I will be the first to say I think having at large teams chosen by a committee on the basis of head-to-head wins, etc. is good and much better than the previous system of each year your regional representation being determined by last year's XC nationals.
However, the way they do at large individuals is crazy to me. They give 7 individual spots in each region. This seems absolutely crazy to me. Here is the breakdown of the finishing place of the last individual qualifier from each region and the number of total runners in the race:
Midwest: 16th of 258
New England: 15th of 330
Atlantic: 20th of 271
Central: 16th of 157
Mideast: 22nd of 282
South/Southeast: 11th of 170
Great Lakes: 16th of 245
West: 20th of 96
This process seems completely out of whack. Of course you cannot make a direct comparison because of the number of teams from each region, but even so taking the 20th place finisher from the West region seems outrageous. This 20th place runner finished behind all 7 Willamette runners. Unless Willamette finishes at a bare minimum in the top 5 in national you should never take that many individuals from the west. There were only 12 complete teams running in the West region compared to most others that had 30+. I guess I am wondering why individual qualifiers are not chosen on the basis of proportional representation.
Any thought??