The Stride Report will be running a series of articles consisting of interviews and op-eds from athletes across the nation. Our aim is to bring you a variety of perspectives from multiple collegiates in the running community who have been impacted by the recent competition cancellations. Katie Rainsberger was having the best season of her life. The Washington veteran posted times of 8:56 in the 3000 meters and 4:12 in the 1500 meters this past winter. She also anchored her DMR to an NCAA #3 time of 10:56. A major star in the NCAA for the past few years, Rainsberger was ready to put her peak fitness on full display at the Indoor National Championships...until the meet was cancelled. The Stride Report: You were in outstanding fitness this season, running new personal bests in both the 3000 meters and the 1500 meters. You also helped your DMR to an NCAA #3 time of 10:56. Tell us a little bit about your indoor season and the fitness you were/are in? What was different about this season than all of the others? Katie Rainsberger: This past indoor season I definitely turned a corner and was in some of the best shape of my life. After a disappointing end to cross country, I decided that I couldn’t be afraid to fail anymore. In races this indoor season, when I got to that point where it started to hurt, instead of riding the line and playing it safe, I decided it was time to take some chances and put myself out there. I was gaining confidence from taking risks and attacking workouts which was then translating into my races. It was the first time since returning from injury that I was confident in my training, my ability to race, and my mental fortitude. TSR: When did you start realizing that cancelling the Indoor National Championships was a realistic possibility? Katie: We were at the track Thursday around noon doing our pre-meet 200’s when I started to get the feeling that something was off. I heard some choice words from coaches on the infield and some downcast faces and in my gut I was like this is not good. We continued, did some handoffs for the DMR, and then walked to lunch nearby. That whole time though I just knew something was off, but I didn’t know for sure. TSR: How did you find out that the Indoor National Championships (and all of the outdoor season) had been cancelled? What was your reaction and your emotions at the time? Katie: Our entire girls team was at lunch eating when Maurica Powell, our head coach, told us that the meet was cancelled. She got a phone call halfway through lunch and even though she took it a few feet away I could see it in her eyes before she told us that the meet was off. At first I was angry, I asked Coach Powell to just put me on the track right now so I could go rip a 3k. I couldn’t comprehend why cancelling the meet was the best decision when everyone was already there. Especially when we had all traveled there and we had all been at the practice facility together. In my mind, the exposure had already happened and there were no spectators allowed so that risk was minimized as well. We got on a flight out of Albuquerque immediately, like within an hour of finding out that the Championships were cancelled, we were at the airport. Our flight back to Seattle went through Denver and I just got off the plane and my parents took me home. I was home in Colorado Springs when we were told the entire outdoor season had been cancelled and then later, the Olympics. In the end, I understand why things happened the way they did, but I am still left with the feeling of having unfinished business. TSR: Could you describe the atmosphere in Albuquerque when it was announced that the national meet was cancelled? Katie: It’s hard to describe the atmosphere since we were away at lunch, but there was another team at the same lunch spot, and the overall mood was just pure devastation. As athletes, we sacrifice so much to put in long, grueling hours and inevitably our sense of self is tied not only to our sport, but to our performances. So when something that you have been preparing for over months and even years gets ripped out from under you, you’re left grieving with feelings of loss. TSR: The NCAA is expected to grant an additional season of eligibility for the spring season while recent reports suggest that additional indoor track eligibility is “unlikely”. What are your thoughts on that? How will this impact you and the seniors that you have spoken with, both on and off the Washington team? Katie: I think this whole situation has made me realize how fortunate I really am and that so many others have been dealt a rougher hand. I have another season of indoor eligibility and I have not redshirted an outdoor season yet, so either way I will be back for indoor/outdoor next year. I really empathize with those who have already redshirted or who have no more eligibility. I hope that a waiver will be given to seniors for the outdoor season and that if given the choice, people are able to return for a final go around the track. However, I also realize that this is bigger than track and field eligibility and more than ever in times like these I am grateful for the health of my family and my ability to run. TSR: What is the plan for the next few months? Katie: Right now I am home with my family in Colorado Springs and I plan to hunker down here for the next few months. I have access to hundreds of miles of trails from home and I plan to run them all! I hope to use this time to work on some weaknesses - tempos...and build up a solid base. But I think more importantly, I want to refocus on why I run in the first place. I think there is something to be said about enjoying the moment and being present during the journey and sometimes that gets lost in the collegiate system. When I am not running, I will be working on my senior thesis and preparing for fall research (hint - it involves running performance at altitude). TSR: Any final thoughts? Katie: I think after the initial shock wore off I can't help but be left with a sense of purpose. This is so much bigger than just me and it is more than student-athletes and their eligibility. I totally understand the grief and the frustration, but at the same time there is so much more at stake. I hope we can use this time to reflect on what, and who, is truly important in our lives. Instead of getting frustrated with the current limitations, I’m using this time as an opportunity to practice gratitude and delayed gratification.

