National Intercollegiate Running Club Association
From WikiRun
The National Intercollegiate Running Club Association (NIRCA) is a group to coordinate college-based running clubs. There are currently 45 member universities from 20 states.[1] The clubs are divided into four regions.
NIRCA was founded in the spring of 2006. Prior to its formation, running clubs throughout the country had been competing in local road races, varsity college open invitationals, or did not compete at all. Many people recognized the need for a governing body to bring college-based club cross-country teams together to compete and interact. Greg Haapala (Michigan '06) and Tommy Otterbine (Penn State '07) started the group by contacting various clubs and organizing a national conference to discuss ideas and form what would become NIRCA. On May 12th and 13th 2006, Ohio State University hosted the first ever National Club Cross-Country Conference.
Represented at the conference were Ohio State, Ball State, Michigan-Dearborn, Penn State, and Michigan. The group set the framework for NIRCA and developed rules for the organization to follow as well as a constitution and website. The group selected Penn State as the host of the inaugural NIRCA National Championship meet slated for November 4th, 2006.
The national championship meet was modeled from Ball State's MC5 meet which started in 2004 and is the first known all-club cross country invitational.[2]
The mission of NIRCA "is to promote the sport of competitive running for students at the collegiate club level. By serving as the sport's governing body and central point of communication we will provide structure previously unavailable for college running, cross country and track clubs alike."[3]
The 2008 NIRCA Cross Country championship were held at Penn State in State College, Pennsylvania on November 8.[4] The 2009 NIRCA National XC Championships will be held on Saturday, November 14, 2009, in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[5]
External links
References
- ↑ http://www.clubrunning.org/about_members.php Retrieved 2008-09-15.
- ↑ http://www.clubrunning.org/about_history.php
- ↑ http://www.clubrunning.org/about_mission.php
- ↑ http://www.clubrunning.org/nationals.php Retrieved 07-04-2009.
- ↑ http://www.clubrunning.org/fullnews.php?id=14 Retrieved 07-04-2009