That makes no sense. Most of these college U20 runners are only running in today's meet in order to qualify for Worlds.
If their college coach wouldn't let them run Worlds in February because it would conflict with their college conference indoor track meets, then there would be no point in December for them to try to qualify for Worlds when they had no intention to go.
if someone actually did make worlds, many coaches and athletes would consider that experience preferential to messing with a few weeks of track season.
You're confused. College coaches don't get paid by their schools to give their runners "experience." College coaches get paid to have their runners do well at meets that their school attends, especially conference meets and national meets.
And the cross country world championships, which is normally held in mid February (although this year it is in March) conflicts with the college indoor championship season.
You clearly are struggling to see things from a college coach's perspective.
Since we are talking about U20, these are 1st and 2nd year college runners, where the world xc experience could easily benefit the rest of their college career more than it would take away. International competition can teach a lot. Plus the school gets at least a little exposure by having an athlete at worlds, if they work it right. So no, not confused. Obviously coaches would have a range of opinion on this matter and some would jump at the opportunity to send their athlete and some would never allow it.
The U20 hardly has the elite talent we have. What can we do to encourage our best to run? Without Anastasia Peters of Utah st, Jillian Candelino of Tenn, Sophia Kennedy of Stanford, Emma Stutzman of NAU, Paityn Noe of Ark and others, this will not be our best team. Those four would make the team.
USATF, you need to do better. We have a podium level team - if not a team to compete for 2nd - and you're not sending them. Just disappointed in the USATF.
Do you not understand how this works? USATF has zero to do with who decides to enter.
By January, many college runners aren't allowed by their college coaches to still run cross country, because the coaches need them to run track for their college. After all, that's why the college coaches give out scholarships, so that scholarship runners can run for their college.
And many high school runners have already moved on to track.
There is no point in blaming USATF when they aren't the one making the decision as to who enters.
But USATF decides when to host the race. They could’ve done it in December.
Since we are talking about U20, these are 1st and 2nd year college runners, where the world xc experience could easily benefit the rest of their college career more than it would take away. International competition can teach a lot. Plus the school gets at least a little exposure by having an athlete at worlds, if they work it right. So no, not confused. Obviously coaches would have a range of opinion on this matter and some would jump at the opportunity to send their athlete and some would never allow it.
I agree with this. The college athletes are mostly freshman. If a coach and an athlete think they might use a 5th year of eligibility then why not redshirt and go for it. I think its a better experience for someone like Sanchez, Mathison, Breker, etc., to gain experience racing in a huge meet against athletes from around the world than to run a couple of indoors races. Its not like their absence is going to hurt their team at their conference meet, they aren't going to score as freshman anyways.
Teare looked awesome and in control even in the last km. I expected more from Hocker though.
I think Hocker tops out at 5k. 10k XC is a bit out of his wheelhouse, but he still ran pretty well. Makes sense why he wasn't planning on going to Worlds though, he probably doesn't want to train for an XC race when he could race World Indoors. I'd love to see Teare attempt World Indoors and WXC. It wouldn't be any more racing than a normal college season. Drew Hunter also a decent showing at 9th, maybe he's moving back to the 5k this year?
Since we are talking about U20, these are 1st and 2nd year college runners, where the world xc experience could easily benefit the rest of their college career more than it would take away. International competition can teach a lot.
Plus the school gets at least a little exposure by having an athlete at worlds, if they work it right. So no, not confused.
Wow. You are STILL confused. Runners who are good enough to make a world xc team are good enough to contribute points for their team at their indoor conference championships, which is always a big deal for every college coach.
You are also conveniently ignoring the fact that training for xc until a February/March xc world championships also pushes back by 3 months their transition to track training, which normally starts in December.
You can try to keep pushing your incorrect idea, but college coaches obviously disagree with you, which is why so few of the top U20 college runners are in today's race.