The Stride Report will be running a series of articles consisting of interviews and op-eds from athletes across the nation. Our aim is to bring you a variety of perspectives from multiple collegiates in the running community who have been impacted by the recent competition cancellations. The men of BYU were coming off their first-ever cross country national title and were eager to continue their progress during the indoor season. While some of their top runners dealt with injuries, a few had standout seasons. Two of them - Jake Heslington and Talem Franco - qualified for NCAA’s in the 5k and mile, respectively. Heslington earned a national qualifying spot to Nationals with his 13:39 while Franco qualified running 3:58. Additionally, BYU, with Franco anchoring, qualified for Nationals as a DMR. These two, along with teammate Clayson Shumway, were gracious enough to talk us through how they and the team are feeling about the cancellation of Indoor Nationals and the outdoor season. Thank you to all three BYU runners who give their honest reactions about this truly unprecedented situation. The Stride Report: Coming off the NCAA title in the fall, you guys ran well this indoor season. How was the team feeling about the indoor season and the upcoming outdoor season? Talem and Jake, how were you feeling as you prepared for your first NCAA Indoor Championship? Clayson Shumway: We felt like our indoor season was slightly underwhelming, at least for a championship team. In the 5k, Jake ran really well, and Brandon Garnica did great, but the rest of our [top] seven from NCAA’s either graduated, redshirted, or were dinged up over the winter. However, Jake and Talem both qualified for Indoor Nationals for the first time and our DMR qualified for the first time in the last few years, so we were happy about that and looking forward to what we could do at Nationals. We were hoping to get lots of qualifiers to the Olympic Trials during Outdoor. Jake Heslington: I was feeling confident because 1) my speed was feeling better than it ever had been and 2) Coach said he thought I could realistically be top 3-6 and Coach doesn’t say things he doesn’t believe. Talem Franco: Similar to Jake, I was feeling very excited and was looking forward to seeing how I stacked up with the national-caliber athletes because I didn’t have the opportunity to race them much during the season. I was also excited to race at altitude because I thought Albuquerque gave me an advantage, since most of the milers who had qualified were sea-level guys. TSR: When did you guys start thinking that Indoor Nationals would be cancelled? Everyone: We never thought it would be canceled. We tried to avoid thinking about the possibility, so we could be mentally prepared to race our best. We got suspicious when the ACC and Big Ten had pulled out, and it started feeling inevitable. TSR: How did you find out that the Indoor National Championships and all of the outdoor season had been cancelled? What was your reaction? Talem: At first we thought it was comical. We were just trying to cope with the situation at hand, then the realization that it was actually happening dawned on us. Then all the feelings of frustration and disappointment began to set in. Jake: I saw a tweet and thought “Is this for real?” and immediately after that Coach called me. Like Talem, I thought it was crazy in a funny way at first. On the flight home is when it really hit me that I wouldn’t be able to do what I’d come to do. I didn’t realize at first that outdoor had been canceled as well, and so that realization was also a blow. Clayson: I was sitting in a class and checking Twitter since all the dominoes had started falling and saw it and I thought “Really? They are already there. Hasn’t most of the damage been done already with them traveling?” TSR: What were your goals as a team and as individuals this spring? Clayson: I ran much slower during indoor than I did in either of my other seasons. I was looking forward to steeplechase as a chance to hopefully get out of my funk. Talem: My goal was to run 3:35 and set our school record in the 1500 meters. It was a stretch goal for sure, but as audacious as it sounds I felt like outdoor is my best season, and I was looking forward to seeing how my progress would carry through. Also, I wanted revenge from last year’s final in the 1500 meters. Jake: Like Talem, I wanted revenge after last year’s steeple final (I fell, but no one saw it since it was a commercial break. Thanks ESPN.). After a good indoor season I thought I had a strong shot at winning. I also wanted to run a fast 5k to prove that steeplechasers aren’t always slow in flat events. TSR: How will this impact your future in the sport? Talem and Jake, as seniors, will you return next year? Clayson, as a junior, will you stay an extra year