4K or 5K for girls? Opinions vary

 Amber Decker is an elite cross country runner at Linn-Mar High School who wants to run in college someday.

Count her among those that want to see Iowa extend its girls cross country races to 5,000 meters.

"I think it would be so much better than what we've got now," she said. "Not everybody wants to run in college, but for those that do, it would better prepare us for what's to come."

Taylor Burke is a middle-of-the-pack varsity runner for a tradition-rich small-school program at North Linn. She runs to help her team, stay in shape for basketball and improve her middle-distance splits in track.

Count her in the other camp, the camp supporting status quo."I wouldn't be too big on going longer," she said. "Anybody is cross country can run a 5K, but racing a 5K, that's totally different."

A survey is being conducted by the Iowa Association of Track Coaches, gauging the interest level of girls' coaches on the possibility of changing the length of the girls' course from 4,000 meters to 5,000.

"A lot of big schools want to go to 5K," said Benton Community Coach Marty Thomae, who will become the IATC president in December and serves as a member of the state cross country advisory committee.

"Most of the smaller schools don't want to switch. There's a definite split there."

Boys in Iowa have run 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) since the late 1980s. Girls switched from 2 miles to 4K (2.5 miles) in 2002.

Girls in Minnesota and Wisconsin also run 4K. Illinois girls run 3 miles, Nebraska and Missouri girls run 5K.

"I have mixed emotions (about a possible change)," said Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union executive director Mike Dick. "The small schools, they have a concern of whether they'll lose kids if the race is lengthened, and some of them have trouble fielding a complete team (of five girls) as it is."

"The elite, big schools with a lot of kids ... they're a lot more favorable to it. It's something that we'll continue to gather information on. So far, we haven't had enough support to make a change."

Among the "yes" votes to the survey were Todd Goodell of Linn-Mar and Mark Jensen of Cedar Rapids Kennedy.

"Yes," Jensen said emphatically. "I think if you want to talk about developing young female athletes that are brave and strong, you don't want anybody telling them that they can't handle the same race as the boys."

Goodell likes the 5K concept, not only as a male-female equality issue, but as making girls' cross country a true distance event.

"The shorter the race is, it becomes more of a long-sprinter, middle-distance race," he said. "Those kids have the opportunity to excel in track. Cross country should be a distance runner's race."

Blaire Dinsdale enjoyed a Hall of Fame track career at North Tama High School (she and her twin Brooke graduated in 2008) before running at the University of Nebraska.

Dinsdale feels Iowa high school runners are at a disadvantage by running 4K cross country races.

"Colleges want to see a 5K time when they're recruiting you," said Dinsdale, now 23 and a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual in Waterloo. "It's a recruiting thing, and it's a transition thing. Going from 4,000 meters in high school to 6,000 meters in college, that's a big jump."

That's a dilemma that Decker will deal with soon. The sophomore is ranked No. 5 in Class 4A heading into Thursday's state-qualifying meets.

"I really think going to 5K would help (in recruiting)," she said. "We never run 4Ks in road races. It's always 5K."

For every Decker, though, there are dozens of runners at Burke's level, and far below that.

"It would be a big change," Burke said. "You'd have to push yourself more. The biggest change would be the mental part. When I'm done racing 4K, I'm mentally ready to be done."

Thomae has won state championships in cross country and track at Benton, a Class 3A school.

He sides with the small schools in the 4K-5K debate.

"Going to 5K, it would affect us," he said. "A lot of girls, especially young girls, I don't know if they'd come out if they had to run that extra half-mile."

Participation numbers, that's something IGHSAU keeps a keen eye on.

"We don't want to lose kids," Dick said. "We want kids to participate and have a positive experience."

According to Goodell, that same concern was raised in 2002.

"When they changed from 2 miles to 4K, people were afraid numbers would go down," he said. "But look now. The sport is blossoming. There are more kids out then ever, and kids are performing at a better level than ever before."

Jensen said, "You're not going to lose the competitive kids. You might lose some kids that are there for the social aspect."

Thomae said that numbers on his team haven't fallen since 2002. But, he said, "It gets harder for me to convince girls to go out, and I think it will get harder if we go to 5K. But I think it's inevitable that this will happen. It's just a matter of when."