Is Cross Country the only track event where the men and women compete at different distances for the same event?

Men's will run 8000M in Virgina this weekend while the women will run 6000M.

There is no Women's Marathon distance shorter than the men, so why are the women running a shorter distance than the men?

but I’m fairly sure the men run 8k during most of the season and then ramp it up to 10k for the NCAA regional and championship meets.

I also can’t answer why they ramp the distance for the season’s most important races while the women do not.

I just don't get why the men and women don't run the same distance.

to acknowledge. I know my daughter when she started running X country in college got a top school time for the 6k and it didn't seem that remarkable but the school commented on it in their write up. Also cross country courses vary so maybe certain distances work better.

As for men women difference it may have to do with meet time management since the women are slower and more importantly the race can't be over until the last runner comes in. That was just what I thought of, but I have no facts.

The women, of course, qualified automatically having won the regional.

missed qualifying by getting third. Hope she enjoyed her Sophomore season.

Scored in a few meets and had a few PBs, though, of course, always difficult to compare across courses and conditions. Being among the quarter of the roster selected to run in the regional was also a big deal for her.

One teammate qualified for the national championship meet and another missed out by about one second.

Iowa State has a very good team with everybody back and a couple of new women in the mix. Realistically and with the full benefit of hindsight, dislodging them for the second auto-bid would have required a couple of teammates who missed the season due to injury and due to electing military service over a COVID year with an injury also contributing to the decision in the latter case.

This Saturday's championship races should be fun to watch with both Irish teams positioned for strong performances.

I hope life's not too lonely out in Corvallis these days with almost all your Pac-12 / 10 / 9 / 4 / 2 friends departing for other destinations. Hopefully the Beavers -- and the Ducks -- can finish the football season strongly!

solution which there are some clever ones out there. My favorite is the WCC teams all join the PAC 12 with WSU/OSU in all other sports & the top 6 MWC teams join the PAC2 to have a PAC8 football conference. The MWC keeps all their non-football sports together and has their 6 remaining football schools join 2 FCS schools as the lower conference which could be working with the Big Sky. The kicker they do relegation and every year the worst team drops from the PAC8 & the best MWC8 team goes up. Maybe they can work out with the ncaa to allow a relegation game and figure out how to let the Big Sky FCS schools be part of it. That would bring a cool EPL concept to American football and maybe Apple with their MLS soccer love might provide a fun media deal with the Cougs, Beavs and all these west coast schools who participate.
Easiest for them would be for the Big12 to take them, but the PAC2 just won their court case. I am going to the Washington/OSU game Saturday in Corvallis which SRO ate already sold out and will be their biggest crowd ever. Then if OSU & Oregon win there is a good chance the last PAC12 will be a barnburner as whoever wins will get to the PAC12 championship ngame in Vegas. I have my 47 yard line Autzen club seats for the Civil War which I'll go with my son.

Next year I will have my Duck season tix for their inaugeral Big 10 season which includes tOSU. I also will go to at least one road game as they have both Michigan and Wisconsin. It will be interesting.