William and Mary is ABYSSMAL

This doesn’t seem all that complex. William and Mary had a winning formula when Dan Stinson was the director. They were an outstanding distance team with a few select individuals competing in other events (mostly throws). They were smart about their coaching hires and brought in solid early career distance coaches (Drenth, Gerard, Gibby). Doing this they were perennial national contenders in XC, typically qualified individuals for NCAA track and were the dominant program in the conference in XC and track.

Somehow they lost the plot and tried to diversify the program. They no longer have great distance coaches and the institutional support is abysmal. It’s a recipe for disaster and it’s a lose lose for the athletes and the institution.

And for the record, I am a former men’s team alum and I feel for the athletes who seem to be in a terrible situation. I especially support the women who stood up for the men’s team when they needed them.

Ha, good 'ol deflection

This post is totally ridiculous. Bashing the girls' team as they have overcome adversity over their college years is pitiful.

During their freshman year, these girls had an unexpected head coaching change, Covid, men's team being cut...These are just a few of many unexpected things that happened during their four years.

Only 2 of the senior distance runners who competed on the 2014 championship team ran during the 2017 coss AND track seasons when these girls were freshman.

Staying healthy is a big part of success. Unfortunately, these runners were not performing to their potential due to injury. Blame the coach, blame the athletes..however you want to spin it, go to it!

Bashing the team is childish and it seems as if someone has an axe to grind.

William & Mary will come back....

mudrun wrote:

This post is totally ridiculous. Bashing the girls' team as they have overcome adversity over their college years is pitiful.

During their freshman year, these girls had an unexpected head coaching change, Covid, men's team being cut...These are just a few of many unexpected things that happened during their four years.

Only 2 of the senior distance runners who competed on the 2014 championship team ran during the 2017 coss AND track seasons when these girls were freshman.

Staying healthy is a big part of success. Unfortunately, these runners were not performing to their potential due to injury. Blame the coach, blame the athletes..however you want to spin it, go to it!

Bashing the team is childish and it seems as if someone has an axe to grind.

William & Mary will come back....

If you read anything beyond the first post, you will see that I am a proud alumni of the school that wants to see the team do well. I put the blame solely on the coaches, not the athletes. The coaches are trash.

No Ace to grind just observing what I’m seeing. Everyone is dealing with covid dude... don’t give me that.

UNLVs distance team is also Abysmal... no Axe to grind, when Harris left the person that took over has not done a good job at all and they have plummeted. He even left her a national champion caliber 800m who hasn’t run close to her freshman PR. Let’s face it some ppl are all in the front and center at these coaches conventions(Jones, etc) but then they can’t actually do their job. Recruit and develop talent.

trintajmpshp wrote:

No Ace to grind just observing what I’m seeing. Everyone is dealing with covid dude... don’t give me that.

UNLVs distance team is also Abysmal... no Axe to grind, when Harris left the person that took over has not done a good job at all and they have plummeted. He even left her a national champion caliber 800m who hasn’t run close to her freshman PR. Let’s face it some ppl are all in the front and center at these coaches conventions(Jones, etc) but then they can’t actually do their job. Recruit and develop talent.

Agreed. Nobody can objectively look at W&M's results and say their coaches are doing a good job, or even a decent job. It's horrendous.

They lost by 100 points in a conference where 53 seconds qualifies you for the final of the 400. There were only 4 steeplechase entrants. Only 4 people could clear opening height of 5'7 in the high jump, and not 1 W&M athlete could clear it. Only 4 could clear opening height of 11 feet in the pole vault. 39 feet scores in the triple jump.

Heacock had to take money away from distance to be more competitive in track in this crappy conference? He can't find walk-on athletes that can clear 5'7 feet in the high jump? They are giving throwers scholarships when 42 meters in hammer would beat everyone else in the league?

They suck