Dani Jones - NCAA Division I XC Champ 2018

RancidCupNoodle wrote:

Personally, I think it's kind of sad that it is JUST 6k or JUST 10k. It would be great to see more races.

This is a really good post. Someone start a thread on this!

The sport would be ten times more interesting, for athletes, coaches and maybe even..."fans"...if the season included a whole range of distances. One meet would be 6k, one could be 10k, another could be a 3k free-for-all, and another could be a trail half-marathon!

This would make things less predictable, with different runners/skillsets getting in the mix in different ways. (For example, dominant team over 8k couldn't just show up at a quad meet and do a tempo run, if the weekend's race was a three-mile race over a half-mile loop, with runners eliminated each lap, points for race leaders and other ideas.)

And regionals/nationals could still be over the "classic" distance.

GoldenMiles wrote:

I, for one, was very surprised to see Dani Jones pull that upset today, but I’d heard about her finishing speed, so when I saw her there with a quarter mile to go, I thought she had a shot. I did think that Kelati would’ve made a much more definitive move to drop the pack than she did.

Is a 1500/3000 runner winning NCAA XCs proof that the women should be running 10K and not 6K? I personally find it ridiculous they run so much less than the men. Who do you all think would’ve won had it been 10K?

Same.

If it was 10k they would all train for it and CO would be ahead of most anyhow. Wetmore is strength based and combined with altitude training, they're already set for 8k or 10k.

Dani is a 1500m runner, which makes me wonder something. How many times has a 1500m runner won NCAA Divison 1 XC Championships for men or women? I have a hard time thinking of anyone.

Going back a ways, but Bob Kennedy.

Mary Decker

slaney/tabb wrote:

Mary Decker

Another CU Buff.

Sheila Reid won in 2011

Dani is the Karissa Schweizer of 2018, except she peaked her senior year for XC instead of junior year.

Gbguuygbyuh wrote:

The spread between the strongest women and the weakest women is still too wide.

Pics?

robert678 wrote:

Dani is a 1500m runner, which makes me wonder something. How many times has a 1500m runner won NCAA Divison 1 XC Championships for men or women? I have a hard time thinking of anyone.

Joe Falcon

douglas burke wrote:

Will Kelati's sister Semira Mebrahtu (Born in 1999 27th in World Cross Country Juniors) run for New Mexico Next year? Kelati, Kurgat and Mebrahtu would be a good 1,2, 3 punch.

I would guess yes based on how well Weini has progressed living and training in ABQ.

She would have won by an even larger margin if the race was 8k. I think Chez could have won the 1500 in the years that he won XC if that is what he trained for and she is the same.

Unless you did this for regional or conference meets it wouldn't work. Coaches train their athletes for x distance, they wouldn't come to an invitational where you're running anything that is not the standard distance

Women run the 10,000 on the track. This is about coaching salaries. Title nine should apply.

Personally I think both men and women should run 8k.

EZ10Miler wrote:

Personally I think both men and women should run 8k.

Together?

Women should at least bump up from 6k to 8k towards the end of the season, like how men go up from 8k to 10k at the end. It seems odd that the NCAA has women running only 6ks throughout the season

I thought that in X country one tradition was that everybody from 1500m to marathon runners will participate. So especially with younger (youth and college age) runners a 10k X country would favor the LD runners over the 1500m runners, steeplers etc.

But it is a minor point. 5000m on track is not easier than 10000m and neither is 6k xcountry per se easier than 8k or 10k.

Reduxx wrote:

Dani is the Karissa Schweizer of 2018, except she peaked her senior year for XC instead of junior year.

I would say Dani was a much bigger name going into this (2x NCAA Champ + runner up, 2 x PAC 12 Champ) with a decent shot to win as opposed to no one really picking Schweizer to win in 2017. Honestly Dani had a shot last year, but got sick and held on for 10th or so.