in 2022 to use up your eligibility? Talem: It is still up in the air. I would like to stay and hopefully get back the winter season as well, so I can get closure in indoors. Jake: As far as getting professional contracts, it stinks because I haven’t done much, besides my indoor 5k to make my case, and I was looking forward to running fast and placing well to increase my stock. I have a wife and daughter, so I can’t just wait around forever without a solid source of income, but I still have a desire to keep running, so my plans are also still in the air. Clayson: I have been in school for what seems like forever already, so the idea of stretching out my undergrad for that long doesn’t sound fun. The plan was to graduate after this next cross season and take a little break before diving into another 5-7 years of grad school, and I’ll probably be sticking to it. TSR: What is the plan for the next few months? Clayson & Talem: Trail running, baby! Jake: We’ll just have fun with running and look for jobs whether in running or engineering.

The Stride Report will be running a series of articles consisting of interviews and op-eds from athletes across the nation. Our aim is to bring you a variety of perspectives from multiple collegiates in the running community who have been impacted by the recent competition cancellations. The University of Minnesota stunned the nation when they dropped a time of 9:31 in the DMR at the Alex Wilson Invitational to qualify for the Indoor National Championships. One of the more underrated relays entering the national meet, the Gopher men had the potential to make some noise on the national stage. Unfortunately, their Cinderella story was cut short due to Coronavirus concerns. Two members of that relay, Owen Hoeft (a junior) and Shane Streich (a redshirt senior) were able to give us their thoughts on the national meet and spring season cancellations. Many thanks to Shane and Owen for their openness! Shane Streich I had just stepped out of my post-run shower when the news broke within the University of Minnesota’s team that we would no longer be competing at the NCAA DI Indoor Championships. “Wow. Just wow. There is no way that this is happening.” These words continuously repeated through my head as emotions and feelings flooded my soul. Minutes later, it was announced that the Big Ten had cancelled all spring sports seasons. This was the ultimate blow. Shock, anger, frustration, and sadness all hit me at once, leaving me feeling confused and numb. Throughout my life I had mastered the art of adapting during competition weekends and preparing for anything – I was not prepared for this. The previous thirty-six hours had been trending in this direction with the NCAA limiting spectators to the event to just immediate family and then furthering that limitation to all spectators, but myself and my team held out hope. Not hoping the meet would still be on – we expected it to – but the hope that we were going to do great things that weekend. That we were going to show people what Minnesota tough looks like. We were ranked the highest that we had been in a long time at 13th in the country. We had lots of momentum from Big Ten’s that we were carrying into the meet. The DMR that I was a part of was ready to put ourselves out there and leave every last drop of sweat of on the track. We believed in our abilities, in our goals, and most of all, we believed in each other. This was our time. With the Coronavirus pandemic, our time was no more. As a fifth-year senior, I had decided to redshirt both my indoor and outdoor seasons last year so that I could come back for more opportunities like these. Now my opportunities were no more. Within a matter of 2 hours, like many others, I had gone from a competitor at the national meet to a collegiate sports alum. My heart hurts every time I consider that I will never again wear the “U” across my chest. Feeling that I didn’t get to end my career on my own terms pains me. Knowing that I couldn’t keep the momentum that I had built in my final indoor season rolling into my final outdoor season pains me. So many goals left to accomplish, PRs to achieve, memories to be made on the track this outdoor season. All of it, just gone. It’s not all about me, though. My heart also hurts for those that had finally qualified for their first NCAA Championship meet ever yet don’t get to truly experience it. I had the opportunity to compete in 2017 at NCAA Indoors, but my three good friends and teammates who were on this year’s DMR had never had the experience before; they were robbed of this great opportunity and experience. Two of my best friends, like me, ran the final races of their career without knowing it; that hurts. My training partner and I will no longer be able to grind out workouts and race together for the U