Dear Vin:
Your quote on the front page was from an article where you whines about your athletes having to earn his way to nationals.
Really? You don't know the reasons to have qualifiers? Here are plenty!
1) Equal opportunity. Taking only the top 24 times limits the nationals field to people who get in the right race at the right time and run really fast, probably at Stanford for distance races. Some teams can't afford that or schedule it.
2) Peaking at the end of the year. This way you can't peak for a midseason time-trial, get burned out and useless by late May, and still slide into nationals. On the other hand, good athletes don't have to worry about being their very best early on. They can train through the early season, run good enough times to make regionals, then peak for the last 3 weeks of the year. The people who make the national meet are the ones in the best shape when it counts.
3) Earning your spot. Our sport is not mainly about times, it's about beating people to prove you're better. Times are a convenient way to broadly categorize but they shouuld never be the final call (else we'd just hand Chelanga the 10k medal right now). Everyone with a good enough time should have the chance to go head-to-head to prove who belongs at nats.
4) Earning your double. Lots of people can go time trial a fast 5k one week, then go time trial a fast 10k 3 weeks later. That doesn't mean they are capable of or deserve to double at nationals. To qualify in two events, you should have to prove you can double by qualifying in both events.
Otherwise, it'd be so easy for someone like Jeff See to declare in both the 1500 and the 5k, run the 15 hard, and then jog it in in the 5k. Now if you want to double you have to bring your A game.
Face it Lananna, you're lazy and want your athletes to get an easy pass in to filling up the fields. That goes against the spirit of the sport and of competition. Man up and earn your way in like everyone else. If you're really the best then you shouldn't be afraid to prove it.