Duke NOT racing full team - forfeits men's and women's races at regionals

Do you think the AD at Duke thinks about Cross Country ???

Duke could have spent 5% of the salary that Coach K. makes; and hired the best Women's Distance coach in the Country !

crabapple wrote:

I don't see a big deal with this. ...

Honestly it shows some pride too because you are telling your athletes that there is a certain baseline level of expectations for the program. If you send the message that it's ok and normal to underperform or go through the motions and the end of every season, maybe you encourage a culture of settling.

I find this laughable.

People wonder why our sport isn't popular? It isn't popular because everything in the sport is optionable. What's important is what a coach, athlete, agent, nonprofit, wants to emphasize.

A major university like DUKE - just decides to forfeit the NCAA Regional? It sends the message that cross country doesn't matter unless we are good.

If I was coaching a team and all of my xc guys and girls were hurt, I'd send a van of sprinters to the meet and get crushed. It's ok to lose. You do your best and move on. That's what these schools should be teaching. The educational component of sports has just gone out the window.

When the going gets tough, you don't just forfeit. Unless you are a Duke.

I think one of these basketball pansies that plays DUke for a big guarantee should just not show up once this year and see what happens. Elon - instead of getting crushed - just walk off the court after the warmups.

It reminds me of the countries that only send people to the Olympics if they would get top 5. Shameful.

4runner wrote:

There are all sorts of reasons why coaches chose not to run a full team including health, academic, and budgetary. In fact, I'm often surprised at the coaches who dutifully drive a van full of 28 minute 8k guys to regionals rather than putting in the extra training and letting the kids recover from a long season.

Until there is some insight into the basis for the decision, it means nothing.

A long season? Without regionals, xc is 2 months or less! Back in my day, a few years ago, we could train and race hard for more than 2 months!

I'm with Rojo.

You put your best 7 together and you go. That's the life lesson, not 'only take the people who can compete up front'

That seems so self evident that there must be something weird going on at Duke - another team-wide case of mono or a players' strike or something.

4runner wrote:

There are all sorts of reasons why coaches chose not to run a full team including health, academic, and budgetary. In fact, I'm often surprised at the coaches who dutifully drive a van full of 28 minute 8k guys to regionals rather than putting in the extra training and letting the kids recover from a long season.

Long season? One of the guys running for Duke at regions has run two races this year. As far as I can tell from their website, their men's varsity has run four times: JMU, Panorama, Pre-Nats, and ACCs.

Regarding health, they have 25 men on their roster. You can't tell me there isn't one additional guy they could bring that is healthy and ready to race.

Even the suggestion of budgetary reasons is laughable. This is Duke, for god's sake. Right now, all over the country, there are a couple hundred division III teams piling into 15-passenger vans to drive to their regional championship meet. You're telling me that Duke can't find a van and get a couple of rooms at the Comfort Inn for an overnight trip to Louisville?

I agree with Rojo's post above. This is the kind of thing that makes people think that college cross-country is a joke.

113 wrote:

I agree with Rojo's post above. This is the kind of thing that makes people think that college cross-country is a joke.

I was talking to a coach of a top team and he thought XC might get wiped out. He thinks drastic changes are needed - like maybe starting at large points from the first week.

This story isn't totally right but here is what I recall it was something like this.

He said his AD didn't get how the team could run, get beat by several teams and then move up in the rankings. The reply was, "Oh we didn't run everyone . "

He said his fear is the ADs will start asking they they are going to the meet at all.

This is a complete joke. There's no way it's a budget issue, given that they sent the men's team to Pre-nats in Indiana, and the Women traveled to Wisco and Boston during the regular season.

The only reason I can think for not sending a full team is that the coaches want to avoid finishing way down in the standings by not even scoring as a team, which is pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

i agree, the whole sport needs re-vamping.

-there are no cross country scholarships

-the races don't count for anything until 1/2 way through "the racing season"

-everyone qualifies for regionals (so now people think you have to send sprinters just to field a team? nonsense)

track and field isn't much better. ever read a track and field press release? can you tell how the team did? every release I see makes it sound like the team had the greatest meet ever. "fifteen top-10 performances!" (yet there were only 13 people enetered in the race, that fact gets omitted)

I can always tell if the soccer team wins or loses.

don't worry the power 5 will professionalize football and basketball and we won't have to worry about our sport at all pretty soon.