again, and I know it is as devastating to him as it is to me. Parents, brothers, sisters, missing the final race or throw or jump of a competitor’s career, thinking they would have another opportunity. Coaches unable to witness the culmination of their training and hard work of their athletes coming to fruition this outdoor season. Seeing all of that happen hurts like a dagger to the heart. Some people say that it’s just sports. I don’t want to downplay the seriousness of the global pandemic that we are facing with the Coronavirus. It’s real and it can affect anyone and everyone long-term, but sports are more than just ab out throwing a ball around, running around a track, or swimming in a pool. For many athletes, it has become the engine that drives their lives, the molding hands that have shaped them into who they are today. The global pandemic that we are facing has taken away the closure that athlete’s need. No one races a mile just to stop after 1200 meters. No one starts a game only to walk off the field before the comeback drive or final at-bat. We compete to finish the job, to push ourselves as far as we possibly can go. Whether you’re a senior who no longer will compete collegiately or an underclassman who won’t be able to achieve their goals this outdoor season, I know that we all share the same pain. In the end, though, we must remember that there is more to sports. Our work ethic, desire to pursue our passions, and ability to work with others is easily transferrable to our lives. Though we are in a unique situation, it is no different than an injury in the middle of a season. We must adapt, we must rely on each other, and we must keep moving forward, one step at a time. We are competitors, after all, and we will overcome any challenge set before us. Owen Hoeft I had just qualified for my first NCAA Championships (in the DMR), had one of the better seasons of my life, and was growing in excitement for the outdoor season. It was all ripped away the day before the 2020 NCAA Indoor Championships. Leading into the week of NCAA Indoors my teammates and I were obviously aware of the growing threat that the Coronavirus posed. It all seemed distant from our world of sports until we were sitting in our hotel room two nights prior to the race. We were watching an NBA game in which a team doctor sprinted onto the court towards the officials. The game was cancelled soon after, and nearly an hour later the entire NBA season was suspended. Starting then, seemingly every time one of us checked Twitter, another cancellation occurred. Soon, no fans were to be allowed at our meet besides family. No problem, we thought, we run hard in practice for no one all of the time. This was an opportunity for us to rise to our own expectations, no one else's. The day before the race we usually go to the track to do our pre meet routine. But our coaches insisted we stay away from the track and do our regular routine on a nearby bike path. This is when it really hit us that perhaps this meet was in jeopardy. One coach told us that he thought this meet wasn’t going to happen. There was clearly an uneasy vibe between our relay members while we ran through our usual pre race routine. No one wanted to bring up the elephant in the room, but it was on all of our minds. After the run, we went back to the hotel and for a while it seemed like everything would go as planned. We got no more news of the meet, things were seemingly calming down. As we got our minds back on racing, we received a short, simple, devastating text message: “Meet is not happening. Travel arrangements home to come.” This wasn’t incredibly surprising, but it hit me harder than I expected it to. I immediately thought about one of my relay teammates who was a fifth year senior. He came back for a fifth year to try to get back to this meet that we were about to compete at. Our other relay members lost our first chance to prove ourselves at the next level. After hearing news of the meet being cancelled, I still knew I had chances to prove myself during the outdoor season. While we were packing our bags to leave Albuquerque, we saw a tweet that the Big Ten and the University of Minnesota was cancelling all spring sports. Competitions, practice, and any other team related activities were no longer. This is the news that hit me harder than anything. And not so much for me. Every senior just lost their last season. Everyone who was injured during indoor season and was hoping for opportunities in outdoors lost their chance. Every 400 hurdler who struggled through indoors running 600 after 600 lost a chance to show their fitness in their event. Every steeplechaser won’t get to compete in their specialty. I am not here to knock the decision of either the Big Ten, NCAA, or University of Minnesota. This is a serious public health