Simply put, the answer is funding. backed by favorable TV deals and ticket sales, smaller universities that were already struggling with funding they expected to be off of their expense sheet come 2021. * * * The complexities of scholarships and funding

They were a balanced group without any glaring flaws. Michael Mooney (14th) had a fine outing, but after Trent Nosky (29th) crossed the line, we didn't see Sure, they didn't offer the same kind of scoring potency that we saw from Wyoming, Navy or Colorado State With sophomore Izzy Roemer (19th) closing out the scoring, Minnesota fended off a nationally ranked Utah essentially no major gaps at the backend of this group and that's largely why the Cowgirls were able to find

Believe it or not, Boston University was not the only place that produced some incredibly fast (and entertaining) DMR times this past weekend! Between the Arkansas Qualifier and Alex Wilson Invitational (hosted at Notre Dame), we still have plenty of distance medley relay analysis (and thoughts on a few individual performances) left to offer. Let's begin, shall we? Washington Men Secure Statement Win While Virginia's Gary Martin Produces 3:51 Anchor Split I really liked Virginia's DMR going into this past weekend. Between Conor Murphy on the lead-off leg and Gary Martin on the anchor leg, this group was going to have two heavy-hitters on both ends of their lineup. Of course, in a race that featured the Washington men -- who fielded Joe Waskom, Nathan Green and Luke Houser -- it was fair to say that the Huskies were the favorites. The men from Seattle were simply the best relay at the Arkansas Qualifier in terms of quality and completeness. And with Oklahoma State, the defending DMR national champions, also in this field, it was hard to envision the Cavaliers being competitive towards the top. In fact, through the first three legs, it didn't seem like UVA had any shot at even placing in the top-three. Conor Murphy, who was rebounding from a tough weekend in Boston, held on to the top group through the lead-off spot. However, he exchanged the baton at the backend of that pack. And with the middle distance legs from other teams opening up a surprisingly large gap, Gary Martin was at least 20 to 30 meters back when he was given the baton. And frankly, even if Martin was able to catch up to the rest of the field, he likely would have expended too much energy to hang with them at the end of the race...right? Wrong. While Washington's Luke Houser led the rest of the anchors, Martin slowly chipped away at the lead and caught up with about two-and-a-half laps to go. And for a moment, it looked like Martin was going to get his Husky counterpart on the final straightaway. But in the end, Houser held on to give Washington a 9:18 DMR victory while the Cavaliers just dipped under the 9:19 mark as well. When it comes to Washington, nothing they did was surprising. They were simply the best overall relay in this field and they delivered on the understandably lofty expectations that we (and the nation) had for them. Waskom stayed competitive with the top group, Green closed a significant gap on the 800-meter leg with a 1:46 split and Houser looked cool, calm and collected en route to the victory. But when you look at Virginia's splits, you wouldn't think that they were at the very backend of this field when Martin got the baton. Murphy at least stuck around with the rest of the lead-off group while freshman Alex Leath held his own with a strong 1:48.75 (800) split...which was somehow the second-slowest split in the field. Of course, when your anchor leg splits 3:51, that's going to cover up a lot of gaps that could have incrementally built up by the time Martin began his race. The Oklahoma State men are a very interesting team. They didn't have Fouad Messaoudi, but still ran 9:19 for a close 3rd place finish. And through the first three legs, the Cowboys were flat-out awesome. Freshman Brian Musau handed the baton off in the lead (alongside Iowa State) and the middle portion of Oklahoma State's lineup ultimately established a noticeable gap. Well, that is until the rest of the field caught up to Yanouri at the latter-half of the 800-meter leg. And in the end, Ryan Schoppe valiantly produced a fantastic 3:53 split to keep the pressure on Houser towards the tail-end of that race. Here's something to consider: Both Brian Musau and Ryan Schoppe are expected to qualify for the indoor national meet over 3000 meters. That event takes place on day two of the national meet rather than day one. That means that both Musau and Schoppe could be entirely fresh for the DMR at the national meet and have a night of rest before their 3k final the next day. And when you glance at the teams that have a DMR in a national qualifying position, the only other teams that will probably be 100% fresh when they venture back to Boston are Virginia Tech and Indiana (not including the 400-meter legs). As for Arkansas, they were definitely better than I expected them to be, placing 4th with a 9:20 mark. It seems like the Razorbacks simply got stronger every time they passed the baton. Plus, I didn't know if someone like Peter Maru had the necessary turnover to be competitive in this field. He is, after all, a 5k specialist who could end up being even better over 10,000 meters later this spring. The Iowa State men were the final DMR lineup to cross the line as Texas and Washington's "B" team recorded DNF marks. The Cyclones may have recorded a 9:24 DMR result, but I'm sure they wanted a bit more. However, when you look at their splits, you gotta commend Iowa State -- they actually had a great