Thursday, May 22, 2014

Note on change of CCS 3200m. format

Dear Members of the CCS Track & Field Committee,                                                                                

As you may remember, a couple of years ago at the end of the year meeting, your Committee proposed that the only ONE heat of the 3200 be conducted at the semifinals (rather than two (2) which had been the practice.  That proposal was accepted by the CCS Board of Managers.  Thus, as you remember from last year’s meet, we conducted only ONE heat in each gender, putting all 32 automatic qualifiers on the track at the same time.

This year, due to the fact that we had an unusually high number of at-large entries in the Girls 3200 (we have a total of 45 entries in that event)  and due to the fact that we have 1 less lane at San Jose City College (8 lanes) than we had at Gilroy HS (9 lanes), Meet Management and the CCS Commissioner have a serious concern about the safety of the athletes entered in this race.  As per the CCS Constitution, the CCS Commissioner is authorized to temporarily set aside a bylaw when there is a safety issue involved.  After consulting with the CCS Track & Field Games Committee, the Meet Referee, the USATF Starters, and a member of the CCS Track & Field Meet Jury of Appeals, it was unanimously felt that this was a serious safety concern.  Therefore, Commissioner Lazenby Blaser has decided to accept a unanimous recommendation to temporarily set aside the bylaw (which calls for only one heat of the 3200) and to conduct two heats of the 3200 meters as was conducted prior to the change a few years ago.  Noting that there are some at-large entries on the boys side as well, the fact that SJCC has one less lane, and in the spirit of gender equity, the boys 3200 will also feature two heats.   Thus two heats of 3200 meters will be conducted for each gender.  The top two athletes from each heat and next fastest 8 times (total of 12) will advance to the Finals. 

In addition due to these circumstances, the CCS Track & Field Committee will revisit this bylaw at their evaluation meeting which is scheduled for June 10 at 4 pm at the CCS Office.

I would like to thank all the members of the Meet Management Team who considered this issue and provided their input.

I would ask that all Representatives to the Track & Field Committee and the CCS League Commissioners please pass this on to the coaches in their league.

Steve

Steve Filios
CCS Assistant Commissioner

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This seems like a no-brainer to me. A semi-final should be, at minimum, two heats. And I'm tired of the "saves time" argument. If you're gonna run 4 heats each of the 100m-400m, run two heats of the 3200. Probably a similar amount of time for each at a meet of this level. Give the kids the due they have earned.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree more. It was wrong to have made them run with so many last year just to save time. The strongest group of athletes in CCS did a really nice job forcing a change.

Anonymous said...

It's upsetting to see the marks from half of the CCS trials field when superior athletes are at home. If you want CCS to truly represent the best athletes then something needs to be done.

hank said...

Other than Greenlow from Bellarmine in the 800, who in the Top 8 (or top 12 for the 1600/3200) ranked athletes from the CCS Top 20 list is not at the trials?

hank

pmccrystle said...

Hank: Off the top of my head, St. Francis boys 4x100, which is in the top 7 of the CCS, missed the at large by .04, and Serra 4x100 is in the top 10 but not at CCS. But, your point is taken: generally, the top marks are at CCS.

Anonymous said...

Yes, the top 50% is great. Bottom half not so much.
Is the point to have the most elite meet possible or is it participation? So we are assuming that kid in the field event who missed the auto by an inch or two or a kid by a few tenths could not compete for a finals spot? But there's a majority of the field that just is a joke. If you want to cut down the meet time put in standards. A 6 min miler? Girls running over 65 seconds in the 400? Boys running 4:40 in the mile. Getting beat by 10+ seconds in a 400 is ok? Yes the top get through, but you are descriminating against the smaller leagues. In a sport that is so measurable this process seems absurd to me. The best should race the best. CCS is not the time for participant ribbons.

Anonymous said...

Looks like tightening up the at the large time would take care of the problem. I see CCS girls are at 11:40.03. NCS has theirs at 11:12.73.

Albert Caruana said...

The 11:12.73 at-large mark is to qualify to the semis following the area/class a meets.

The 11:40.03 mark is to qualify from league to CCS semis.

If you check out the bulletins for the NCS area and class a meets, you will see that those at-large marks are much easier.

Anonymous said...

NCS league meets use the same times, except for the 1A schools advacing to the NCS 1A meet

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