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Feature - Girls Running Equal Distance - Dyestat -2013

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DyeStat.com   Sep 26th 2013, 7:27pm
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DyeStat Editorial


Closing the gap: Are Minnesota's girls ready?


By Doug Binder, Dyestat Editor

On Saturday in St. Paul, Minn., many of the girls who participate in the Roy Griak Invitational will get their first and only 5,000 meters race of the cross country season.

Minnesota is one of eight states in which girls run shorter distances than boys at the district and state meets (and generally throughout the season).

But there is widespread discussion going on in Minnesota among coaches and administrators that perhaps the time has come to level the playing field between boys and girls. Some coaches are digging their heels in, citing concerns about a drop in participation numbers or “burnout.”Roy Griak logo

Those concerns ring hollow. For three decades, states have been slowly but surely been making progress by allowing girls to run the same 5,000 meters distance (a few states still use 3 miles) as boys.

In Texas, which offered 5,000-meter races at the Class 4A and Class 5A level in 2012 for the first time after many years stuck at 3,200, the results have been positive.

“Here’s what I’ve seen in Texas, and it’s scary,” said Southlake Carroll coach Justin Leonard. “This move (to 5,000) has significantly dropped our track times.”

By “scary,” Leonard means it should have happened a long time ago.

“Coaches have increased mileage, teams are getting better and kids are getting better from it. They are doing more in the summer time and time are getting faster on the track,” Leonard said. “It used to be that breaking 11 minutes on the track (for 3,200) was a big deal. Now, it won’t win your district meet.”

Leonard said the move from 3,200 to 5,000 has made no difference in participation numbers.

“(That concern) was overplayed,” he said. “One mile or 5K, whatever it is that’s what you run.”

In fact, Leonard said he didn’t mention the change to girls coming into Southlake Carroll this fall. Most freshmen don’t know what the distance is when they join the team anyway.

“What we’re finding now is that smaller schools want to move up to the 5K,” Leonard said. “What’s helped us, I think, is that it’s the best thing for the kids to be honest with you.”

There are several reasons why it’s better. First, getting in line with the majority of the states means it is easier to compete at Nike regional or Foot Locker meets where the standard distance is 5,000 meters.

Anecdotally, at least according to Leonard, there is wholesale improvement during the track season.

And that correlates to scholarship opportunities.

But more than that, there is also a gender equity issue at play here. There is a reason why in eight states the boys run farther than the girls in cross country. (Oddly enough, there are zero states where girls run farther than boys). It is a remnant of sexist thinking that female athletes can’t handle the same workload as males when it comes to distance running. It wasn’t until 1972 that the Olympics offered women a race longer than 800 meters. It wasn’t until 1984, that women had a marathon in the Olympics.

Forty years past Title IX enactment, and Billie-Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs, there are still states that don’t offer boys and girls the same distance for cross country meets.

You can cross Nebraska off that list. This fall, girls in Nebraska are running 5,000 meters just like the boys.

In Minnesota, progress may be around the corner in the near future.

At the Roy Griak meet, it happened 20 years ago. Meet organizers wanted to offer an opportunity for Minnesota girls (as well as Wisconsin and Iowa, etc.) a chance to run 5,000 meters prior to any post-season meets they might run.

Sarah Hopkins, an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota and the director of the high school portion of Roy Griak, said she is personally in favor of increasing the distance for girls.

“I’ve always been a proponent of it being 5K for girls,” she said. “But I was a longer-is-better person. The longer the race the better I did.”

There is admittedly a more practical reason why the Griak meet has remained 5,000 meters for girls: It’s easier to set up the event to have all of the high school kids do the same course. (There are also college races, which are longer).

In Minnesota, the issue is also somewhat complicated by the fact that seventh and eighth graders are permitted to run on high school varsity teams. So a move to 5,000 meters involves taking that – separate – issue into consideration as well.

“Sometimes I think there is a fear that when girls run 5,000 there is a direct comparison to the boys, that you’ll see how many boys a girl would beat if they went head to head,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins said there are schools in the area that don’t come to the Griak meet because they feel it’s “too challenging” for the female athletes.

In spite of the discrepancies, Minnesota has a rich cross country history.

Olympic marathoner Kara Goucher, who grew up in Duluth, loves her home state and said she is well-versed in the issue.

“I was a junior in high school in 1994 when Minnesota (girls) switched from running 3,200 meters to 4,000,” she said. “I was a senior in college when the NCAA Division I changed from running 5,000 to 6,000.”

However, even Goucher is on the fence about what Minnesota should do.

“I do understand the reasons that some people don’t want to see a jump to 5,000,” she said. “Some A schools are very small and are already limited on the number of athletes they have and fear the farther distance would discourage girls from running. Also, I started running for the high school in seventh grade and that probably is a little too young to be running 5,000 meters.”

Goucher also sees the positives.

