Pitt Cross Country has a home

[TIGER-PAUL]

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...d-herbster-darryl-weston/stories/201908280156

"The start of this cross country season is especially exciting for me and the teams because it will be the first time in over twenty years that we hosted a cross country meet," said head coach Alonzo Webb. "The Pitt Panther Opener will be the kickoff to our highly-anticipated 2019-20 season. We are only competing in four meets during the season before the ACC championships in Blacksburg, Virginia hosted by Virginia Tech which allows us to get a lot of quality training and recovery to prepare for what we look to be another successful year."

Pitt will be hosting a home cross country meet for the first time in Webb's tenure as head coach at Pittsburgh. The Pitt Panther Opener will be held at the Carrie Blast Furnace in the industrial town of Rankin, PA on August 30. The historic Carrie Blast Furnace was fully operational from 1884 until 1982 and during its peak, the site produced 1,000 to 1,250 tons of iron per day. The men's 6K course and women's 4K course will wrap around the iconic structure and give patrons the true feel of why the City of Pittsburgh is referred to as the Steel City.

 

[PittAU]

Very cool. Sounds like a neat site.

 

[CrazyPaco]

https://www.post-gazette.com/sports...d-herbster-darryl-weston/stories/201908280156

"The start of this cross country season is especially exciting for me and the teams because it will be the first time in over twenty years that we hosted a cross country meet," said head coach Alonzo Webb. "The Pitt Panther Opener will be the kickoff to our highly-anticipated 2019-20 season. We are only competing in four meets during the season before the ACC championships in Blacksburg, Virginia hosted by Virginia Tech which allows us to get a lot of quality training and recovery to prepare for what we look to be another successful year."

Pitt will be hosting a home cross country meet for the first time in Webb's tenure as head coach at Pittsburgh. The Pitt Panther Opener will be held at the Carrie Blast Furnace in the industrial town of Rankin, PA on August 30. The historic Carrie Blast Furnace was fully operational from 1884 until 1982 and during its peak, the site produced 1,000 to 1,250 tons of iron per day. The men's 6K course and women's 4K course will wrap around the iconic structure and give patrons the true feel of why the City of Pittsburgh is referred to as the Steel City.

They've always run at Schenley. Duquensne runs the multi-dual meet. Frankly, the lack of meets they have scheduled this year is a little disturbing.

This article makes it seem as though Pitt couldn't hold a home meet at Schenley. It's as much Pitt's home course as anyone's. The setting may be novel at Carrie, but I hope it isn't just a 1000m loop as is suggested in the article. No one in XC wants to run in repetitive loops. The XC coaches can't be that daft to think they'll eventually host any real invites on a course that is just a half mile loop. I have no idea why Pitt isn't competing at Duquesne Duals or the CMU invite this year at Schenley, mere feet from campus, and is instead putting so much time and effort into this Carrie Furnace novelty that is a direct competitor to Duquesne Duals, but I hope they have a good reason for it.

 

[Chanceman]

There was a nice crowd at the meet. Much larger than I expected. It is a loop which is not great for the runners but nice for the spectators. Pitt men almost shut out the opponents going 1,2,3,4,and 6. Women also won. I don't think the site could handle a meet with more than 5 teams.

 

[anon_d97v9o3a8b6xr]

Loops like that aren’t ideal at all. Large meets will be very annoying for the runners with a short loop.

 

[Chanceman]

I agree. A couple women were lapped near the end of their race. If the race was longer, or if there was another team or two, it could've been confusing. I wondered if the short races (4K and 6K instead of 5K and 8 or 10K) was because of the possibility of runners being lapped.

 

[CrazyPaco]

Loops like that aren’t ideal at all. Large meets will be very annoying for the runners with a short loop.

Well, I'm rolling back my previous comments here after talking to some coaches. Some teams do hold their runners back from the full distances in these early meaningless meets. Also, there have been some criterion courses early. Bucknell, who was at the Pitt meet, had a loop criterion course last year. They had to do five loops on that. It's not usual I guess, but not unheard of. That said, I still don't get it. I've never met an XC runner that would want to run on a course like that. Just boring as all get out. I would hate that course/meet and they clearly aren't ever going to be able hold any major meet on it as was suggested as a possibility in that article.

Also, many teams do only have 4 meets before conference meets. But Pitt has a whole month between meets this coming weekend. That seems like a long time.