Men's D1 XC Nationals may get moved from 10k to 8k

Always thought the 10 k was to long ( and boring ) of a race . Throw in the usually crappy weather conditions and you have a real slug fest . Plus, training increases prior to these events. Some teams reaching 100 mpw . A lot of training for a collegiate

Men's and women's should both be 8k and D1, D2, D3 should all be the same. While at it, put them all on the same weekend and the same site and create a great carnival like atmosphere for our sport. Then you could really compare D1 vs D2 vs D3 too. HS does it (multiple divsions at 1 site on 1 day) why can't college?

Next thing you know they'll limit it to 3K.

Nothing wrong with making the postseason a bit tougher than the preseason.

Yay!!

And women should run 8k also.

Sorry to hear your administration didn’t send you to ustfccca convention this year. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be asking these questions.

dr no wrote:

Plus, training increases prior to these events. Some teams reaching 100 mpw . A lot of training for a collegiate

We wouldn't want distance runners training for distance events would we?

And now top high school milers just became more valuable to college coaches. This is a huge advantage for Washington, Oregon, Ole Miss, Texas and other power fives that focus on the mid distances.

Walk on opportunities at power of 5 schools for 9:15 2 milers just became harder to come by.

Developmental 10k guys are going to have fewer opportunities to go to flagship state schools. Small conference XC schools that excelled at the NCAA XC championships just got crushed.

Yeah and they should lower the men's steeple, hurdles and lighten the throwing implements too while they're at it! Equality for all, to heck with common sense!

What a crock of crap, what's wrong with our society? All of a sudden we can't hack running 10k for xc?

In the real world of running you don't run the same distance all season either, who cares. It's the same thing, be a better coach and prepare your people for the post-season correctly.

And good luck fielding high quality women's xc teams in D1, D2, D3 and NAIA racing 8k. Most women's teams have a high percentage of MD runners filling in the scoring already. The 6k distance allows for quality teams and racing with most of the women's rosters at the college level. How is adding 25% more distance and more training / injury risk somehow going to magically add more depth to their rosters and have even the same quality of races that already exist at the college level?

If it's no broke then don't fix it. Leave track events to track and xc to xc.

Itzzzclear wrote:

They should move it to 8K. Why the h*ll would you race 8ks all year and then make the regional and national meets 10k? That's just stupid, 8K is a great distance and it should lineup. Though I do agree with moving the women up to 8K and having the race distance be uniform across genders.

Because those last 2 ks are by far the most taxing. Avoiding those in the regular season helps you not burn out.

I think they should keep the 10k. There’s something cool about having that longer, grueling race in college. I think a lot of the reasons putting forward to change it are completely arbitrary. The only honest reason I hear is something like “8k is easier”. Well, yeah, and that’s exactly why we shouldn’t change it. We got 1500m and 3000m and 5000m races in track, and tough, ugly weather, somewhat hilly, wet, difficult 10000m races to end XC.

8k is far enough if the course is tough. Just ask Ingbristian about Aarhus. While you're at it ask any of the Americans that competed there. The challenge of the course is what makes XC special. Start developing courses where athletes go f@#$k that was tough as that is what Aarhus showed us. Just a thought.

I ran the 10K at Aarhus. My legs and hamstrings were so beat up I couldn't run for a week after it. Tough courses are fun, but I wouldn't recommend putting them in the middle of the season. They should keep it at 10K though.

Serious question: Why do we care about distance in XC so much?

What's really the difference between an 8k course with nasty hills and a pancake of a 10k? Just make a course that is exciting to watch and a challenge to run, if it's 8.7k or 7.6k who cares? XC times are already course specific anyway. Track is where you care about PRs and comparing times across races, not XC. Decide the course at the start of the season so everyone knows the distance and total amount of hills, then it's the job of the coaches and athletes to be ready for that. It can change every year to keep things interesting for the fans ("team A ran away with the title last year, but lets see how they handle the extra 200ft. of hills on this year's course").

Agree and have the same distance for men and women. What I liked about coaching an athlete that went to world XC as you had to really think how to best prepare your athlete for the event. I mean 340m of climbing over 10.2k was crazy. I am satisfied that she was prepared.

I got some ideas wrote:

8k for both men and women makes sense. Although I think NCAA D1 should add a 15k road national championship in the spring. Then do away with the 5k and 10k on the track. This would make all the other track participants happy to not have to wait around for those long races. Who wants to run in circles 25 times anyway. Also a 15k would help to develop thoners of the future by promoting more mileage and long tempos.

I like this but you have to at least keep the 5k on the track.

No need for any of these races to be longer than 3km.

What a joke. First the IAAF, now the NCAA.

Bonkers wrote:

I like the proposal, for the following reasons:

1. I think it'll make the regular season a bit more exciting, with the potential for more quality races from the top teams now that the specter of running 2 10k's in 9-10 days at the end of the season isn't looming.

2. It'll allow a few more exciting mid-distance athletes to compete and factor into individual and team races.

3. In general I just think a xc 8k is a more exciting event than a xc 10k.

Look, the easy solution to #1 of the regional problem - which I agree is a problem, the race is stupid - is to put a week between regionals and nationals. Also I'd make regionals an 8k.

2. False. The idea that it allows a "wider range of people" to be competitive is a joke. We tried that with the short course xc at worlds. It didn't save the sport. The reality is if you are a 1500 type who isn't good at 5k you aren't going to be good at 8k or 10k.

3. 8k might be more exciting only because the guys won't jog the start anymore. People may actually get out to get in position.

I just don't like softening of American society. All of that being said, I'd contemplate support it if we move the women up to 8k.

Seems like the consistency could be changed just as easily by having 10k be the distance during the regular season. Just rule that at-large points only count at meets of 10k, problem fixed.

from a collegiate coach wrote:

I am currently a collegiate coach and I wholeheartedly endorse this change. The reason is quite simple. Until the 1990's there were always competitions during the regular season at 10K, so athletes got a taste of that distance. Then the regular season 10K's dried up. So if we are going to race over 8k all regular season it doesn't make sense to me to then suddenly change at the end of the season to 10k's. This is would the same as collegiate basketball playing four quarters all season long, then changing to 5 quarters during the NCAA tournament. So I'm for this but also for the women to move to 8000. It is time for both genders to race the same.

from a collegiate coach wrote:

I am currently a collegiate coach and I wholeheartedly endorse this change. The reason is quite simple. Until the 1990's there were always competitions during the regular season at 10K, so athletes got a taste of that distance. Then the regular season 10K's dried up. So if we are going to race over 8k all regular season it doesn't make sense to me to then suddenly change at the end of the season to 10k's. This is would the same as collegiate basketball playing four quarters all season long, then changing to 5 quarters during the NCAA tournament. So I'm for this but also for the women to move to 8000. It is time for both genders to race the same.

Moving the championship distance down from 10k is simply a continuation of the softening that has occurred in XC over the years. My use of the word softening may sound critical but that's not really the point I am making. The main point is that somewhere along the line coaches decided they wanted XC to be more like track on grass... this is simply a continuation of that for the men. I don't feel this should have been done in the first place but it is what it is... things change. The 'for better or worse' element of change depends on perspective.

I'd be surprised if they move women to 8k because clearly that is actually the opposite of softening XC for women. It will certainly make it harder for many of the mid-distance athletes to have an impact in XC. I'd guess that many coaches will adjust by just holding the injury prone athletes out of XC competition. Those schools who are able to attract large numbers without the need to spend major scholarship $$s will still be able to excel in both XC and track... it's the other schools that will suffer here.