A Part of Hearst Digital Media rescheduled for March 15, How to Start Running.
On September 22, the Division 1 Board of Directors approved a plan to move all NCAA fall championships to the spring, including men’s and women’s cross country. For Division 1 distance runners, the new schedule means that NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, a winter sport, and the rescheduled NCAA Cross Country Championships will take place within a four-day span of each other—indoor championships are scheduled for March 12 and 13 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and cross-country championships are scheduled for March 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
student-athlete-led rally for diversity on campus.
How will the collegiate cross-country season overlap with the indoor track season amid safety precautions in response to the coronavirus outbreak? We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back freezing climates, race outside in the winter? What will training look like in the fall after the 2020 NCAA indoor and outdoor track championships were already canceled this year?
“I’m thankful we got something [NCAA Cross-Country Championships] on the calendar because I think that puts a lot of people’s minds at ease,” Niggemann told Runner’s World. “For the moment it is very concrete, but the information on coronavirus is changing every day. We do know more about it, but we still need to take it one day at a time, worry about the things that you need to worry about and take care of that day.”
From a logistical point of view, the championship presents a new challenge for the NCAA’s top distance runners. Athletes competing at the indoor championships and the cross-country championships will have one day of rest—March 14—before competing in Stillwater, a three-hour drive from Fayetteville. As the schedule stands, top runners who qualify on the descending order list for the indoor track championships will compete in events typically ranging from the mile to 5,000 meters on Friday and Saturday before competing in the 6K for women and 10K for men at the cross-country championships on Monday.
If that schedule goes off as planned, it will no doubt be a hectic weekend for collegiate cross-country and track and field teams. But after a summer spent jumping into time trials and COVID-adjusted races, BYU All-American Conner Mantz is looking forward to finally putting his fitness to the test against his collegiate rivals.
“It’s very exciting, especially for us at Brigham Young University [the defending NCAA men’s cross-country champions], because we have a lot of guys who’ve been working really hard this summer,” Mantz told Runner’s World. “I’d say this year we have a lot more talent than we’ve had. I’m not sure if we’re going to be as deep this year, but we have a lot of really good athletes who are really excited to race.”
After the NCAA’s announcement, Runner’s World spoke with a few coaches about the implications of the 2021 championship schedule and their approach for what could be another unprecedented season.
Prioritizing as the Season Unfolds
Ed Eyestone, BYU’s head coach, said coaches will need to make a unique choice in strategy, given the logistical challenges of having both championships on the same weekend. For the BYU male distance runners, he said the priority will be to repeat as cross-country team champions.
“The way we will approach it is realize that we’re probably going to have to prioritize as things go,” Eyestone told Runner’s World. “[I will ask], do [we] have a better chance to win a national championship in cross country or a better chance of doing well at the indoor national meet, and then make calls.”
In 2019, the Cougars snapped Northern Arizona’s three-time winning streak by securing the program’s first ever cross-country title, one year after finishing runner-up to the Lumberjacks. This year, he wants his distance runners to have the opportunity to defend that title.
“I think anytime you have a chance to win a championship, you’re going to put the prioritization there because we’re defending champions.”
Depending on the runner’s fitness level and strengths, Eyestone foresees some middle-distance and distance runners competing in both championships—racing in the distance medley relay or the 5,000 meters on Friday to allow more recovery before the 10K cross-country championships. Or he could prioritize indoor track, especially if the runners have a better chance of scoring in middle-distance events.
Eyestone said he would have preferred if the NCAA had scheduled the two championships at least a week apart, so the distance runners could have more recovery between events. While he wasn’t part of the decision-making process, Eyestone said he heard the reasons for putting the events so close together were cost-related and made so student-athletes wouldn’t have to miss as many days of class.
Managing the Overlap With Indoor Track—If Those Championships Happen
For University of New Mexico head coach Joe Franklin, the decisions made around the 2021 championship schedule will be based on eligibility and individual athlete goals. Several of his top runners, including All-Americans Fiona O’Keefe and Charlotte Prouse, don’t have cross-country eligibility left so their focus will be on indoor track. He’s also considering the option of redshirting certain athletes during the indoor track season.
But for athletes like defending NCAA cross-country champion Weini Kelati, the March weekend could be much busier. Kelati is accustomed to the challenge of doubling at championships. In 2019, the senior earned All-American honors in the indoor 5,000 and 3,000 meters and finished fifth in the outdoor 5,000 meters and won the NCAA outdoor 10,000-meter crown—all only days apart.
While no final decisions have been made at this stage for 2021, Franklin predicts Kelati will compete in the 5,000 meters at the indoor championships on Friday night and recover for two days before running the cross-country championships on Monday.
But that’s if the indoor track season goes on as scheduled. “I think that the elephant in the room is if indoor [championships] actually happen, and I think it is highly likely that it doesn’t happen,” Franklin told Runner’s World.
Pointing out the crowds that gather in close proximity within an indoor track facility, in addition to football programs often requiring the use of those facilities for training, Franklin was doubtful that many indoor track complexes at universities could be used for competitions amid safety protocols, travel restrictions, and overlapping seasons.
Franklin added that the priority needs to be placed on bringing revenue-driving sports back in a safe field of play to set a precedent for other programs and rescheduled for March 15 caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. (Several athletic departments have already Courtesy Alissa Niggemann, including men’s track and field and cross country.) So far this fall, some college football programs have returned to play while others are in a delay.
“The emphasis has got to be on playing football and basketball or else at some level our sports world, the way we currently know it, will cease to exist,” Franklin said.
Embracing the Now
After navigating the NCAA indoor and outdoor championship cancellations in March, Mackenzie Wartenberger, head coach of the women’s cross-country team at Wisconsin, is “cautiously optimistic” about the NCAA’s spring championship plans. While Wartenberger feels hopeful seeing football return to play, her main concern is the health, safety, and wellbeing of student-athletes.
“I think this is a great step towards getting back into a competitive mode,” Wartenberger told Runner’s World. “I think we’ve seen that trend towards competition taking root in other sports across the country here over the last couple of weeks, so this is a big hope for me that cross country is going to continue to ride the groundswell … but all of this is sort of conjecture until we know that there’s a system in place that's going to allow us to run these championships in a way that keeps our men and women healthy.”
With the time they have because of delays, Wisconsin runners are embracing community initiatives, including a Couch to 5K Plan, a fundraiser for those affected by the food insecurity caused by COVID-19, and a book club in which they discuss ways they can support racial equality. The team is also looking at new ways to improve on the track—building mileage, listening to their bodies, and ultimately creating a new degree of autonomy in their training.
As Wartenberger pointed out, for the first time ever, college distance runners no longer have the schedule of three championship seasons in one year—a change they’re approaching as an unprecedented opportunity for growth.
“My women have been able to get into the driver’s seat on their training in a way that the structure of the NCAA system really hasn't ever allowed them to,” she said. “They can make choices about what they want in terms of when they want to be pushing and when they want to be recovering, and I think that’s been really powerful.”
Knowing plans can change in an instant amid COVID-adjustments, Wartenberger and her team are focused on the present and addressing each challenge as it comes. Right now, she is making sure the Badgers are in the best shape they can be in September, so the runners can show up fully for the next competitive opportunity.
“What this has taught me and taught my women is that our focus has to be on right now and what we’re capable of doing as a group today,” she said. “Absolutely planning to make sure that Wisconsin has the best showings possible at whatever national championships ultimately end up happening in 2021 will be a bridge that we cross, but right now we’re on a different bridge and one that I really want to focus on crossing as safely and as successfully as possible.”
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Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
