Cancellations
- Thread starter B-K_Teach
- Start date
State has a pretty big role in the cancellations as far as "get it in if you can". I think they need state approval before they call it but I could be wrong. My experience has been they will keep going unless there is lightning. There will be issues with field events tonight. The meet director/starter and vocal coaches might agree that the long jump and high jump are putting athletes safety at risk. I don't know what they will do then. I guess if the field events are not safe they will have to postpone until Friday. Looks like there won't be much waiting out the rain. Most of state looks to be wet the whole night.
Every year it seems like some district comes out looking good because they ran in ideal conditions while others kept on schedule and ran in the rain/wind.
It's absolutely uncalled for. The state should have made those districts compete like the rest of the districts did. This was not isolated thunderstorms throughout the state with lightning etc. It was just cold steady rain and wind. These districts that cancelled should get their winners of each event in and no time based at large entries allowed. Every year this happens while the powers that be do a shoulder shrug. Does Mt. Ayr get to decide because they are defending champs? Ridiculous!!
Maybe Mt. Ayr decided because they actually knew what the weather was like at their track? They are 70 miles to the nearest 1A district, straight south. Pretty easy to believe the weather might change a little in that window.
As for only qualifying the winner, great idea, but let's apply it to Northwood-Kennset district and Osage district as well. Roughly the same number of kids aren't going to medal at state because you think they only would've qualified in the better weather than kids that miss out on qualifying from having to run in poor weather.
it rained for the beginning 3rd of the 2A meet at Roland-Story last night. And then more later in the meet. In watching the radar, it looked like central Iowa was getting the brunt, with north central, where Osage and Northwood are, looks like they had rain most of the night.
With that said, it wasn't "that" bad at Roland-Story (Story City) last night. It was wet, but it wasn't that cold. Also not much wind. At Story City, the track is in town, next to the river. So it is down in a hole, surrounded by trees. Wind was not really an issue there.
The meet was delayed by an hour due to the rain. They were trying to keep the finish line camera out of the rain, and then later, the efforts to calibrate and cover it. In talking to a 4x8 athlete (which is run right at the beginning), it was a little problematic, because he loosened up a little early. But for anybody else, I'm sure they were fine, as everybody knows the order once the meet gets going.
So anyway, as an observer, later in the meet, it was actually pretty good conditions. 60 and basically no wind. But earlier, I'm sure the rain bothered the high jumpers, shot and discuss people due to wet surface.
With that said, it wasn't "that" bad at Roland-Story (Story City) last night. It was wet, but it wasn't that cold. Also not much wind. At Story City, the track is in town, next to the river. So it is down in a hole, surrounded by trees. Wind was not really an issue there.
The meet was delayed by an hour due to the rain. They were trying to keep the finish line camera out of the rain, and then later, the efforts to calibrate and cover it. In talking to a 4x8 athlete (which is run right at the beginning), it was a little problematic, because he loosened up a little early. But for anybody else, I'm sure they were fine, as everybody knows the order once the meet gets going.
So anyway, as an observer, later in the meet, it was actually pretty good conditions. 60 and basically no wind. But earlier, I'm sure the rain bothered the high jumpers, shot and discuss people due to wet surface.
Is there really such a thing as "loosening up a little early" especially for high school athletes? If the 1 hour delay caused a problem, the athletes can simply loosen up again.
Either A) they trust the judgment of the two meet officials (one could argue these are the state officials) and athletic directors at each site, or B) they don't have enough competent people in their organization (see all the questionable decisions they've made in other sports each year).
Go back to the top three finishers at a district and then it doesn't matter what night the district is run. It can be run in a hurricane or blizzard and the only ones affected will be the qualifiers that night.
I saw in 2A boys, in the 4x800, a 7th place team qualified. I have no problem with that, they ran a pretty good time. But certainly interesting that a 7th place team got in.
I ask because the meet I went to the field event officials, although they treated everyone the same, did a poor job of marking and measuring, allowed throws to be measured in discus that were on the line, which I think is out of bounds, though I could be wrong. I also think the decision to postpone a meet should not rest in the hands of the host school, it should be made by an impartial official.
In an event like the 4x800, I don't mind that a 7th place team qualified at all.
What I wouldn't like to see is a district qualify that many in the 100m due to a wind advantage or something.
What I wouldn't like to see is a district qualify that many in the 100m due to a wind advantage or something.
There were 6 Drake Relays qualifiers in the 3000m at the 4A Urbandale qualifier. Ultimately, 2 of them chose not to race that event. Of the four who did, they placed 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th. The one finishing in 4th at qualifying was 5th at state XC. She conceivably will have a shot at a state track medal, but you would be leaving her home.
That same site's 4th place 800m runner was 2:20.66 and 5th place was 2:22.00. They qualified 8th and 11th overall. They were 9th and 12th at state XC. You'd be leaving both of them home too.
. The system now is fine. The better athletes for the most part get in, regardless of district site. The problem is allowing districts to cancel under weather conditions that are no worse than the rest of the state. It's pretty easy to pull up a weather radar on your phone and see that a district that cancelled is not experiencing anything different from the district you are sitting in. it's especially frustrating knowing a particular district had already decided to cancel a week in advance if the weather was not to their liking/ per a teacher from that district.
If you're still complaining about the 1A MA district, this is bs. The radar often shows rain where it's not raining and vice versa. The radar also does not show lightning. And lastly the radar doesn't show standing water in field events areas and portions of the all weather track from previous day's rains. Not all the districts have tracks in the same environment, quit trying to pretend they are all the same conditions when you couldn't possibly have been at more than one. No decision was made a week early, or even a day early, so even if you heard it from a teacher doesn't make it true. If it's a different district you are complaining about, I still doubt anybody knew they were going to cancel ahead of time. You are stuck in the mindset of a coach that is trying to get athletes in instead of a meet official that has to get a 100 volunteers to work the meet. It's not easy to just move days around for convenience, it's out of athlete safety. How you still think it is a conspiracy is beyond me.
And I forgot to mention that the meet on Saturday had to be delayed due to rain and lightning again. Talking to people at the Audobon, Manson, and Martensdale districts, the conditions sounded nearly identical between those four locations, but you obviously already knew that from looking at the radar. It's especially frustrating to hear people whine about things they're merely speculating about.
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