Say it ain't so. Grant Fisher won't do World XC. Nor will Hocker.

Scannell on Grant Fisher - "The other priority for the early season might be that you see him in other events that you haven’t seen him in the past.”

Is he talking about half-marathon here? I cant imagine what other event we haven't seen him in unless he is talking about going down in distance and running some 800s

Hocker I'm fine with if he is planning on going all in on world indoors. I don't see him as being great at 10k XC and I can see why the relay wouldn't be appealing.

Fisher is definitely a bummer though. Would have loved to see him compete, but I can see why they don't want to press early season after the appearant ramifications that grand slam had on the end of his outdoor season

Maybe he's running Houston?

Fisher will not be missed. Young, Wolfe, & Blanks will handle things just fine. The big bummer will be if Kiplimo, Cheptegei and Aregawi don't show.

Yeah there’re few athletes who will do both World Indoors and World XC. You just have to do one. Kessler just posted he’s just back into training after rolling his ankle, so I’d count him out. Hiltz and Nuguse seem more interested in indoors. So the USA 4x2K might be a bit weaker than it could be. So is Kenya (no Wanyonyi), but they should now be favored.

Definitely disappointing, but understandable. They both have an injury history, and they deserve to take a break after the long years they've had. Makes me wonder why World Athletics decided to schedule World XC for early January when it's usually been held in March. The earlier date is an issue for the Kenyans too.

The silver lining is American distance running is deep now. Even without Fisher, I'm optimistic that the US can field a formidable team that can contend for gold.

There is likely little money or incentive for the very top US runners to compete.

XC past college has always been a great opportunity for other Americans to make a USA team.

I usually enjoy watching the Junior races the most to see some of our younger talent stack up against the worlds best. Our seniors already know their place.

I disagree on Hocker. I think he is likely the best American runner at 10k XC. Underestimate the world 5000m champion at your own risk. I don’t think he beats Aregawi or Kiplimo, but I certainly think he could have won USA’s and been the top American at World’s.

Unfortunately, with the USATF U20 race the same day as NXN, our U20 team probably won't be very good this year, because most of the top high school runners will be running NXN, not U20.

How hilly is the Portland site? No way Hocker beats Mantz on a course like Stillwater, Aarhus or even Tallahassee.

That’s not true. 10K is not a good distance for him and never will be. He can smoke Fisher at 1500m but lost to him over 3000m last indoors. If Fisher can close the gap from 1500m to 3000m there’s no way Hocker can keep up in XC. If Hocker has that kind of talent, he would have done far better than finishing 69th at NCAA XC. He’s not the male version of Sifan Hassan.

Good for them. They make decisions that are right for them, not random message board trolls.

If you don’t care about the XC relay, why should Fisher?

None of the current crop of the best U.S. 5/10 runners have ever run World XC and the meet being in Florida doesn’t necessarily provide extra motivation.

Remind me who won the 5000?

Hocker doing world XC never really excited me anyway, but Fisher is definitely disappointing. Still think the US can field a solid squad if most of the other top dogs decide to do it.

Bummer but if Grant does a half, all is forgiven. I didn’t expect Hocker and I think if Strand/Kessler do the 2K, our medal odds stay intact

It's disappointing but with the Worlds in September and these in January, it's a stupidly close time frame.

It was Hocker, but he’s a 1500/5000m runner. Again, he’s not Hassan. If he ran a paced 5000m against the best American 5/10 guys, he would get dropped by at least Fisher, Young and Blanks.

Him running a HM might never happen. If he did run one, he would be training right through it and running something like 61 is not all that exciting.