PIAA Hershey course long AGAIN

it's a race wrote:

PIAA 3.2 wrote:

“Make their marks in history by setting HS course records. LOL”. (Says people who had no chance of ever setting one.)

Says anyone with any sense of perspective. Jesus made a mark on history. Steve Jobs made a mark on history. People who run fast times at high school state meets have an accomplishment to be proud of, but to call it "making a mark on history" is the most overly dramatic thing I've heard in a long time (and I read most of Greg's threads, just to put that in context).

I agree, but alas, even Jesus and Steve Jobs are but flashes in the pan that we call the universe. Sometimes it's okay to celebrate the little things, even if they mean nothing to most.

As someone who ran at the foundation meet on this course a week ago, I can 100% verify that the course was long. My friends who ran with their GPS watches on said that their watches read the course as somewhere between 3.22 and 3.25 miles. While that isn't a lot more than a 5k, it's definitely enough to negatively impact the results. Since the foundation meet and the PIAA state meet are both bigger and more prestigious meets, college coaches sometimes visit to watch races and scout out potential recruits. A longer course means a slower time, so college coaches might be deterred from reaching out to top-caliber athletes because of a slower race result. Also, this course is absolutely brutal enough as it is. It's the definition of rolling hills and it hurts. To make matters worse, the results from the foundation/PIAA state meets will go into online databases like milesplit or athletic.net as a 5k even though it's closer to 5.2k. That is unfair to athletes who tried their best to run well on a brutal course, particularly if they want to run in college one day.

GPS is not sufficiently accurate to call the course long on this basis. This has been discussed repeatedly.

What college coach bases decisions on XC times outside of the context of the course on which they were run?

Course was long, but as a former D1 student-athlete and D1 coach these times do nothing to impact recruiting, so you can relax a bit. I never cared if a girl ran 17;20 and placed 10th but it would turn heads if she ran 18:05 but won the whole meet.

We look at track TIMES and XC PERFORMANCES for recruiting, not time in XC. I want winners.

Let me be another voice here and answer this question......not one college coach bases a decision on xc times outside of the context of the course they were run on. In fact, most college coaches laugh at individuals who list their PR for the 5k from cross country.

GPS reading of 3.2-3.25 mi is normal for a 5km course. Sounds like the course was accurate to me.

there's no question that the course is long. And I agree with most that place is more important than time, although it's still understandably frustrating. The bigger question is how is the PIAA unable to do what high schools around the country do and actually measure the course and make it 5K. It's just odd for a state championship meet to be wrong. As someone said earlier, they would never have a football field be 105 yards.

All DI coaches recruiting in PA know the following -

Red, White, and Blue was 3 miles

Lehigh was a 5K

PIAA was 3.2 miles

Carlisle was 5K

etc. we know the courses.

The only weird thing about this whole story is that PA has ALREADY (? Oct 2nd) had their state meet.

When is their track championship? St Patricks Day? Easter Week?

PA hasn’t, not sure where you’re getting that.

From the OP and the general gist of the thread, and posts such as this below, sorry of I misinterpreted. A casual skim of the thread indicated to this non PA person that the meet had occurred.

Ill tell ya wrote:

It’s already a slow course. Most run their XC prs at districts in PA anyway. Especially if you get to run in the big boy district 1 at Lehigh. States is about medals and team titles. Times don’t matter.

Brian Dicola beat Patrick Anderson’s state meet record today. What is most amazing is I believe he did it by running .1 miles more than Anderson did in 2019. The course is apparently longer than it was is 2019.

Doesn't matter. Make it whatever distance you want -- NA is going to crush.

Amazing program.

"Rolling hills and it hurts' sounds exactly what cross country was supposed to be. Favors endurance types as does a longer course. Most cross country courses now seem to favor "speed" types w wee bit.

This article confirms the course is 3.2 miles on purpose, tradition at Hershey course -

Kiser, who admits she prefers to run in cooler weather, finished fifth at districts in 18:35.40. She ran 18.52.80 at states, but the course is .1 mile longer.

ydr.com

PIAA cross country: No titles, but local runners bring home medals, team accolades

@ydrcom

Chambersburg's Camryn Kiser came the closest to a medal among GameTimePA runners.

Link:www.ydr.com/story/sports/high-school/2...

Except the OP just gave you a specific current example where times do matter.