DIII Indoor Track and Field 2011

The coverage was nice - any time they provide free streaming for a track meet is great - but that commentator was an absolute idiot. He had no idea how many laps were in each race, how many were remaining - the best being "and now we have the distance medley relay where runners will be running... several... laps... 24 laps!"

He also seemed to think that everyone who was currently leading the race was "one of the favorites." In the girls' mile, he kept talking about how amazing it was that Kramer fell and finished in 4th and yet the WashU girl who beat her and finished second ALSO fell. Did he really just miss the fact that there were two falls in that race?

The coverage was pretty decent, with the exception of cutting out of the men's DMR to show some interview/replay of the long jump for a few of the more crucial minutes of the race (end of the 800m, beginning of the 1600m).

Overall, though, I do appreciate that they have a free stream so that we can actually watch our friends and team-mates compete. It was a good meet with some great races. Here's to outdoors!

I was being lenient in regards to the commentator, but the video itself with multiple angles and following athletes all the way around the track has to be the best we've had in DIII. He definitely didn't have a solid grasp on race distances and laps left.

NE Pride wrote:

DickTiago wrote:

Cazzola caused two falls, and with Cramer she ran up on the back of her and clipped her foot. And once Cramer stumbled Cazzola shoved her out of the way. I honestly don't know how no coaches protested.

They did... Middlebury's Coach did protest to no avail. Go Home.

Don't forget the screw job Oshkosh did on The College of New Jersey. They qualified the DMR with Cazzola then take her off from Nationals...so instead of a legit team on the track for the DMED...Oshkosh puts a JV team on the track and embarrasses themselves. It's one thing to throw on an alternate, but to put a team out there that's easily 25-30 sec. slower without that runner is a joke.

Did Oshkosh break any rules? If not then there is no legitimate argument except for figuring how to change the rule so this doesn't happen again. However, the easiest answer to is to control what you can control and qualify yourself whatever the others do.

ReggR wrote:

Don't forget the screw job Oshkosh did on The College of New Jersey. They qualified the DMR with Cazzola then take her off from Nationals...so instead of a legit team on the track for the DMED...Oshkosh puts a JV team on the track and embarrasses themselves. It's one thing to throw on an alternate, but to put a team out there that's easily 25-30 sec. slower without that runner is a joke.

This happens frequently. When Solinsky was at Wisconsin they would qualify a DMR every year with him anchoring then take him off for nationals because he would run 5K/3K. Even this year Stanford used Chris Derrick to qualify, then replaced him at nationals. Oshkosh qualified fair and square. The girls they put out there just had a bad day.

Oshkosh did what is within the system, which is fine. The rule needs to be changed for subs though, to qualify and then put a 20 second slower anchor strictly so the stud can run open events is stupid. If there is an injury, sure sub in.

As a coach, I'd not qualify a team that I'm not planning on running. It's called being ethical.

Like I said, this happens all the time, especially in D1 where you often see a 5K guy anchor a team's qualifying performance but then not run the relay at nationals because of how the schedule sets up. In the case of the Oshkosh women, they were competing for a team trophy. Having another entry in the meet gives you another opportunity to score, and even without Cazzola the four girls that ran could/should have been in contention for top 8.

DickTiago wrote:

Oshkosh did what is within the system, which is fine. The rule needs to be changed for subs though, to qualify and then put a 20 second slower anchor strictly so the stud can run open events is stupid. If there is an injury, sure sub in.

As a coach, I'd not qualify a team that I'm not planning on running. It's called being ethical.

I agree with your post. I'm all for teams subbing in athletes as long as it's doesn't totally change the complexion of the team. Subbing out Solinski might change 5 seconds..but they're still very competitive. Cazzola had a PR of 4:52 in the mile, their new anchor had a PR of 5:15 (and looking at the video she ran 5:25ish)...then you throw in an alternate, and you put a team out there that's 25sec.+ slower on paper.

It's an ethical responsibility of the coach, and what are you teaching your athletes/what experience are you providing them? Get a free dinner and a chance to get embarrassed at the national meet after riding the back of someone else? That's exactly what Vigil was talking about when he said american's "accept mediocrity".

I'm just glad the decision didn't effect my team, otherwise I'd be more pissy about it than I am now.

There's a difference between subbing out your stud for another person who is within 2-5 seconds as Wisconsin did, and subbing out for someone that is a full 20-25 seconds slower over a mile. The only reason for a sub should be due to injury. It's a lot easier in DIII to qualify a dmed, especially on the women's side, with one stud than it is in DI. So the comparison of wisconsin/D1 really isn't apples to apples. It's not much different than a 14:30 guy qualifying and not running the 5k but saying, "hey, let us run our 14:55 guy that was 30th on the list."

Great indoor season for DIII.

Was Ben Scheetz hurt or sick? I'm just an outsider wondering what happened. I bet he has a big outdoor season!

I heard he was on his period and ran out of tampons.

No need to make jokes or bash. He clearly had a tremendous indoor season. I just was curious what happened.

Rumor was his foot was hurt.

OrfTitworth wrote:

I heard he was on his period and ran out of tampons.

Translation: "I'm not nearly as fast as Ben Sheetz".

Definitely am not as fast as him over 400-mile, im sure he could run a 400 walk 10 seconds and continue and still beat me in an 800. Probably could over 5k+, but that doesn't mean I can't make fun of him.