race. Darius Kipyego handed off the baton in the lead and Finley McLear was as good as the rest of the field over 800 meters with a 1:47 split. However, Said Mechaal simply had a tough day, recording a 3:59 split on the anchor leg which isn't indicative of his true fitness. He ran 3:57 in the mile earlier this season and was probably capable of running closer to 3:56 or even 3:55. But what if I told you that the Virginia Tech men had almost the exact same splits as the Cyclones on all three of their main distance legs...and instead ran 9:22? Both the Virginia Tech men and Iowa State men had their lead-off leg split 2:50, their 800-meter leg split 1:47 and their anchor legs were within a second of each other (3:59 vs 4:00). The only difference? Judson Lincoln IV dropped a monster 44.74 split for the Hokies while Iowa State's 400-meter leg was nearly a full two seconds slower. And if just one more team runs faster than Iowa State in the DMR during the upcoming conference weekend, then the usually inconsequential 400-meter leg will be the difference between the Hokies advancing to the national stage and the Cyclones not advancing a relay. Olivia Markezich Drops Unreal 4:22 Anchor Split to Give Notre Dame Women Comfortable 10:44 DMR Victory As much as I would like to dive super in-depth about the women's DMR at the Alex Wilson Invitational, there really isn't a whole lot to discuss outside of Notre Dame and maybe LSU. Despite posting a final DMR time of 10:44, the Fighting Irish women were actually two seconds back of the leaders, LSU, before Markezich got the baton. And when she did, it was game over for everyone else. The Notre Dame veteran threw down an unbelievably fast 4:22 anchor split en route to the win! Yes, 4:22, not 4:32 -- that's not a typo. Make no mistake, we knew that Markezich was talented and was capable of comfortably going under 4:30 in the mile. She had, after all, run 4:27 in the mile on the same track a few weeks earlier. But seeing the results show a 4:22 anchor split was beyond outstanding. And in the end, that performance gave the Fighting Irish an 11-second win, meaning that Markezich actually ran 13 seconds faster than the Tigers' anchor. A final DMR time of 10:44, on paper, puts Notre Dame in the national title discussion. It also doesn't hurt that Markezich will likely do the DMR/3k double at the national meet, allowing her to stay fresh for her relay on day one of the NCAA Indoor Championships. And yet, despite all of that, it also seems fair to say that the rest of Notre Dame's relay will need to provide a little more help if they want to win a national title. The ladies of South Bend will see much stronger competition on the national stage and it's likely that they will be handing the baton off further from the lead than they were this past weekend. It should also go without saying that the other anchor legs for other relays will be much stronger in comparison to what we saw at the Alex Wilson Invite. However, in fairness to those women, there wasn't a replay (of the women's DMR) to go back and watch that race. Without knowing the splits of those first three legs, the analysis for Notre Dame's DMR is going to admittedly be a bit more broad. But the fact that we're even entertaining the idea of this Notre Dame squad winning a national title goes to show how impressive their effort was this past weekend. With someone who is debatably the best anchor leg in the nation and a fresh relay, the Irish should very much be considered in the title mix. As for LSU, their 10:55 effort was valiant, but the Tigers were certainly stretching their fitness in a relay where two legs were above 800 meters. It's possible that a different relay order could have been conducive to greater success -- something that we may see at the SEC Championships -- but I don't think that we're necessarily surprised by how the LSU women performed. Northern Arizona & North Carolina Clash in DMR Battle as Both Programs Produce 9:17 Marks For the most part, this was a very predictable race. Through the lead-off leg, the first four men featured Adam Spencer (Wisconsin), Ethan Strand (North Carolina), Colin Sahlman (Northern Arizona) and Camden Marshall (Indiana). That quartet unsurprisingly broke away from the rest of the field by the time they handed off the baton. Although Wisconsin built a small lead over the rest of the pack, Jackson Sharp was eventually caught by the superstar anchor legs of Nico Young (NAU) and Parker Wolfe (UNC) as well as Michigan veteran, Nick Foster. In the end, Young and Wolfe got separation from the rest of the field and threw down a thrilling finish where the former barely held off the latter. The Lumberjacks would get the win over the Tar Heels as both teams ran 9:17 marks. Look, we could sit here all day and break down every little move and intricacy that we saw from Northern Arizona and North Carolina in that Alex Wilson DMR Invite race. But truthfully, that seems unnecessary. That's because I highly doubt that NAU or UNC will be fielding their top names in their respective lineups at the national meet. