Natalie Cook simply did not want to take the two big Ls from Dalia Frias, there was no way she was gonna win vs Dalia at 3000 and 3200. She was ducking so she could have better chances to get the Gatorade award.
I think so too, it is silly to say she is focusing on XC when XC is 3 months away. Dalia is in the same year as her but she did not DNS. Natalie Cook has not been running well lately and now ducks competition and big races.
Suppose it is true that a runner is not in good form due to illness, minor injury, past peak, studying for AP exams, whatever. Your solution is to travel around the country and run sub-par races and take losses because- because- why? Pro baseball players have to do that. high school runners do not.
My daughter was at brooks pr and talked to Natalie. She came to Seattle but was never planning on racing. She told brooks that a couple of weeks ago. Heard she had a slight injury and ended up stopping her season about a month ago. She already took time off and is just starting to run again to prep for xc.