This thread is off. There are three models for distance running. Bring in high school kids and hope they develop, bring in new internationals and hope they acclimate, or a hybrid of these two. Osu, NAU and Arkansas are examples. If you want to compete you either need to bring the internationals or field a team of 25 year olds that train at altitude and have returned from a mission. I don’t see UGA recruiting a bunch of high school kids and trying to develop them. This is not a model for success in the SEC.
Or you could not give a crap about distance running, which is what Georgia should eventually conclude. Higher incidence of injury, less chances for points doubling, and on and on.
Why recruit and try to develop a distance runner when the improvement curves are less clear and more fraught with injury when you can instead recruit sprinters and multis athletes and double them, run them in relays, and more?
I get this is a distance-oriented forum but so many of the people complaining have no idea how to actually win a conference meet.
One thing that is very sobering....
I live in Oklahoma. Oklahoma State is elite in cross country and distance and has been for at least a decade... They have a great program. Have won the XC title. Have built a wonderful course that has hosted the XC title...
And guess what.
Nobody around here gives a damn. 90% of the people who live here have no idea that OSU is good at distance running. And 90% of the 10% who do know... don't really care.
OSU could shut down their program tomorrow and there wouldn't be a whimper.
I'm sure Georgia is the same way as a football mad state. It really isn't worth investing the effort in getting good because the only way anybody will notice is if you give the school a national championship. One that they can tack onto the list of other national championships that the school has won. Then they forget about it... other than that they can say their school now has 23 total national championships instead of 22.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
Or you could not give a crap about distance running, which is what Georgia should eventually conclude. Higher incidence of injury, less chances for points doubling, and on and on.
Why recruit and try to develop a distance runner when the improvement curves are less clear and more fraught with injury when you can instead recruit sprinters and multis athletes and double them, run them in relays, and more?
I get this is a distance-oriented forum but so many of the people complaining have no idea how to actually win a conference meet.
One thing that is very sobering....
I live in Oklahoma. Oklahoma State is elite in cross country and distance and has been for at least a decade... They have a great program. Have won the XC title. Have built a wonderful course that has hosted the XC title...
And guess what.
Nobody around here gives a damn. 90% of the people who live here have no idea that OSU is good at distance running. And 90% of the 10% who do know... don't really care.
OSU could shut down their program tomorrow and there wouldn't be a whimper.
I'm sure Georgia is the same way as a football mad state. It really isn't worth investing the effort in getting good because the only way anybody will notice is if you give the school a national championship. One that they can tack onto the list of other national championships that the school has won. Then they forget about it... other than that they can say their school now has 23 total national championships instead of 22.
Yeah, this makes sense…Georgia is really not the right environment for xc. Until people care—at least somewhat—it’s hard for a program to succeed.