No track team?

<p>Is it true that there is no track team at Northwestern? I think they're the only school in the Big 10 that doesn't have one. Does anyone know if they have intramural track, at least?</p>

<p>Yes, that’s true.
[Northwestern</a> Official Athletic Site](<a href=“http://nusports.cstv.com/index-main.html#]Northwestern”>http://nusports.cstv.com/index-main.html#)</p>

<p>By the way, our W. Lax and Tennis are both #1 seed for the NCAA tournament.</p>

<p>That’s cool for those athletes, but I pole vault. I can’t do tennis. :(</p>

<p>Is there intramural track at all?</p>

<p>[Sport</a> Clubs, Leagues, & Intramurals, Department of Athletics and Recreation, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.fitrec.northwestern.edu/sportclubs/index.html]Sport”>Northwestern University Recreation - Official Athletics Website) </p>

<p>No intramural track.</p>

<p>:(</p>

<p>Okay, thanks for answering my questions anyway.</p>

<p>^unless what’s on the website isn’t comprehensive.</p>

<p>I don’t know. I guess there’s no harm in asking, though.</p>

<p>The link you posted did lead me to a webpage about a gymnastics club I might join, though, so thank you. :)</p>

<p>there’s not even a track at the school, it’s ridiculous</p>

<p>There’s an indoor running track in SPAC, but I don’t know if that is a standard size, etc.</p>

<p>They’d basically have to have the track enclosed for it to be at all worthwhile, which would require a rather large indoor facility which we don’t have.</p>

<p>Seems less ridiculous than Minnesota not having a Baseball team.</p>

<p>^ It wouldn’t have to be indoors for it to be worthwhile; I’m from the Midwest, and ny high school has an outdoor track that works just fine for the spring track season.</p>

<p>That may well be true, but I must say that the way our year works out, along with the lakefront weather, there’d be few guarantees about usability. </p>

<p>I agree it’s strange we don’t have one, though not as strange as the absence of certain other things (Men’s fencing, for instance)</p>

<p>They are not going to have an outdoor track if they don’t have a NCAA team to begin with. Unless you are training for T&F competitions, there’s really no reason you have to run on it. I went to grad school at Stanford which has an outdoor track and it’s never crowded. I bet most of those that I saw were on Stanford team. Most runners don’t run on it. NU probably just doesn’t think it’s wise to spend $$$ to have it and then maintain just to satisfy a small group of people who have to run on a track.</p>

<p>Dyche Stadium/Ryan Field had a track until renovations in the late ‘90s. I’m not sure when track & field was eliminated as a varsity sport, although it was certainly gone by the late ‘80s. Incidentally, Northwestern’s first female letter winner was also the first American woman to win an Olympic track & field gold medal (although she actually won her first gold as a high schooler; see [USATF</a> - Hall of Fame](<a href=“http://www.usatf.org/halloffame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=137]USATF”>http://www.usatf.org/halloffame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=137)).</p>

<p>The absence of men’s sports like fencing is not too surprising in light of Title IX (<a href=“http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj19n2/cj19n2-9.pdf[/url]”>http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj19n2/cj19n2-9.pdf&lt;/a&gt;).</p>

<p>It’s not that I want an outdoor track just for the heck of it–if NU had a NCAA track team, I would train to compete on it.</p>