issue that is bigger than our little running bubble. But it really does suck. I consider myself an optimist, so after an hour or so of ruminating in my sorrows, I tried to see if I could find the bright side of this situation. Running is a fairly compatible sport with a situation like this. You don’t need to go anywhere for it. You can run alone. You can push yourself without the bells and whistles that typically surround a collegiate track meet. During this spring and summer, runners should reconnect with their love of running, and revisit the ‘why’ to their running life. Fitness gains can still be made for all of us, if desired. Over the last couple days I have heard a lot of people say, “what's the point?” But when things were going as normal, everyone was emphasizing how we get better by stacking days, on weeks, on months, on years. To just stop running would put a halt to our long term development. So being who I am, I am going to hold on to this belief like no other. What else is there to hold on to right now? While there might not be a sexy TFRRS mark to prove anything to the outsiders, you know when you are fit. It may be less tangible now, but fitness isn’t bound to a 3:42 1500 or a 13:45 5k. Hopefully, after this situation ends, we will all realize why we do this sport. Hopefully we will seek less validation from outsiders based on outcomes. This situation, at risk of sounding ignorant to the pandemic at hand, will help us become more process oriented and in tune with ourselves. We will run, we will get fit, but we won’t have anything to show for it. And maybe that’s a good thing in the long run?

The Stride Report will be running a series of articles consisting of interviews and op-eds from athletes across the nation. Our aim is to bring you a variety of perspectives from multiple collegiates in the running community who have been impacted by the recent competition cancellations. Wisconsin's Alicia Monson has emerged as one of the best distance runners in the NCAA over the past couple of years. The defending indoor 5k national champion owns personal bests of 15:31 (5000) and 8:45 (3000). She was also the 2019 Millrose Games 3k champion as well as the runner-up finisher at the 2019 NCAA XC Championships. We asked Alicia a few questions about the recent meet cancellations and how she was impacted. Many thanks to Alicia for the great insight during such a crazy time! The Stride Report: Let’s talk about your season real quick. You recorded a time of 8:53 for 3000 meters at the Millrose Games, but decided not to run the 5k until the BIG 10 Championships. Was there a reason behind that? Alicia Monson: Coach Mack and I went into this season with a bit of a different plan and mindset compared to my 2019 indoor season. Obviously, my 2019 indoor season was great - 8:45 in the 3k at Millrose, and a 5k national title. However, we decided to take indoors more slowly training-wise this year and to gear up for what we expected to be a long outdoor season, with the goals of 5k/10k NCAA titles and racing in the [Olympic] Trials in June. So really, the reason for not running a 5k until Big 10s was that we just weren’t focusing on it yet. I did a lot of speed development this season, and we thought the 3k at Indoor Nationals (especially at altitude) would speak to my strengths of a distance race that still has some fun championship-style kicking. Our focus was always on June, so competing for an NCAA title in the 3k during indoors (and throwing in some DMR mile legs during the season) was a great way to switch up my training which would hopefully translate to the longer races during outdoors. TSR: Where were you when you found out that the Indoor National Championships were going to be cancelled? Can you take us through some of your own emotions and how it impacted everyone around you? Alicia: Coach Byrne called a meeting of our Wisconsin athletes and staff in the hotel to tell us that the meet would be cancelled and we were getting flights out of Albuquerque the next morning. It was pretty heartbreaking at first as us seniors there for Wisconsin (Ollie Hoare, Zach Lorbech, and me) realized that we wouldn’t get to compete in our last indoor NCAA Championships. After putting in so much work over our seasons and career, it was rough to not be able to show the way we had prepared for it. After a bit, though, we (me, Ollie, our DMR men) actually ended up going for a run with guys on the Indiana team. It was great to just get out of the hotel, talk things over, chat, stop, stand, walk, and spend time with each other. TSR: Was there ever a point when you realized that cancelling the national meet was a realistic possibility? If so, when was that? Alicia: We had a suspicion that the meet could be cancelled when we were in the airport to leave from Madison a few days