NCAA Divsion 1 XC Nationals to return to ISU in 2011

I would say rotate it between Lawrence, Madison, Terre Haute, Cleveland, Nashville, St. Louis, Memphis, Austin, New Orleans, etc. Keep it out of Oregon, Orlando, warm locations, elevation and major cities. At least 50% of the people at nats are not running the race (family, friends, jv). Nice to make travel easy, other things to do, and hope more can come out and watch. I'm almost 40, would love to go see the meet sometime, but I'm not going to Terre Haute to see it! (FYI I'm from the midwest live in Colorado now) Bring the folks from Terre Haute around to put the race on.

SalukiAlum wrote:

(FYI I'm from the midwest live in Colorado now) Bring the folks from Terre Haute around to put the race on.

I don't think you realize how many people are involved here. I've worked several of these meets, and I'd estimate it to be at least 100--if you include the student-athletes who work.

We may only need 30 of them, you evert think of that!

captainwildcat wrote:

I like the idea of one place for the XC National championships every year. College Baseball does this with Omaha and it works great for them. With XC if the championship is held in the same place from year to year we can compare performances year-to-year and even era to era, like we can do with the HS championships Kinney/footlocker, although that is losing some of its luster now with NXN.

Yes, but baseball fields are pretty much identical relative to the differences in XC courses, so there are some important differences here.

SalukiAlum wrote:

We may only need 30 of them, you evert think of that!

Lighten up, Francis! Why would the key people at ISU want to perform meet management away from their home course? Evert think of that?

The course was in HORRIBLE shape this year at pre nats. the front straight has a sprinkler system? I couldn't tell... the whole course was completely dead and in terrible condition. The footing was terrible. It was basically like running on a bunch of huge uneven weeds the whole time, it wasn't even grass. My teammate went down and hurt his knee from an awkward step due to this too. I was so excited that it was moving away from Terre Haute...

Injuries? wrote:

Is that really the case? That the surface at Gibson has contributed to injures? Your kidding right? As a local highschool runner I can tell you that our team has trained on that course for several years now and I know Indiana State trains on the course as well.

Hell they even shut down teams from training on it this year because it was so dry here in the Midwest and they wanted to preserve the course as much as possible. The entire front strait has a sprinkler system and is watered in the summer - the place has it's own groundskeeper for gosh sakes, you people are crazy... Their has even been talk of putting in a sprinkler system on the entire course. I can assure you that the surface/course does NOT contribute to injures.

college runner wrote:

The course was in HORRIBLE shape this year at pre nats. the front straight has a sprinkler system? I couldn't tell... the whole course was completely dead and in terrible condition. The footing was terrible. It was basically like running on a bunch of huge uneven weeds the whole time, it wasn't even grass. My teammate went down and hurt his knee from an awkward step due to this too.

"Uneven weeds"? That's part of the cross country experience. Running on golf fairways is not real cross country.

You would love the Wisconsin course, then. It really DOES have partial irrigation and the award-winning crew that takes care of the UW-Ridges golf course take care of the new XC facility that is immediately adjacent. The cooler climate also makes the UW course more lush, as does the nature of the soil, which has not been 'moved' or disrupted, having just been farmed for the last century + with no earth movement etc. It is under-appreciated what this means in terms of drainage, footing, etc. The course is made to generally face south so that it can dry up from rain and keep from getting too muddy/mushy, etc. I have not run on it with snow, but if they cleared the course some, it should be fine for racing even in the rare event of a largish snowfall (which they have not had in mid-November in a long time.

I disagree that uneven surface is cross country, especially if the ground is frozen and hard. Twisting ankles is a chance unlucky runners take. I would rather see 30-40 degrees, muddy and lots of hills, that to me is fun xc. Not November on a frozen, uneven, hard course in Indiana (1 year is fine). Thats like saying 0 degrees on Monday night is perfect football weather. To who? The people watching, playing or the ones not there. In college I ran some pretty good golf courses, that were hilly, it was fall/winter so no real upkeep, and you also run off the course through rougher areas. At least golf courses are fairly fan friendly.

Why is nationals on a Monday?

So that you can't show it live on TV during the weekend when someone might watch it. Duh!

And am proud to say it... I figured you people were much smarter than this, I highly overrated your abilities as a group.

The event is on Monday because the NCAA has decided that they don't want to put Cross Country on Saturday because college football and the Championship would compete with eachother. However their is talk of moving the meet to Saturday in 2012, when it comes back to Terre Haute.

Secondly the folks at Indiana State really would like to see the NCAA rotate the meet. You act like they are a bunch of arrogant/greedy people that think they are better than everyone. I remind you this is Indiana State, not Oregon we are talking about. The best case scenerio for them would be to host the event every other year and they are currently working on a purposal do so.

