For many college coaches and programs that I know, the recently completed NCAA Regionals represents the end of the fall cross country season. Here in the East, several programs view the upcoming IC4A/ECAC meet as an anticlimactic coda to the season. Or worse yet, they just blow it off and call it a season at regionals. Not here. Not us. IC4A/ECAC is a BIG meet in our universe. It represents the final piece of the three championships that comprise our championship season. One more hill to climb, and it is Saturday, at a place that we have oddly avoided up until now -- Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.
The IC4A/ECAC meet has always held a place of lore for us. Back in the day, pre-1997, the meet doubled as the Eastern championship as well as a dual NCAA Regional meet rolled into one. It was a BIG DEAL, indeed. After the current regional format was hatched in 1997, the IC4A/ECAC Championship became a midseason meet, two weeks prior to conference championship weekend. But alas, with the growth of the NCAA Pre National meet, as well as the conflict with the New England Championship, it sank the meet further into irrelevance. So then, it was moved to its current end-of-year format, where it has more or less thrived -- despite the apathy on some schools' parts.
For teams like us, the meet is a great way to conclude the season with the entire program reuniting at a meet for the first time in more than a month. Here is the race schedule, for those that are interested in attending:
Women's Open 5km: 9:30 a.m.
Men's Open 5-mile: 9:40 a.m.
Women's ECAC Championship: 10:30 a.m.
Men's IC4A Championship: 11 a.m.
For those keeping score at home, the title of this post pays homage to one of the greatest sports calls of all time, made by Howie Rose in the 1994 NHL playoffs. One more hill to climb, indeed.
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