indoor nats...from a distance perspective

Adams State certainly cleaned up in the distance events at the D2 nationals...er, festival at the University of Houston this weekend. Lessee: 2-8 in the 800m; 1-4-5-7 in the mile; 2-4-8 in the 5,000m (plus a DQ).

But the biggest win might have been Colorado Mines win in the distance medley relay, taking a tight one from Southwest Baptist. It is amazing that four of the top five relays squads hail from Colorado (Mines, Adams, Metro St. and Western St.). While certainly not a predictor of off-road running, there should be some great matchups this fall.

So just how big was that festival? An NCAA official calls it an "unique attribute." But a search of chron.com -- the Web site for the Houston Chronicle and one of the most-trafficked news sites in the United States -- yielded a couple of features stories. It appears the "festival" is taking an off year next year. Not a bad idea.

Indoors nationals begin

The 2009 mens indoor nats in Houston appear to be a race between three types of teams: distance-heavy (Adams St.), sprints- and field event-heavy (St. Augustine's), and all-around strength (Abilene Christian).
It's interesting how the Adams State sports information staff spells out the match-up by identifying "scoring opportunities," which is the number of events your athlete is in. St. Augustine's and ACU have one more scoring opportunity than Adams St.
I remember the old days in the NAIA, which was loaded with distance events: 800, 1000, one mile, 2 mile, 3 mile, DMR, sprint medley....Our 1991 title included only points from the high jump. But without those, we would've been second.