1161 Route 130 North,
NJSIAA Outdoor Track
Committee
Minutes
Members Present: James Camburn (Buena), Ed Colona (Westampton), Lou
Fraulo (Clifton), Wayne Gardiner (Delbarton), Bill Milone (South Plainfield),
Rich Refi (Hillsborough), Carl Rickershauser (State Rules Interpreter) John
Schwartz (Bloomfield), Pam Willson (Hackettstown), Barry Jackson (Winslow Twp)
and Don Danser (NJSIAA staff),
I. Correspondence:
A. From Chris Threston, Bishop Eustace Prep.
1.
Stop using
a. Bad roads
b. poor parking
c.
No shelter during a thunderstorm
d. Minimal bathroom facilities
e. Poor grounds, specifically the runways
for long jump, triple jump. Shot put circle worn
down on one side, creating puddles in the rain. No
reasonable javelin area anywhere.
f. Coaches have no access to jumpers to the
far runway.
Suggested alternate sites:
2.
Non-Public Group Meet opening height
of 5’10” was unreasonable.
3. Situation of the competition between
Non-Public A and B needs to be addressed.
Response
1.
a. Location (very centrally
located and easily reached from many major highways)
b.
8-laned track with lights and seating and some room for tents
c. For the great cooperation
the NJSIAA has received from the school in supplying the meet with every thing it has needed.
2.
1. Parking. Mr.
Buggy, the athletic director of South Plainfield, spent hours working with the
local police to devise better plans for parking and traffic. Some ideas worked,
others did not. It is a problem we keep working on.
2. Bad roads. Yes this year there was major work being
done on two of the main roads near the site. That won’t be the case in the
future.
3. There was plenty of shelter available in both the
school and the P.A.L. building during the thunderstorm. Getting people to take
advantage of it was another story.
4. In addition to the regular bathrooms up by the
refreshment stands, there were four portable toilets on the site. They will be
increased to eight next year.
5. The runway issue for all three jumps (LJ, TJ and PV)
are valid. The NJSIAA has been assured by
6. A long/triple jumper using the pit next to the
stadium parameter fence had to walk ten feet over to the rope where coaches and
spectators were standing to “have access to his/her coach.”
7. Seven athletes cleared the opening height in the
Non-Public A high jump. This is a state championship
meet and opening heights are established based on number of competitors and
their seeds at all levels of the tournament.
8. The classification for non-public track is sports-specific. Only schools with a
program are considered when dividing the schools into A and B as is done in
cross-country. They must be divided in half as required by the NJSIAA
constitution. To divide them in any other manner will take a change in the
constitution.
B. From Joe McLaughlin, Notre Dame
Could
it be possible to reverse the order for the wheelchair athletes, starting with
1600 and
finishing
up with the 100?
Response:
It will be done unless we hear from
the other schools with wheelchair athletes who disagree.
C. John Nepolitan, journalist
John
complained about the lack of cooperation between finish line officials and
photographers. He
admits
that both parties may be to blame. He hopes this issue can be worked out.
Response:
Meet management did get a few complaints
after the 100m dash during the Meet of Champions about photographers being too
close to the finish, which was forcing runners to stop short to avoid a
collision with them. In the future, meet management will speak to the officials
and photographers before the meet starts to set up parameters for a smoother
operation.
The following
were received after the meeting and were responded to by the tournament
director:
D. Bill Ehrlich,
For
every meet that the state runs, could we get the rules for that particular meet. For example, at
through.
It has been run differently at other meets.
Response:
Page 18-19 of the tournament regulations
describes how the open pit should operate. I will remind each meet director to
remind the long jump and triple jump officials to run the events as described
in the tournament regulations.
E. A parent about his athlete
who finished 3rd in his group in the pole vault, but was not allowed
to
compete
in the Meet of Champions because advancers were limited in the pole vault to
the top 18
medal
winners.
Response:
There is a cutoff in pole vault and no other event
because of time. With only one pit, there is no way 84+ vaulters (42 boys and
42 girls with the possibility of more due to ties), could get a chance to
vault on a Wednesday night. Getting a second pit is not just a matter of
getting additional landing pads and pole vault standards. #1 is having a place
to put it, then getting a runway and box built. Only one site I know of with an
8 lane track and two pole vault pits is
II. Review of the season
All
were in agreement with the fact that this was the wettest tournament on record.
Two of the 8 sectionals had some rain on Saturday.
For
the sectionals, we hire nearly 400 officials, for the groups over 100 and for
the Meet of Champions about 50 people. The sectionals are over a holiday
weekend. When this many people are involved, there are bound to be problems
with individual officials. We had our share this year. Perhaps if a brief
meeting of the referee with the finish line and umpires and the associate
referee with all of the field judges were held a few minutes before the meet to
go over some specific things that are unique to these meets, solve some of these problems would no longer
occur.
As
far as sites for these meets, we are always receptive to improved sites. Four
of the major criteria needed for a site to be considered:
1. School must be willing to host the meet (2 days + rain day
and over the Memorial Day holiday. If it is a sectional meet, the school’s
group and section are very important. For example, If Buena was no longer an
available site, all Group 4 sites in the South are not usable because
2. All-weather, 8-lane tracks with the ability to conduct all
seven field events at the same time are ideal sites. Lights are an absolute
requirement for the Meet of Champions.
3. Bathrooms and parking need to be ample.
4. Location – must be fairly easy to find.
The meet directors on all levels need to careful
review order of events, especially the field events, to ensure there are no
mistakes and obvious conflicts before the tournament regulations are published.
III. New Business
A. It was proposed by coaches of wheelchair athletes to add
field events. We will add the shot put as the first event in the Meet of
Champions, provided we find a qualified official. If interest is shown for more
field events, they will be considered for the following year.
B. It was proposed to allow an athlete to defend his/her title
in the Meet of Champions without having to qualify through the sectionals
and/or Group meet. The proposal was not approved.
C. It was proposed and approved to make the 400 meet dash the
first event in the Group Meet for Friday, and the 400m Intermediate Hurdles the
last running event on Friday.
E. It was proposed and approved that quarterfinals (if necessary
in meets without f.a.t.) be shown in the order of events and that Non-Public A
and B run trials in the 200 in the Group Meet.
G. It was proposed and approved that pole vault be conducted on
all levels like other field events, i.e. all the boys on one day and all the
girls on the next. The schedule up to
now had the same group (boys and girls) on the same day. For sites with two
pole vault pits, this made it difficult for coaches with boys and girls
vaulting at the same time.
H. Next year’s dates will be
Sectionals: May 25 and 26, 2007 (Friday
Group Meets June 1 and 2, 2007 (Friday
Meet of Champions:
Group Meets:
I. Girls will be first in every running
event.
J. Results of the survey about adding the indoor and outdoor
penathelon and an outdoor relay championship:
68 percent responding were in favor of adding the pentathlon
to the indoor program
74 percent to the outdoor program,
and 63 percent wanted to see an outdoor relay championship. 190 schools
answered the survey.
The next step will be to
figure out the how, when, where of these events.
Coaches should e-mail or
fax suggestions on how to achieve these objectives:
1. How should the pentathlon be integrated
into the winter program which will have to be totally reorganized now that
2. Concrete suggestions for adding the pentathlon to the state
outdoor program.
3. Concrete suggestions on the how, what, where, and when an
outdoor relay championship can be conducted.
e-mail ddanser@njsiaa.org
or fax