FastTuohy wrote:
Each team declares a block of athletes who then are the only ones eligible to run in the regional and national races. But the team can only run 7 of them in each race, but not necessarily he same 7. Some teams have declared as many as 14 I think.
Thanks for the response. I guess at one point I heard that but have forgotten about it. It’s sort of the same in track when a relay team in the prelims can be totally different than the one in the finals. Good and deep teams have the luxury to do that.
A funny story, but sort of sad for the athletes, took place in Ohio a few years ago for a high school. In HS xc in Ohio, there is a district meet, a regional meet, and then the state meet. From the district there is a set number of teams that make it out to the regional meet depending on the size of the district and individuals that may have qualified but the team didn’t. The same goes for regional to state. Centerville high school traditionally has one of the top girls teams in the state. The coach had a history of running his B team in the district and then the top runners in regional and state. They almost always have the talent to do that and easily qualify. A few years ago, that B team didn’t qualify to regional and all of the A team runners seasons were over. They likely would have been state champions that season. The coach screwed his runners over. The B girls felt awful for not qualifying and the A girls felt awful because their season was over. A bad situation all the way around.
I’m wondering if anything like the above situation has occurred at the collegiate level? A coach is overconfident in his team’s chances and then they end up not qualifying to the national meet.