The bottom line is money!!

Duke is choosing money or over fielding a healthy competitive team.

They have the studs!! They should be ashamed of themselves for wasting these kids talents - how many High School National Champions do they have!!??

agip wrote:

I'm with Rojo.

You put your best 7 together and you go. That's the life lesson, not 'only take the people who can compete up front'

That seems so self evident that there must be something weird going on at Duke - another team-wide case of mono or a players' strike or something.

I can play both sides of the fence on this one

- while I agree that you should send a team to compete no matter what, maybe she is sending a message to the team that in order to go to these meets you must be able to perform at a certain level. I am not saying ou must be able to finish top 10 but maybe a certain time must be reached on a 8K. I do not know just speculating.

I do know that she was not hired by Duke until Aug 1st, and that she does have a history with Duke previously as she was on the summer training staff the last few years for the XC camp that they run in July. So I am guessing they (Duke) are very happy with her overall. Her previous school (Elon) women's XC team did very well in the regional's and one male runner really thrived under her training and as a senior has a chance to make it to the NCAA's

They probably either had a problem on the team and are disciplining the student athletes by sitting out, have everyone hurt, or are in the midst of a coaching change

whatever- just makes them look bad!

Why did they let Jermyn go and is he coaching anywhere else?

Bring your A Game wrote:

It gets worse: They decided not to run one of the Meiers now so they are down to two on the women's side.

I don't know anything about their process but the product doesn't look good.

They are really struggling. Wesley Frazier is not running well and currently isnt even a shadow of her high school self. Haley Meier won the ACC 1500 in the spring. Which was a nice surprise but other than that, nothing but injuries,sickness etc. Wow, what a bummer

That they're having a bad season is absolutely no excuse to not go out there. My senior year our XC team, usually regionally ranked, had a spectacular fall from grace and ran poorly at our conference meet (after a rough season overall). Did we pack it in after that meet, when we lost to teams at our conference meet that we've never lost to before? No, we kept running, got the worst placement in school history at regionals since they started the regional format, but we beat two schools that beat us at the conference meet in the process. Despite the result, we took some solace in that we didn't quit on it.

Come on. 4 guys and 3 girls.... This is pathetic. Duke coaches should be dismissed. They have enough state champs, FL finalists, and Brooks PR kids to run 15 deep on both sides.

Rosters

women 21

men 25

total 46

total left behind 40!

Wesley Frazier, who I holds the women's high school indoor 5k record, is slower than her high school sister. WOW-- Duke's new recruiting moto--

Come to Duke where we guarantee you will run slower than what you did in high school.

Wesley's record-- 16:18

http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/index.php/records/30-records/506-womens-indoor-high-school-records

From the men's side--

Daniel Moore ran a 14:57 at the Wake Med course in Cary as a senior in high school. I believe he was the first HS boy to run sub 15 on this course. Last weekend he ran 15:25 as a college sophomore on the same course. This was not a tempo effort either.

You go to Duke to get a private education with other rich snobs and not for running.

I am an alum from long ago.

There is something about Duke which is hard to describe. The school is not ideal for a sport like distance running, where distractions have to be kept to a minimum and tremendous effort is required.

Factors:

I think the social aspect is over the top, and creates distractions which don't benefit some students. I do understand its reputation as a work hard play hard school with a fine academic reputation, but again, its social life doesn't serve everyone well.

The academic experience in and of itself is excellent, especially if a student does not shy away from challenging courses. The educational experience is very, very good.

High mileage is necessary. But if you come into fall out of shape after a sedentary internship over the summer, going from 35-40 miles a week to 80 immediately will be a disaster. Lots of dead legged, dispirited races will obtain.

Using running to get into the school is a fine coup, but hardly the right kind of motivation to succeed. Being on scholarship actually makes this situation worse, not better, because the stress and pressure only makes the motivational issues worse.

I could go on...but again, the education is first rate....

They may not run fast but they will be your boss one day. THAT actually matters in this world.