ANALYSIS: NCAA D1 cross country season approved for late January with championships March 15th...
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| James Mwaura of Gonzaga competes in the 2019 NCAA cross country championships (Paul Merca photo) |
On Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council approved a package of proposals to move the 2020 fall championships to the spring of 2021. The recommendations now go to the Division I Board of Directors for approval.
“While no one wanted to see fall championships impacted by the pandemic, the Competition Oversight Committee put a thoughtful proposal in front of the Council which was resoundingly endorsed. We believe we have an appropriate and considerate plan to move fall championship events to the spring, and I look forward to presenting this plan to the Board of Directors next week,” said Council chair M. Grace Calhoun, athletics director at Pennsylvania. “The plan gives maximum opportunities to fall student-athletes to participate in NCAA championships, while preserving access to conferences through automatic qualifications.”
The Division I men’s and women’s championships are scheduled for Monday, March 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, hosted by Oklahoma State University. However, there is some concern in the membership about conducting cross country, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field in the spring term.
As it stands, the NCAA indoor championships will be contested from Friday March 12th to Saturday March 13th in Fayetteville, Arkansas, which could make things challenging for teams that have athletes qualified for both the indoor and cross country championships.
Most teams will likely fly into either Oklahoma City, Tulsa, or Kansas City, with a few flying into Fayetteville, then flying out to one of the three cities named, and driving to Stillwater for the cross country championships.
From a flying and driving standpoint, Tulsa appears to be the best option, followed by Oklahoma City, then Kansas City.
According to the NCAA release, the regular season competition period is between January 30th and March 6th, with the selection date for the national championships on March 7th.
Under the fall 2020 schedule that was scuttled by the COVID-19 pandemic, Seattle University was supposed to host the Western Athletic Conference championship; Saint Mary's University in Concord, California the West Coast Conference; the University of Utah the Pac-12s in Salt Lake City; and Portland State the Big Sky championships.
The University of Washington was scheduled to host the NCAA West Regional meet on November 13th. At this point, it is not known whether or not any of the schools named would host their conference or regional championship meets, or for that matter, if any of the other schools that were designated as regional hosts around the country, would continue to do so.
One of the challenges of contesting both the cross country championships and the indoor championships on essentially the same weekend is how much teams will prioritize indoor track over cross country and vice versa.
For teams like Gonzaga, and the University of Portland, which are essentially a distance-based program with no sprinters, jumpers or throwers on their teams, my observation is that it's an easy call to go all in on cross country. In the case of both the University of Oregon and the University of Washington, some hard decisions would have to be made by their coaching staffs on what to prioritize.
The other elephant in the room is of course, football. Two of the biggest indoor track and field venues in the Northwest, the Dempsey Indoor at the University of Washington, and the Kibbie Dome at the University of Idaho, would be needed by both schools for practice, and in the case of the Idaho Vandals, for games as well.
If the Pac-12 goes to an eight-game season beginning in late October with a goal of getting a team into the College Football Playoffs in late December-early January and join the other Power 5 schools, that would potentially open up the Dempsey for indoor track.
Then again, if the current restrictions on indoor activities and social distancing are still in place, the indoor track season as we know it in the Pacific Northwest, could be rendered moot.
For what it's worth, the Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeast Conference are going to contest a cross country season this fall, with their conference championships scheduled on either October 30 or 31st.
As they say in the business, stay tuned...
MARTA PEN FREITAS RACES IN EUROPE...
After her indoor season, which finished with a season best 4:06.94 in the 1500 on February 28th in Boston, she went home to her native Portugal for a mini-vacation before planning to return to Seattle to prepare for the outdoor season under coach Danny Mackey.
It didn't turn out that way.
Once the COVID-19 pandemic became a global situation, she was not able to travel back to the US and train with the Beasts, and was stuck in Portugal.
Pen Freitas, a 2016 Portuguese Olympian and 2017 world championships competitor, trained in Portugal and won their national club championship meet on August 15th in the 3000 meters, running 9:11.28.
She raced three times in the 1500, winning in Lisbon on August 1st in 4:15.57, took eighth in Göteborg, Sweden, running 4:16.95 on August 29th, and ran a season best 4:06.91 on September 6th in Heusden, Belgiun, where she was third.
On Tuesday the 15th, the Mississippi State alum and former NCAA 1500 meter champ dropped down in distance in Zagreb, Croatia, running a season best 2:03.02 for 800 meters, taking third in her second fastest time ever.
Here's a link to her World Athletics page.
NOTE: The NCAA and World Athletics contributed to this report.
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