before the championships. We had just gotten news from our coach that our school would be going online for two weeks and we heard a lot of talk about potential outdoor events to be cancelled (we had already heard about Stanford shutting down classes and limiting attendance to sporting events. Stanford usually has a big distance meet [the Stanford Invite] early in the outdoor season to get NCAA Prelim qualifying times). However, Coach Mack encouraged me to continue to have the mindset to prepare to race a 3k at the NCAA Championships. We planned to be ready to race because for the days we were there, it seemed like even though events would be cancelled in the future, the meet would still happen that weekend. Obviously, things changed as there was a pretty big domino effect in the sports world with cancellations. TSR: The NCAA is expected to grant an additional season of spring eligibility while recent reports suggest that additional winter track eligibility is “unlikely”. What are your thoughts on that? Do you know if you will be taking extra eligibility yet? Alicia: I don’t yet know if I will be taking my extra eligibility - I have some thinking to do and conversations to have about my goals. Luckily, I have great support at Wisconsin and I know we will make a good decision about what my next year will look like. I absolutely agree with athletes getting spring eligibility back. Athletes, senior or not, had their seasons taken away for obvious and important public health reasons. Competing in the NCAA is a special opportunity so I am very thankful that athletes are able to get this eligibility back if they decide to take it. I also think that athletes should get winter track eligibility back. There is obviously the argument that most of the season’s competition was finished, but I think it is also important to point out that most people (including me) structured their season with the intent of being most ready to race at the National Championships. If I had known that I wouldn’t be able to participate at NCAAs, I could have peaked my training for a race like Millrose or Big Tens, taken some down time, and gotten ready for outdoor season. Of course, no one could have expected that this would happen and right now, we have bigger concerns (i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic). However, as the NCAA makes final eligibility decisions, I hope they take into account that this uncontrollable event put a stop to an important career-building championship, and therefore season, for a lot of people. I am so thankful that I was able to earn an NCAA title at indoors last year, and I feel for everyone that was going to have great performances and possibly even win their first national titles. TSR: Per the Scrambled Legs Podcast, you have been visiting certain professional training groups as of late. What has that experience been like and how have the recent developments impacted your visits (if at all)? Alicia: I feel pretty lucky to have already been looking into what my professional career could look like. It’s been helpful to visit some training groups and see what training/racing can look like out of college. It’s also been cool to just interact with group members and coaches because the running world is pretty small, so it’s great to get to know people that you already know of. My teammates and I also laugh a bit because it is kind of being in high school going on official visits at college again, but this time it’s almost like a job interview; it would be a pretty cool job to have! The short answer is that recent developments definitely open up time to think about what is next, whether it be another year in the NCAA or not. Right now, in the spirit of our civic duty to not spread Coronavirus, I’ve been sticking around Madison and have not been visiting any groups. However, if we do our job right with social distancing, we definitely have lots of time for thinking and phone calls with our people. TSR: What’s next for you? What will you do over the next few months? Alicia: Next for me is to keep on training in the hopes that outdoor track meets will eventually take place even though the NCAA season has been cancelled. It’s hard to say right now if or when that will be, but after taking some time to feel all the feels about the cancelled championships and season, I’m looking forward to finding a sense of normalcy with training. It helps to still have some of my teammates and coaches around. We are looking to get in training and are hoping for the Olympic Trials to go on, so we will be ready when that comes. In the meantime, between runs, I’ll be attending lectures on clinical nutrition, finding as many indoor core/strength workout videos as possible, and spending a bit of time with the awesome group of people I live around (6 feet apart, of course).

