Fall Preview: Long pause in competition almost over for KU cross country runners

By Benton Smith     Aug 30, 2020

After spending much of their lives racing and competing the past several months have felt rather bizarre for University of Kansas cross country runners, who like many in this country had to press pause on their plans due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Head coach Stanley Redwine could sense the excitement in the runners when they returned to Lawrence in mid-August to begin preparing for the season, after the virus wiped out any and all long distance opportunities during what would have been the outdoor track season this past spring.

“I think everyone’s on a high from just being able to be here and being around and helping each other out and training,” Redwine said. “So they’re not looking at (the extended time off) as a negative. ‘What do we have to do to be successful’ is what they’re focusing on.

Once the season gets here — the schedule still hadn’t been published as of this week, even though cross country calendars typically begin in the last weekend of August or first weekend of September — Redwine said the slate will look “totally different” this fall than a typical KU schedule.

That’s because administrators and coaches want to keep the health of the athletes in mind, Stanley explained. They had to consider bus rides and the possible effects of runners making those kinds of extended trips in large groups, whether it was wise to have overnight trips that would put KU athletes in hotels around people outside the program and much more.

Redline hopes KU will be able to host a meet on Sept. 19, but that remains to be a target date rather than anything set in stone.

Because the athletes are so fired up to compete, Redwine thinks the Jayhawks will follow the team’s COVID-related guidelines and avoid running into problems.

It’s just the unknown or unseen that leaves the coach with a little bit of worry. If a runner wants to go out for dinner with her or his significant other, Redwine gave as an example, “that could start something.” The coach said he will continue to educate athletes about the seriousness of the situation and hope they make the right decisions.

“Really what it comes down to is our athletes being smart,” Redwine said. “At practice that’s definitely a controlled environment, but when they’re on their own that’s an uncontrolled environment. They just have to do what’s right. Our season depends on them.”

When live competition finally returns for KU’s runners, both the men’s and women’s rosters feature athletes Redwine expects to step up as top performers.

The men’s team is headlined by sophomore Chandler Gibbens, who was named the Big 12’s Newcomer of the Year in 2019.

The women’s team, meanwhile, features junior Ally Ryan, who suffered an injury that slowed her down last year but now is back moving like she did in 2018, when she was one of the team’s best runners.

“We should have some pretty good runners on the front end, but in order for us to be successful it’s our number three, four and five runners that we have to have step up,” Redwine said.

PREV POST

Former QB Torry Locklin could be more of a Swiss Army knife for KU offense this year

NEXT POST

91788Fall Preview: Long pause in competition almost over for KU cross country runners