The first problem is with the athletes. Why the hell did Jager and Huling declare for the 5k when the steeple was half an hour earlier?
The second problem is with USATF. The initial field was only 18 and more than half were doubling back from the 10k (Rupp, Ritz, Derrick, True), steeple (Jager, Huling) or 1500 (Leer, Lomong, Heath). How did they not expect that at least half these guys would not show up. And they had more than 24 hour notice that Rupp, Ritz, Derrick, Lomong made the team in their other event (and Jager,Huling were locks and Leer said he wasn't running).