"We request NCAA Division I, II and III Cross Country Committees and NCAA President Mark Emmert to take an important step forward for gender equity and inclusion by creating equal race distances for men and women at NCAA Cross Country Championships: 8km for all genders."
Honestly I’d rather have it be 6k for both men and women. Mid-D specialists would be more in the mix, which would be exciting. More sprint finishes. Also easier to all out race two back to back 6ks than 10ks (regionals and nationals), so would incentivize less jogging at regionals.
But yes I agree it should be the same for men and women.
Wrong direction. Both genders need to race 5K in college at all levels.* In U.S. we need to make our 800m and our 1500m athletes feel like part of the team. * The track top 5000m and 10000m athletes shouldn't care. The top 5000m and top 10000m athletes will still win. * There are too many stress fractures now anyway. We don't need any college athletes racing 8k. * The only runners who will complain are the ones who are complaining on here, 6, 7 & 8 runners with slow 400 times.
"I would think the best women 5000m & 10000m runners win 6K XC races. Yes or no?
If U.S. had 3K high school XC, both genders. The best distance runners would still win 3K XC but 800m runners would feel more a part of the team and occasional 400m athletes would participate in XC. If college XC at all levels were 5K, 800m runners would feel like they are a members of the team. Five-thousand metres XC, both genders only can increase the likelihood of U.S. 800m medals without decreasing opportunities for U.S. 5000m & 10000m runners."
Steeple. Shot. Disc. Hurdles. XC. Size of basketball. 3 point line. There are hundreds of differences. Let's do away with men's and women's sports and have one for everyone. College math classes or science classes are not segregated with women having lower standards of admission.
I would love to see what a deep field (nuttycomb, NCAA) men would look like over 6k. It might be absurdly crowded. I know WC did 4k but my memory was much smaller fields. 4 scorers might be interesting also. How many more teams would think they had a chance to build a competive team. If you have 2 low sticks. Hit that transfer portal hard....
And it will never happen but image they added another couple rounds. Something like regionals cut you to 64, another round cuts you to 8 and then we do nationals.
I think the only voices that should matter are those of the athletes and coaches. For me, as a fifty-year-old man, to sign this petition is to try to insert my voice into a matter where I should have no say.
However, I am interested to know if I could read anything or see any results of votes taken by the coaches? I trust that this has been voted on, I would just be interested in learning more about it, what were the major arguments, what were vote tallies, whatever.
While I agree the distances should be the same and 8K is a good option, this is a waste of time. Like the second poster said, this is consistently voted down. It is not going to happen regardless of petitions, etc.