The Stride Report will be running a series of articles consisting of interviews and op-eds from athletes across the nation. Our aim is to bring you a variety of perspectives from multiple collegiates in the running community who have been impacted by the recent competition cancellations. Oregon's Cooper Teare was among the NCAA's most elite distance runners this past year. After finishing 6th at the NCAA XC Championships, Teare ripped off a handful of jaw-dropping times during the winter months, standing out as a potential title favorite in the deepest 3k field that the NCAA has ever seen. We asked Cooper a few questions about the recent cancellations and how he was impacted. Many thanks to Cooper for the time and insight during such a stressful time! The Stride Report: Let’s talk about your season real quick. After finishing 6th at the NCAA XC Championships, you anchored Oregon’s DMR to a national record, ran 7:46 for 3000 meters and posted a 3:55 mile before Nationals. Talk a little bit about the fitness you were/are in and how you reached this new tier of talent. Cooper Teare: I took a little more time this summer to make sure I had a base under my belt and got almost a full three months of just stacking weeks together. That definitely made the difference in cross. I think it got me a jump on the track season both fitness wise and just with excitement. After having four weeks of racing in a row seeing PR’s, it was pretty apparent that I was in the best shape of my life and I had never been more excited to compete for a national title. Coach Thomas did everything in his power to get us ready for a historic run at Nationals and I think the whole team was confident that it was going to be a pretty amazing weekend in Albuquerque. TSR: Where were you when you found out that the Indoor National Championships were going to be cancelled? Can you take us through some of your own emotions and how it impacted everyone around you? Cooper: I had just gotten back from doing an ESPN interview with my teammate Charlie Hunter when it began spreading that the meet was cancelled. I remember walking back to the hotel from the track and seeing the Indiana team and them yelling “Us and Notre Dame are out” and my heart sunk a little bit because that was the moment I realized that big teams were beginning to pull out and that it could really only get worse. Coach Thomas gave us the news when we got back to the hotel and you could just see everyone’s face look down. I personally went back to my room, had a cry, then just tried to be with my teammates and find some sort of bright side to the horrible situation. Coach Thomas gave us some wise words and I think we all found a little peace in his calmness. TSR: Was there ever a point when you realized that cancelling the national meet was a realistic possibility? If so, when was that? Cooper: I really did not have any thoughts that we might not get to run Nationals until really the day it was announced. The first time it crept into my head was when my friend Shae Anderson texted me and told me that UCLA had plans to fly home that afternoon and not compete. Hearing that was the first time I thought, "Hey, this could happen to us too" and sure enough, a few hours later we were upstairs packing our bags and scrambling to find flights home. TSR: The NCAA is expected to grant an additional season of spring eligibility while recent reports suggest that additional winter track eligibility is “unlikely”. What are your thoughts on that? Cooper: I am glad that they are going to grant a spring season, it actually worked out quite well in my case as I was planning on potentially red-shirting the outdoor season, but I think that losing winter is a tough blow. I would have given up all the races I had run in the winter for one shot at winning a national title, because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for. Although it was a pretty insane indoor season, I was more than anything looking forward to really testing myself against guys who were doing incredible things the whole season (the NAU boys, Yared Nuguse, etc.) and having that opportunity taken away was a worse pain than any loss or bad race that could’ve happened. TSR: How will this impact the seniors you’ve spoken to? Has anyone made a decision about what they will do with additional eligibility in the spring? Cooper: This is a really hard time for any senior out there and the decision to stay or go is more than just that, because there are so many other factors that go into it (school, scholarship, etc.). I was extremely sad for my teammate James West because I think he was due for one of the best indoor triples we have seen in a while. Losing that opportunity and all that was to come with the spring season is devastating. I know the decision is hard because he has to try to figure out what to do in school to potentially stay eligible if he wants to come back and has to weigh if it is really worth it or if there is another option out there. I’m sure all of the seniors will have a long process ahead of them trying to sort out this whole thing and I wish them all the best of luck. TSR: What’s next for you? What will you do over the next few months? Cooper: At this point, there is not much to do but continue to train as if it was business as usual. I know my coach is still talking to some meet directors and it looks like there will be a few meets still happening, so I am just trying to get fit and capitalize on the new opportunities I will have this spring. It will all be in hopes of getting an Olympic Trials qualifying time, given they are still on. Other than that, it is never too early to get a good base going for the fall and there is nowhere I would rather do that than in Eugene with my teammates.