Historic Crystal Springs course in danger of closing forever

There has been an update in regards to the course with an official statement from the College of San Mateo which you can view here.

There are three prominent courses in California and they are the Mt. SAC, Woodward Park and Crystal Springs. The Mt. SAC course hosts the world-famous Mt. SAC Invitational and for many years was the state meet qualifying course for the Southern Section. The Woodward Park course has hosted the California State XC meet since 1987. The Crystal Springs course has been around since the early 70s and has hosted professional, the first Kinney (now Footlocker) West Region race and many other high school meets including the Central Coast Section qualifier for the state meet.

Last night, I was alerted to the following post on the Dolphins South End Runners Page:
"Bob Rush announced that the Crystal Springs Cross Country Course in Belmont will be closed permanently! Bob has managed the course since the seventies.

"It is with a very sad heart to announce that the College of San Mateo Athletic Dept. will be closing the CSM Crystal Springs Cross Country Course to all schools and all public runners and walkers. The entire area will be closed to all. it will not open even after the Coronavirus has been controlled. Any questions should be directed to the CSM Athletic Dept. I am no longer involved."

For those of you that are not aware, Bob Rush (above) was one of the people who designed the course in the early 70s and has tirelessly run the course, for the most part, singlehandedly since that time to this day. Much is owed to him from the running community in this area. 

This morning, that sad news was further confirmed in an article in today's SM Daily Journal which you can find at this LINK.

This is very much hope that an organization will step forward to save the course and this article will continue to be updated as we hear more about this situation.