2011 Div 1 Cross Country Championships

Get ready to run on a wet course -- I taught for a few years at Oregon State and once mid October hit it started raining 2 days out of three and almost 3 of 4 by later November.

Have they even held Regionals there? If not, that is a big jump. What course would they use; there have been comments that the Dillinger course this year on Pre's Trail does not have enough room for a big crowd.

Oregon is hosting the race, but they are going to host it in Portland.

Only Oregon could get bid and get awarded the biggest race of the sport without knowing where it will even be. Our sport is a joke.

This is only trumped by Louisville hosting the year after on their junk course!

haha. i thought you were trying to say the UO was given the title for winning in 2011

Local message boards are also saying Oregon will be the host and it will be at Portland Meadows the Monday before Thanksgiving. Some info on the horse track. Every year Nike holds the high school Team Nationals at this site. They allow spectators on the course and also have enclosed grand stand seating which has close circuit tv at nearly every seat. (this was set up for horses). The potential for a course is limited by the track size so expect about 5 loops for the 10k. The Team Nationals has added special obstacles to the course. A series of roller coaster humps, hay bales, and lots of mud. (The mud was actually not by Nike). As a venue for spectators, it could not be better. In the stands, the entire race is fully viewable. One would bet that Nike will pump a lot of money into facility prep and will make the event very special. Again, many people are anti Oregon but you could make a sure bet they will do a spectacular job.

This seems to be the lead location. Unless they make a lot of changes to the course I am going to be pissed. It is a simple course that allows for the best "mud-running" team to win. It's more of an xc course than we've had in the passed, but still, a few man made "bumps" hardly makes it a neat course. Like you have mentioned though, I do hope that Nike steps things up and provides a sweet event.

I just hope they aren't out there hosing down the entire course like they did for NTN's. It is wet enough here that time of the year.

I seem to recall that barriers are forbidden on the course (no hay bales, etc. Artificial courses will cause problems because making it muddy will aid some runners/teams etc., and there is the possibility of favoritism in how the construction is done. With the current setup, everyone knows what a course will generally be like and they all have the weather factor coming in.

People said that the new Wisconsin course is fairly flat/not hilly, yet there is a 90 foot climb from around the first km or so to before the second km, with a quick drop back almost half of that. Is there going to be a 90 foot climb in Portland?

hey, what's wrong with the Dillinger course!

stick em up wrote:

hey, what's wrong with the Dillinger course!

I do not know the course at all, but people were saying that it is hard to run a medium sized meet because the course is not wide enough, etc. Regionals and NCAAs have strictures on widths, length before a real first turn, etc.

Pre's Trail would be better since the horse track is being sold and converted to a big box store.

What?

They've been saying that for years, yet no sale, no box stores.

Won't UP claim territorial infringement if UO holds the race in Portland ?

Rumor has it that Portland will be a sort of co-host.