ruins seasons, and you sure don't have the guys run another 10k...

Poor planning, poor execution, and poor decision making.

Here is some race video. Not complete coverage, especially in the second race since they wouldn't let people on the trails the second time.

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/play/78877-dii-west-regioanls

I was in this race too and it isn't a race that I will soon forget.

Turning and doing my best to dodge runners, trees and spectators was quite the adrenalin rush. I was able to get back into very similar position to where I was when I turned around with in about a minute because The runners at the back of the pack went relatively slowly out of confusion and respect for the front runners. It seemed kind of like the Tour de France where the peloton waits when one of the favorites goes down.

When it was all sorted out runners the race could have finished and the results wouldn't have differed much compared to if there weren't ever a mishap at all. That said, anyone who was remotely close to making nationals would have filed a protest and possibly taken the backdoor to nationals. I understand why the race had to be rerun.

As people have previously mentioned we could have run a 6k or an 8k. In my opinion neither of these options were valid because a 6k would have been much quicker and almost would have required a different skill set than a 10k. An 8k would have been difficult as well because the course was completely set up for a 10k. It would have been hard to teach the runners a new course in 2 hours or whatever.

I also get the impression that the NCAA required us to run a 10k so we did.

In my opinion the people that bit the dust in the second race were those that went out too fast in the second race. The heat and the 3 1/2 miles already in our legs made the second race completely unforgiving. I don't think that the first race, no matter how you ran it, affected the second race differently for different people.

I think that the way things were done were as fair as could be given the situation. I also feel that UCSD did a great job running the meet aside from the one giant glaring error.

There is no way of knowing how much the results would have differed had the race been run without a hitch. I think that for the most part the same people would have qualified to nationals.

f***.

RunningHurts must be the Seatle Pacific guy was cussing up a storm, dropping F-Bombs during the first race. I don't think yelling swear words at the top of your lungs will help you qualify to nationals...talking about losing your composure.

I think that they should take the top 5 teams on the mens side to nationals. To have these guys run 16k i mean western oregon and pomona ran great they both beat #20 nationally ranked UCSD and western oregon was within 25 points of #11 Western Washington I say since UCSD messed up give the top 5 teams in the west a chance of running a correct 10k in slippery rock on the 22nd! So if anyone knows anyone in the NCAA call them and see if we can get them to take the top 5 teams.

I can't imagine being a part of this. In the flotrack vid you can see guys are already struggling. If you're past 5k you're probably not feeling great. And then all you get is two hours and you have to go again. that sucks. what a terrible situation. Not sure what I think the best course of action is, but it really does suck.

Anybody have pics or video of the chaos on the course following the missed turn?

After seeing both races on Sunday I was wondering if the top young lady from chico was related to scotty bauhs by any chance? I thought both of them looked a lot alike and I briefly talked to the girl during the guys race. I was surprised that her personality was so similar to scott's in away. Quite yet knew her stuff.