The big news in Iowa high school cross-country entering the 2015 season is the increase in the distance of the race for girls to five kilometers (3.1 miles), which is the same as the boys. Greene County high school cross-country coach Kelly Simpson shares his thoughts on the move with Raccoon Valley Radio. “I’ve sat in meetings where this discussion was taking place over the last few years and wondered if it was worth going to a five K when we have such good numbers at four K. Should we go up to 5 K and what’s it going to do to the numbers? Just like when we went from two miles up to 4 K, kids didn’t come back out. We’re seeing kind of a repeat going from 4 K up to 5 K.”

The coach said there’ potentially good news down the road. “What we saw was the numbers will rebound over time. It will come back, but it’s going to take a little time for kids to convince themselves they won’t die after 4,000 meters, so it will come back.”

Greene County has nine girls out for cross-country, and only six boys. The boys have run five kilometers for some 25 years.