Plenty has happened over the last few days when it comes to the collegiate distance running world. Here are a few notable headlines that we have yet to discuss...
MIAA Suspends Competition Until September 28th
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) announced on Monday that the conference will be delaying the start of competition until "the week of September 28th". Practices will not start until August 31st.
The MIAA was responsible for sending the men of Central Missouri, the men of Northwest Missouri, the men of Fort Hays State and the women of Pittsburg State to the D2 NCAA XC Championships last fall. The MIAA joins a handful of other D2 conferences that have announced delays or cancellations of their fall sports this year, including the NE-10, the Sunshine State Conference, the GNAC and numerous others.
North Central's Al Carius Moves to Assistant Coach, Frank Gramarosso Moves to Head Coach
On Tuesday, North Central College announced that Al Carius, the legendary head coach of the North Central College men's cross country program since 1966, will be stepping into the team's assistant coaching role. Frank Gramarosso, a member of the Cardinal's coaching staff since 1983, will move into the head coaching position at the start of the upcoming cross country season.
A similar transition took place following the 2009-2010 track seasons when Carius gave the head coaching responsibilities of North Central's track and field team to Gramarosso. Since then, North Central has won five national team titles between indoor and outdoor track.
In his 54 years as the head men's cross country coach, Carius led the Cardinals to a total of 19 national team titles.
2020 Memphis Twilight XC Classic Has Been Cancelled
On Monday, Tennessee MileSplit reported that the 2020 City Auto Memphis Twilight Cross Country Classic has been cancelled. The meet was originally expected to take place on September 5th.
According to meet director Bill Hoffman, top collegiate distance teams such as Ole Miss, Alabama and Middle Tennessee State were originally scheduled to toe the line in Memphis prior to the cancellation.
Last week, both the Wisconsin Nuttycombe Invitational and the Roy Griak Invitational were cancelled due to the BIG 10's decision that they will be scheduling conference-only competition for their member institutions this fall.
UC Berkeley to Start Fall Semester "Fully Remote"
Yesterday, the University of California, Berkeley announced that they will begin the upcoming fall semester with "fully remote instruction". The university stated that they are also working on alternative methods of instruction "as soon as public health conditions allow".
UC Berkeley, sometimes known as "Cal", is a member of the PAC-12, a conference which stated that they will be implementing a conference-only schedule for "several" fall sports this year. Cross country was not one of the sports that were mentioned.
It is important to note that UC Berkeley does not fall under the same school system as California State University which announced earlier this year that they will be keeping all classes online for the upcoming fall semester.
Jan Figueroa to Finish Eligibility at Tampa as Grad Transfer
On Sunday, Jan Figueroa (formerly of Florida Gulf Coast University) announced via Instagram that he will be finishing his eligibility at the University of Tampa as a graduate transfer. According to TFRRS, he has one season of outdoor track eligibility remaining.
Figueroa, who will be moving from the Division One level to the Division two level, owns personal bests of 8:37 (3k) and 14:35 (5k) from this past outdoor track season where he competed unattached.