Lebensraum wrote:
The area was also hit with damaging hail before the meet so maybe there was damage to the trail that was not or could not be fixed by the time the races were supposed to start. and as somebody above said the meet like many races in very early Sept are there pretty much just to meet NCAA practice rules
A bit of hail is not an avalanche!
Matt LoPiccolo used to do this every year at Oneonta, it was a blast.
Track XC meet.
I don't know if Matt is still coaching at Duke.
Norm got the idea from Matt.
tim21bert wrote:
It was definitely the darkness. The trail is thickly covered with overhanging branches and it probably would have been difficult to see by the end. But who schedules a meet to start at 5PM anyway?
My first thought, too. I guess since it was a Friday they wanted to give the visitors more time.
They absolutely made the right call. Since it was getting dark due to lightning delay, they could put on lights of the track and at least get in a race to see athletes in a competitive situation. Far from being snowflakes. Smart coaches and administrators. I bet nobody complained who was at the meet.
Let me promise you...none of us give two sh!ts about this weekend of "racing." It is nothing more than a workout & while they're out there, all of us coaches are back at the finish line joking about just getting 5 kids across the finish line so we can count the meet - often two or three times with multiple dual scores. This allows us to start practice a couple weeks ago & ensures that we don't have to waste more time & resources going to rinky dink local meets with the B squad later in the season or over race out A athletes. In fact we make it clear to our athletes that the most important thing is for them to finish regardless of what else happens barring a medical emergency since we often only have 6 or 7 "racing" anway.
The obvious answer is more money in cross country so they can build a rainy weather retractable roof over the entire outdoor course, or at least strategic portions.
That would be sweet...
Someday there will be cross country courses to rival the monied cozy golf courses. With all the stops and fancy engineering and technology. But no deer or warthogs running out onto the course. Balanced with nature.
OP is not very bright. The most tenacious competitors in athletics will hold various political views. How stupid are you?
You're kidding right?
Yeah running an XC race on a track is soft but how does the term "snowflake" apply here?
Ok here are the facts around what happened:
-The Hurricane Harvey quote was at best taken out of context, at worst inappropriate. That's admittedly not great
-This meet absolutely doesn't matter and everyone realizes that. It's held at this time because of an NCAA rule around starting practice within a certain number of weeks of the first race. NC Central appreciates having this race because it's a low-cost way of counting a meet (required to say they have an xc team)
-Because of above reasoning for the meet, they were quick to move the meet to the track for the reasons listed. Safety was way more important than legitimate racing - this is more reflective of NCAA rules than Duke
-I think the race was supposed to be 4K from the start, unlike what a poster said above. 4K is the minimum distance to qualify for the above rule. Not 100% sure here but it has been 4K in previous years
-The article was written by a writer from goduke.com, not a person specifically associated with the team. These articles often get misconstrued because of that so shouldn't be held against the program
I agree Norm does some questionable things at times (such as running a partial team at regionals) but this one seems reasonable
Al Buehler trail in low light would be a bad idea for an XC race.
Yeah, the path is super wide and mostly flat, but it's all shaded. No way you can see once the sun starts to go down.
what other questionable things has coach ogilvie done?
Ummmm wrote:
duke = soft? wrote:I am stunned by this. I guesss shouldn't be. Remember this is the same team that forfeited at regionals a few years ago.
http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2017/09/duke-cross-country-freshmen-dominate-bull-city-classic-as-mens-and-womens-teams-win-comfortablyThese decisions are usually made by people who are your generation I assume -in their 40s and 50s- Reagan/Bush '88
+1 Lol.
duke = soft? wrote:
I am stunned by this. I guesss shouldn't be. Remember this is the same team that forfeited at regionals a few years ago.
http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2017/09/duke-cross-country-freshmen-dominate-bull-city-classic-as-mens-and-womens-teams-win-comfortably
Oh look, a delicate, pampered snowflake triggered by the idea that a cross country meet had to be moved due to weather and lighting. It's okay cupcake, go cool down in your safe space. The big, scary cross country meet on a track will all be over soon.
elwkfhwejknkwerh wrote:
what other questionable things has coach ogilvie done?
I don't know about Coach Ogilvie, but the head coach at the college I attended, he changed our annually hosted invitational track meets 5km to a cross country course 5km at the last minute due to a variety of questionable reasons. As a result, I lost my best chance to qualify for regionals because that 5km XC course had many hills, narrow paths, slippery roots, and sand. He called me a snowflake for complaining.
Ummmm wrote:
These decisions are usually made by people who are your generation I assume -in their 40s and 50s- Reagan/Bush '88
More like Dukakis/Bentsen
lease wrote:
not objective wrote:I think there's some NCAA rule about having an early season meet in order to practice early.
Ding-ding-ding! You have to have an early "meet," to get the early starting date for your first practice. Doubtless Wake and NCCentral, their opponents, were primarily using this race for the same purpose.
It's still a complete joke, ridiculous NCAA regulations only add to the embarrassment
malmo wrote:
Is this the Onion?
Haha, true. To their defense though, light might have played a factor since it was so late in the evening?
Maybe it was ... wrote:
Not hit by hail ... I live in Durham ..zero hail
Do yo realize that hail doesn't necessarily hit in a wide region?
GWT wrote:
malmo wrote:Is this the Onion?
Haha, true. To their defense though, light might have played a factor since it was so late in the evening?
So Dookies don't run after dark?