“Running 5,000 would put Minnesota girls on a level playing field nationally,” she said. "(Running 4,000) does make it tricky for comparison on a national level. While I’d like to see Minnesota go to 5,000, I see the reasons for staying at 4,000.”

Slowly, states are sorting out their reasons.

If small schools in Wyoming and Montana – or Nebraska -- don’t have a problem with 5,000 meters, why does Minnesota? If seventh and eighth graders can run 5,000 meters in New York and Florida, why can’t they in Minnesota?

The Star-Tribune article stated that most coaches in Minnesota don’t view this as a gender equity issue. And judging by her viewpoint, neither does Goucher.

But the challenge is to look a little deeper. High school girls basketball and soccer games are shorter than boys games – no place. Yet in some states, the girls cross country teams have fewer minutes to execute a race strategy.   

It does appear that the differences between boys and girls will eventually disappear. The holdouts – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma and Mississippi – will join the rest of the country.

The only question is, How long will they wait?



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9 comment(s)
SteveU
Height adjusted? Dude, you either had your height-adjusted tongue firmly in cheek when you wrote that or you were on drugs. Half the distance? So, what, guys are TWICE as tall as girls? When 5'3" Halle Gebreselassie used to beat 6'0" Paul Tergat in Olympic 10Ks, do you think the race needed to be height adjusted? I actually had to read this post about 3 times to see how crazy it was.

Yes, you were joking, you had to be joking.

bobgrimes, on , said:

Girls running shorter distances does not equate to gender inequity. Because girls complete the course in longer time, the same distance is, in a sense, a longer race for girls. What is the equivalent race for girls can be debated. Equal average time would be a course that is about 10% shorter than the boys' course. Equal pace would be much shorter. A height-adjusted equal pace would be about half the distance. So it's not straightforward.
Scott Bush
In IL, the state pushed the girls up to the 3 mile distance (what the boys run), moving them from 2 to 2.5 then 3, so they spaced it out over two years, which worked very well.
Chris Nickinson

bobgrimes, on , said:

Girls running shorter distances does not equate to gender inequity. Because girls complete the course in longer time, the same distance is, in a sense, a longer race for girls. What is the equivalent race for girls can be debated. Equal average time would be a course that is about 10% shorter than the boys' course. Equal pace would be much shorter. A height-adjusted equal pace would be about half the distance. So it's not straightforward.


With that logic, shouldn't JV races be shorter length, too?
watchout
The only issue I see with a move up to 5k is what Goucher mentioned about middle schoolers. Yes, there are some 7th and 8th graders that run 5k in the country, but most run more like 1.5 miles or 3k (if anything at all) - and I think for the VAST majority of middle schoolers, it is a good thing they are running shorter distances. For combining high school and middle school races, I think New York's solution is the best: if you're going to include middle school kids in high school races, offer a "modified" level race where the kids don't run the full distance, but if a middle schooler is going to be on the high school team, they have to run the high school distance. As for high schoolers... there is no good reason why the girls should have one distance and the guys another. If your state is going to run 3 miles or 5k for boys, then have the girls run 3 miles or 5k as well.
Nelly

indrun, on , said:

This was a big non-isue in Indiana. Everyone forgot about it being a controversy after the 1st meet. I don't know if its its responsible for Indiana's recent success but XC is alive and well in IN. I'd like to see the state be the first to move to 6K to be consistent with the college distance. This will allow us to continue to kick Illinois' higher population ass.


That's exactly how I feel about MN girls moving to 5k. Everyone will forget about it after the first race or two.

In the MNCrossCountryHub article it has this quote: "About 80 percent of coaches in both classes said in the survey that they believed girls are physically able to race 5,000 meters"
I'd really like to hear the reasoning behind the 20% that don't believe girls can race 5k.

You would think that almost every coach/school that hosts a meet would be in favor of girls running 5k as well, if only to make prepping for the race easier by only having to set up 1 course (except races with a 2 mile/Middle School race).
DougB
So the point of cross country is that everyone find the bell curve and run for 17-21 minutes?

Come on. Cross country is about getting from Point A to Point B, covering the distance. There is only one reason that girls in some states run shorter races and its roots are easily traceable.
David Taylor @XCnation
Well SAID!
indrun
This was a big non-isue in Indiana. Everyone forgot about it being a controversy after the 1st meet. I don't know if its its responsible for Indiana's recent success but XC is alive and well in IN. I'd like to see the state be the first to move to 6K to be consistent with the college distance. This will allow us to continue to kick Illinois' higher population ass.
bobgrimes
Girls running shorter distances does not equate to gender inequity. Because girls complete the course in longer time, the same distance is, in a sense, a longer race for girls. What is the equivalent race for girls can be debated. Equal average time would be a course that is about 10% shorter than the boys' course. Equal pace would be much shorter. A height-adjusted equal pace would be about half the distance. So it's not straightforward.
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