The reason the course was in such bad shape this year is because it was so terribly dry in the midwest, they really couldn't do much about it. They stopped teams from practicing on it and tried to have fewer "gators" on the course. Not sure what else you could have done this year with the weather?

Terre Haute is not a major city and only the 8th largest city in the state of Indiana - population. It's also a very poor city, the 2nd poorest in the state of Indiana. Take that into consideration when speaking negativly of a city that goes above and beyond for the sport that so many of you love so much. They have made turned the NCAA Championship to an entire weekend dedicated to the race. It's more than just a Cross Coutnry race for people in this city. You sorry people come on here and trash the city and talk about how bad of a place it is. For the a city that has the 2nd lowest poverty rate in the state of Indiana and only the 8th largest city in the state it's really offers a lot.

I agree with you. The posts about Terre Haute being so terrible are ridiculous. It is without a doubt the best place for us to host the NCAA XC meet. You babies whine about XC getting attention and then don't want the meet in the only place that gives a shit about it. It helps the economy and the people appreciate it. That city really wants the meet and cares. It is central and not over on one of the coasts so travel is not too difficult. It is cool and sometimes very cold but not unbearable like Iowa or Wisconsin. Get real people. Terre Haute is the best place for the NCAA XC Championships. We need to make this either the permanent site or at least every other year.

I couldn't agree more with "From Terre Haute".

It frustrates me how people complain about having to travel to Terre Haute. That its not a great town. So what? Are you traveling to compete, or to go on vacation... The town of the meet shouldn't make a difference. The point of the journey is to be at NCAA's, not to sight see and be a tourist.

I've worked the Pre-Nats and NCAA's a couple of times before and they are highly organized. There is a lot of preperation and work that goes into this event and they don't half @$$ anything. They bring in as much help as they can. It is true that there are at least 100 volunteers working behind the scenes. They have a committee that works on ways to improve the meet from year to year. And they do make improvements from year to year.

There is a lot of maintenance that goes into the course. All money that is made at the gate of the course, is put back into maintenance. The school doesn't see a penny of that. The course is their pride and joy.

There have been a few comments about the course being rough and having bad footing. They do their best to fill in all holes and prevent bad footing. The footing is even across the course.

The course is excellent for hosting a National cross country meet. It has a big starting line for the 250 runners competing, long straightaways, and wide paths. Which is perfect for races of this capacity. Also, it isn't the easiest course in the world. Its constant rolling hills make it very challenging, strength is required. Its not "Grass Track Nationals" as someone stated earlier. NCAA championships have been won and lost on the 500 meter long uphill in the middle of inner loop one.

I'm not a Terre Haute fan, or ISU fan for that matter. But I think they do a great job of hosting this event and until someone shows they can match the proficiency Indiana State has of putting on the championships, it should stay there. At least, every other year.

From Terre Haute wrote:

The event is on Monday because the NCAA has decided that they don't want to put Cross Country on Saturday because college football and the Championship would compete with eachother. However their is talk of moving the meet to Saturday in 2012, when it comes back to Terre Haute.

The meet has been on Monday since before college football was on TV, but you knew that, right? They have kept the tradition. Note that it does give a day or two more to recover from Regionals, which is important especially for those schools that have to run hard at Regionals (cutting what would be an even bigger advantage for the schools like Oregon, Wisconsin, OSU, etc. who can afford to rest some and to let top guys run briskly but not all out.

I think that the Monday date had people traveling to the meet, then home for Thanksgiving, by car/bus/train.

This a huge blow for Obama.

My two gripes about Indiana State:

1. The footing. Its very uneven, and the grass/weeds are pretty long. I like golf courses better just because the footing is even. Mud and hills would be great though.

2. Hard to get to. My team leaves around 8am Pacific time, and gets there after midnight. Really rough weekend at pre nats with 2 days of travel like that plus the race.

Many teams have already made plans to not attend. Penn State always has a meet that weekend, Oregon will step up efforts, and Wisconsin is so peeved off they cant even host a Regional, they're also hosting a meet that weekend. We will see how into it ISU staff is when they don't have the cash cow that is the Pre-NCAA meet.

I predict a ton of team will attend, but they will NOT be the ones trying for points. Instead, they will just be the teams who want to "race the big boys" and have no travel budget.

Little champs can be done with little over 1 year of advanced planning. When you have only one sport, or only a few teams, you can whip up something quick. The Super Bowl, Worlds Series, T&F Olympic Trials, are quickies as well as any NCAA championships. When you have a neutral site coaches and teams love it. People hate giving an advantage to a competitor.

I like have DI-XC at ISU. It's refreshing to visit the mid-west and meet the real America. The people are unassuming. It's nice not being at a conceited campuses. It's nice going to college town where they don't think they are "all that". Terre Haute isn't demanding on people at all. They don't need to promise to not get offended if DI-XC is held somewhere else. I like Terre Haute.