Schedule Announced for Postponed 2020 Men's Cross Country Season
1/12/2021 12:00:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
• 2020 U-M Men's Cross Country Schedule
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan men's cross country head coach Kevin Sullivan announced Tuesday (Jan. 12) the limited competition schedule for the postponed 2020 fall season, which will run concurrently with the 2021 indoor track and field season.
The Big Ten Conference has approved a neutral-site championship meet to be held Jan. 30 in Shelbyville, Ind., with the NCAA Championships set to be hosted by Oklahoma State on March 15 in Stillwater, Okla.
No other regular-season competition has been approved at this time, and the NCAA has eschewed the regional qualifying system for the abbreviated season. Qualifying criteria for the NCAA Championships have yet to be announced.
With the cross country season set to run in parallel with the indoor track and field campaign -- which begins Saturday (Jan. 16) and concludes on March 13 -- distance runners have been granted permission to compete for both teams simultaneously.
"The guys are excited to have an opportunity, especially after the last-minute nature of the way the fall season was postponed," Sullivan said. "They're excited about the opportunity to compete. We're fortunate that we're able to put a schedule together that's going to allow us to run both indoors and cross-country concurrently. We're just going to jump on that opportunity and make the most of the small window of competition that we do have."
The Big Ten Championships will be held on an off weekend during the newly announced indoor track and field schedule, while the NCAA Cross Country Championships are slated to be run just days after the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Michigan will enter the abbreviated season ranked No. 15 in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll after finishing seventh at the 2019 NCAA Championships.
