Agreed. If you have seen some of the ridiculous pictures that her current coach has posted with the runner up trophy in his bed and in a seat buckled up next to him on the bus, you can see its for his ego. If it weren't for the points she put up they would've finished 15th. Not much to boast about since the team did very little.
My impression is that Huntington is a fairly strict Christian school. A secondary mission for many of the students (after getting job skills) is to lead a Christian lifestyle. Chapel several times a week seems mandatory.
If one has really strong religious beliefs, running takes a back seat to to these matters.
Addy may be one of these students.
It is not for me, but I have met several people who really like this type of education, including some of our good local high school runners.
I fear I would get kicked out in a week if I did this, but others flourish.
NAIA is far superior to division 3 in athletics. Not even close. Even after they lost a lot of their best schools to D2. Prior to a bunch of the best NAIA schools (shorter, Oklahoma Baptist, Azusa Pacific) going to D2, it was just as competitive as D2.
Also, do yourself a favor and check out the USTFCCCA record book and compare D3 to NAIA.
There have of course been many great athletes compete in both. Brian Clay, Olympic gold medalist competed at APU in NAIA. I can name many great male athletes. D3 I know had a great 400 runner in college, ran 44 something. Every year I compare relays and individual times, primarily for male, and NAIA generally has a faster top 8 times, particularly in relays and sprints. NAIA is no joke, and some of the top D2 schools used to be NAIA, even just a decade ago.
Compared to D1, generally D2, D3, NAIA, and Juco will look pretty uncompetitive. Compared to each other, any of those lesser 4 divisions could have athletes that would win all four of those divisions.
In a post on the Indiana Runner message board, Wiley said the decision was hers and that should be enough. “Finishing 5th at U20 Worlds was an unbelievable experience. I didn’t even run my best in the finals but still ran fast enough to contend for the NCAA national title as a high schooler,” her post said. “Why would I want to leave a coach and support network that helped guide me to a national record and a top 5 World finish?“As many of you know I accomplished that working with Lauren Johnson, who has always been a family friend and great mentor of mine. When I got back from worlds I told Lauren I wanted to continue working with her
Lauren has been removed from her position due to a drug and sex scandal that Wiley was involved in and has spoken out against the victims in, and in doing so acknowledged she was shown sexual texts between the former coach and athletes on the team.
Case closed. So why are the knob gobblers of LRC still debating this 2 days later?
The NAIA seems very lenient about doping. Huntington runner Stutzman tested positive, yet you can't find a thing about it online, as if the NAIA is trying to sweep it under the rug.
"Brian Clay, Olympic gold medalist competed at APU in NAIA."
The former Bruce Jenner was a NAIA Champion, also !!
I didn't know Jenner was. I know Ramone Miller from Dickinson State anchored Bahamas gold medal 4x400 in 2008. BJ Lawrence anchored St. Kitts and Nevis silver or bronze 4x100 in 2011 world championships or relay championships. I'm sure there's TONs more that I don't know about, at every level. It's just silly when people talk down about NAIA, especially the sprinters, but act like D3 is somehow better.
I have talked to several coaches in NAIA and the consensus is that the Johnson's are still coaching her. Hopefully Huntington had fun this year getting second --they will crash and burn without Addy Wiley.