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, Lumberjacks will likely have Colin Sahlman run the mile while Theo Quax and Nico Young will probably run the 5k. Could Sahlman double back for the DMR while Quax and Young scratch the 5k to do the DMR/3k double? Sure, I suppose that's possible, but it also feels extremely unlikely. If I had to guess, NAU's DMR is going to feature three brand new names come March...who could probably still score at the national meet. It's almost an identical conversation for North Carolina. Could Ethan Strand double back from the mile prelims to run in the DMR? Sure, he could do that. And could Parker Wolfe scratch the 5k do to the DMR/3k double? Yes, that's also possible. Even so, I just don't see that happening and that's why I'm largely giving my kudos to both of these programs and moving on. I will, however, say that most of the major legs on each of those relays turned out to have much better range than I originally thought they did. As for Michigan, I said in our meet preview that the men of Big Blue are usually better in the DMR than some of their times would suggest, at least in recent years. A lot of that can be attributed to Nick Foster who has looked fantastic this season. After running 3:54 in the mile a few weeks ago, the Wolverine star threw down a 3:53 anchor split to give Michigan's DMR a final time of 9:19. But truthfully, we already knew what Foster was capable of. It was the rest of this lineup that had a quietly-great race. And while I don't have exact splits, it looks like the middle portion of their relay made up a ton of ground to put Foster in a really strong position. Kudos to Michigan. That was a really solid and complete race from them. As for Wisconsin, I mentioned in our preview that the entries didn't originally show Adam Spencer, Abdullahi Hassan and Jackson Sharp. That's why I basically wrote off the Badgers in my predictions. But if those three men had originally been listed in the entries, then I would have maybe entertained the idea of them winning. But instead, the men from Madison, Wisconsin settled for a solid DMR time of 9:21 and a 4th place finish. That performance was by no means a poor effort from the Badgers, but they likely could have done more. I thought the decision to put Spencer on the lead-off leg and Sharp on the anchor was an interesting one, although I also would have entertained that same order if I was Coach Mick Byrne. As for Indiana, I can't say I'm too surprised. They were one of the more complete DMR lineups in this field and they showed that with a 9:23 performance. Sure, they may not have been the center of attention in this race, but like I mentioned in our preview, Camden Marshall and Austin Haskett at either side of this relay seemed like it was going to lead to success...and spoiler alert, it did. The final team that I briefly want to highlight is Cornell. They were awesome. They ran 9:24 despite being significant underdogs. And while they'll narrowly miss the national meet with that time, they made my pre-race analysis look great. Now if only I had actually listed them five seconds faster in my predictions... Quick Hits (Extended Version) There were a small handful of great individual performances that we also need to highlight. Here are a few key results from this past weekend that you should know about. Columbia's Phoebe Anderson, NC State's Sam Bush & Grace Hartman Run Sub-15:30 Converted 5k Marks Although the JDL Fast Track facility didn't produce any head-turning DMR times this winter, that venue was still home to some exceptionally fast late-season 5k marks. In a fairly close race, it was NC State veteran Sam Bush running a flat-track converted time of 15:25 while Columbia star Phoebe Anderson had the breakthrough race that we knew she was capable of, posting a 15:26 flat-track conversion of her own. And Grace Hartman? The second-year Wolfpack talent? Well, she ran a flat-track converted time of 15:29 in that same 5k race. For the sake of time, here's some quick thoughts on those results: a) Bush's stamina-based fitness is stronger than I thought it would be at this point of the year, b) Anderson was due for a big-time performance, but I didn't think it would be this big, and c) Hartman was capable of running a time like this...but I didn't think she would be capable of doing it as a sophomore. Steven Jackson (Boston College), Parvej Khan (Florida) & Ben Perrin (Montana State) Post 3:55 Mile Marks (Converted for Perrin) Truthfully, I'm not surprised that Jackson ran 3:55 in the mile and Perrin has traditionally found success on his home track at altitude. I will, however, say that Jackson looks like he's more than just a one-race wonder. He has assembled a small string of races this season which have validated his prior momentary flashes of brilliance. Khan, however, is an interesting development. The freshman middle distance standout from India has undoubtedly been better than I expected, at least as a rookie. If he gets enough scratches to get into the national meet (and it will be close), then I'd be very interested in seeing how he fares in a field as elite as that. Sophia Gorriaran Thrives in Second Collegiate 800-Meter Race, Carter Fitzgerald Runs Big 1:47 Half-Mile PR Harvard rookie Sophia Gorriaran, in her second 800-meter race of the season, was able to produce a fantastic time of 2:01.68 at Boston U. this past weekend. But truthfully, that's what we expected from her. That performance doesn't really tell us anything new other than she's plenty fit and in a good spot going into the postseason. As for Carter Fitzgerald, the Penn State sophomore produced a fantastic 1:47 (800) PR on his home track this past weekend. That time now puts him at NCAA #12. And even though he is far from safe in terms of national qualification, he may still have a shot at advancing depending on how some of these conference meets unfold. Also, Jason Gomez (Iowa State) and Nathan Green (Washington) both ran 1:47 for 800 meters this past weekend. Green was actually on the double after a 1:46 split for the Huskies' DMR earlier that day.

Finding Balance (Parts One + Two) 4. Gauging Impact (Parts One + Two + Three) 3.