Actually Rupp made every race he intended to run clear from about a week or more out this indoor season. Also made clear for months that he planned to double at NCAA's.
Here's another thought that just hit me. Remember when Fernandez was going to run the 3K at Washington, but then we never saw his name on the entrants. Yet 8 other Ok St guys were entered. Nobody knew for sure if he was actually going to run it until the day of when people saw him there.
I think this kind of ducking is going to hurt fernandez in the long run. Still has footlocker to answer for. Still has NCAA's to answer for, no not the fall, but for all the bad running before the fall. How does a runner who is capable of crushing Luke and Derrick over 8K cross take 8 kilometers at NCAA's just to catch their backs? He was never a contender in that race.
Now skipping NCAA indoors to run a race he has not shot of winning. NCAA's it's win or lose, but world cross is a grey area of success unless gregson, luke or chris beat him.
If he has a failure there I see him coming back and tearing up some fast time trials and low profile races and building up more pressure only to have this same situation going into outdoor NCAA's.
This could be the worst thing for him. Better to face the fire now. It will not get better by avoiding it.