It is a little odd that men's and women's distances in almost all competitions - high school cross country, the olympics, the vast majority of major road races - are the same, but not the NCAA. I agree that there are arguments for matching duration rather than distance (though that hardly justifies the 10K/6K gap), but it's a bit odd to take that approach ONLY for NCAA cross country and almost no other running event. (OK. There are a couple other examples, hurdles, heptathlon.) The petition may be flawed, and I don't think that the men's CC event should be screwed up in service of "equity." I guess the biggest question is, what do the coaches and runners want?
It is a little odd that men's and women's distances in almost all competitions - high school cross country, the olympics, the vast majority of major road races - are the same, but not the NCAA. I agree that there are arguments for matching duration rather than distance (though that hardly justifies the 10K/6K gap), but it's a bit odd to take that approach ONLY for NCAA cross country and almost no other running event. (OK. There are a couple other examples, hurdles, heptathlon.) The petition may be flawed, and I don't think that the men's CC event should be screwed up in service of "equity." I guess the biggest question is, what do the coaches and runners want?