Wesleyan's not exactly the NOP, and its women runners probably weren't as thin as Salazar wanted his NOP women elites to aim for. Remember, typical collegians, including college runners at a lowkey liberal arts college with no particular emphasis on athletics, are more influenced by general cultural trends (overweight) than by elite runner trends (very low BMI).
If I were coach, I might have been tempted to call a team huddle and say, "Ladies, you know, if you're interested in running a little faster and winning a few more meets, you might consider losing 5 lbs. Talk to each other. Think about out it."
Then I would have walked away, and let the women runners decide. There's no pressure in this job; I won't get fired if my athletes don't qualify for Nationals.
Losing 5 lbs doesn't equate with eating disorder or missed periods. It equates with skipping dessert and maybe a few mid-day snacks or lattes.
It would also likely make the runners faster and less injury prone. I don't know why they reported so many injuries, but in general very little is known about causes of injury.
I'm guessing an average height/weight of the Wesleyan women runners might have been 5' 6" and
130-135 lbs. This makes them thin but nowhere near elite women runners or Salazar's targets. The U.S. women who recently ran in the Marathon Trials weighed, on average, about 15 to 20 pounds less than this.
It's also a weight where a 5 to 10 lb weight loss would have been unlikely to cause problems.