Friday Musings

It's a weird time for content here at The Stride Report. The fall cross country season has ended, we've covered the main aspects of last weekend's "Track Meet" and there aren't many big-time indoor track races to preview or analyze, at least not right now.

So, just like I did last year in a fairly popular article called "Damage Control", I'll just be rambling and addressing some theoretical questions that I'm assuming also came across your mind as well.

With that, let's jump right into it...

It does seem a bit absurd, doesn't it? The idea that we'll have two seasons of competition which forces athletes and coaches alike to (potentially) sacrifice the success of one season over the other?

I've had some coaches tell me that they'll be surprised if cross country competition actually happens this winter while other coaches are making winter XC their main priority. In theory, the feasibility of an indoor track season seems a bit complicated given the necessary COVID-19 protocols that likely need to be put implemented. However, some coaches are convinced that an indoor track season will happen.

After all, if a basketball season can happen, then why would indoor track not happen?

So, honestly, your guess is as good as mine. I am firmly under the impression that there isn't a singular, all-knowing individual who can say with 100% certainty what will or wont happen over the next few months.

The Ivy League has already cancelled competition for winter athletics (of any kind) this year while the BIG East has cancelled their indoor conference meet. However, outside of those conferences and a few others, the cancellations have been far fewer than they were in the fall as we near the actual starting point of the upcoming season.

But even if most conferences don't cancel competition for this winter -- the revenue from basketball is likely too tempting to pass up on -- will some schools even make an effort to compete in any serious way this season?

The questions surrounding competition over the next few months are plentiful and you can see how this conversation would lead to us falling down a rabbit hole of uncertainty.

If I had to guess, competition will happen for both seasons this year.

In what capacity? Well, that's an answer that we will hopefully find out soon.

Yeah, that was kind of intentional, but like I said, I'm not sure anyone is 100% certain what will happen.

However, Jonathan Gault of LetsRun put together a great piece in late October which addresses many of the same questions that we mentioned above. He followed that up with another feature diving deeper into the complexities of an indoor track season and cross country season happening simultaneously.

Will either article give you greater certainty as to what will happen over the next few months? No, I personally don't think so, but both of those articles are great reads and I would recommend that you check them out.

The Stride Report can confirm that there are a handful of top distance talents on the transfer portal, including athletes that we have not (and cannot) yet report on. How good are these runners? Think national qualifying-caliber individuals.

There are also certain teams expecting to bring in a few more transfers in the next month or so. However, it is not yet clear as to who those runners will be and whether they will be joining their respective new teams for the upcoming semester or next fall.

Well, we have to leave some level of suspense.

What we can say, however, is that we'll be making a notable transfer portal announcement at some point tomorrow...stay tuned!

How about the Butler men? My goodness were they impressive last weekend.

In the 5000 meters, Barry Keane ran 13:41 while teammate Simon Bedard ran 28:16 for 10,000 meters. Those were two extremely promising performances.

The Bulldogs have been quietly bringing in a handful of respectable distance talents over the past two off-seasons, building out their depth and adding a few key scorers to their eventual varsity cross country lineup via the transfer portal.

Based on the Butler roster and TFRRS data, it appears that both Keane and Bedard still have cross country eligibility remaining. Keep an eye on this team as they now have some unique firepower which could very easily contend with the top scoring options of BIG East rivals such as Villanova and Georgetown.

Is there any guarantee that either of those men will be able to fully translate their success from the track to the grass? Just like everyone else, the answer to that question is no. Still, both Keane and Bedard have been underrated names for a few years now and it now seems like they have both found a major breakthrough in their fitness.

I'll just be 100% honest, I had no idea who Jessa Hanson was before last weekend.

The Northern Arizona runner had a few decent performances on her resume coming into last weekend's meet, owning a personal best of 16:54 for 5000 meters from the 2018 Bryan Clay Invitational. Hanson competed during the 2018 cross country season, but we haven't seen her record any results (on TFRRS) since then.

That's why my eyes simply glossed over the fact that Northern Arizona had another woman just nine seconds behind graduate transfer Jeralyn Poe in the women's 10k. I am, of course, talking about Hanson who walked away with a new personal best of 32:47.

However, the difference between Poe and Hanson is that Hanson actually has cross country eligibility remaining. Poe does not.

With teammate Taryn O'Neill running an encouraging 5k PR of 15:49, the emergence of Hanson seemingly gives the Lumberjacks another potential low-stick to pair with O'Neill at the front of this varsity lineup.

It has yet to be seen if Hanson can effectively translate her recent success from the track to the grass. Still, this should be an extremely exciting development for the Northern Arizona coaching staff. Despite losing a pair of top cross country scorers from their 2019 lineup due to expired eligibility, the drop-off in NAU's scoring potency from last year to this year may end up being little to none.

Paul Ryan of Washington State is a very talented distance runner and it feels like he has been overlooked at times during his career. This guy ran 3:58 for the mile during the 2019 indoor track season and just recently posted a strong 5k PR of 13:44.

I'll admit, I don't know if he still has eligibility remaining on the track, although TFRRS suggests that he does. Washington State doesn't have him listed on their 2020 cross country roster, but their 2021 track roster has not yet been updated.

UPDATE: We have confirmed that Paul Ryan still has outdoor track eligibility. He is expected to return to competition this spring, pandemic permitting.

Also, Ivo Balabanov (California Baptist) was extremely impressive in his 10k debut. The Lancer ace ran a personal best time of 28:43 last weekend, a mark that would seemingly give California Baptist a nationally competitive low-stick.

CBU has been recruiting a handful of talented names for the past years and those runners have gone on to be respectable scorers. However, none of them have produced results as strong as what Balabanov ran last weekend. He'll be a huge scoring piece that the CBU men can build around as they attempt to emulate the success of their women's team.

Look, I understand that basically no one has toed the line for a serious indoor track meet this year. However, I thought that Kelby Anderson (North Dakota State) running a flat-track converted 4:47 for the mile last weekend was pretty impressive.

Anderson is an underrated talent who finished 7th at the Midwest Regional Championships in cross country during the fall of 2019. She owns personal bests of 4:45 (mile), 9:28 (3k) and 16:11 (5k). If the NDSU ace is already nearing her mile PR on December 4th, then I imagine she could continue to improve upon her prior personal bests throughout the rest of the winter if she is given enough opportunities to race.

Our TSR team has some cool pieces of content in the works and we'll continue to pump out material through December...even if nothing is going on. We may have to get creative, but that's half the fun of it.