Arkansas' Stanley Kebenei is entered in the Steeplechase and 5K which are 85 minutes apart.

A few months back the NCAA announced a new scheduling format for the NCAA Championships. There were mixed reactions to the change, some positive and some negative. The purpose of the change was to make the championships easier to follow and more compatible for TV programming. The effects of the schedule change appear to make it much harder on athletes to double, with events going from four days of competition to just two days of competition with one off day in the middle. Back in March, we asked the coaches at the NCAA Indoor Championships their thoughts on the change.

 

 

Change isn’t always easy to deal with, however based on the NCAA entries which were announced on Thursday not much has truly changed.

 

2014 Double Attempts vs 2015 Double Attempts:

Double Attempt	2015	2014
100/100H	05	02
100/200	91	95
100H/200	02	02
100H/400H	21	32
1500/5K	17	16
1500/Steeple	02	01
200/400	17	12
400/400H	01	00
5K/10K	39	48
800/1500	02	00
Steeple/5K	08	08
100/400	00	01
1500/10K	00	01

 

As you can see for the most part event doubling is consistent across the board with the exception being the 100/400 hurdle double, which makes sense because this year the 100/400 hurdles are on the same day. Now despite the overall entries being consistent, it is important to note that some schools in contention for a team title are affected.

 

Big Team Points Left on The Table: 

Oregon’s Jasmine Todd scratched the 200 and the triple jump. Even though the 100 and long jump are Todd’s go to events, you would think with Todd’s improvement in the 200 and triple jump that Oregon is leaving potentially 1-6 points on the table.
 

Oregon’s Will Geoghegan scratched the 1500. The Ducks will be looking for Geoghegan to be apart of a 1-2-3 sweep in the 5K. However, if the 1500 was on a different day Geoghegan probably could have added 1-6 more points by scoring in the 1500 as well.
 

Arkansas’ Stanley Kebenei, while a lock for 8-10 points in the steeplechase, his point potential in the 5K will be limited because he will be racing athletes with 24hrs of rest/fully fresh while he will be coming off of a steeplechase 85 minutes earlier.

 

The one you have to feel for though is Oregon's Jenna Prandini who will be racing six times in 2 days and also competing in the long jump.