This is from an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle by Jim Castor:
[Hilton's] coach screamed, "This isn't right" when the scores were flashed and Hilton was nowhere in the top 10, after leading the race.
Two meet officials reportedly were fired on the spot when errors were discovered, forcing an embarrassing second awards ceremony that took medals away from some."
Can you imagine what chaos it was? What a way to manage a national meet!
There was a technical problem with the finish-line camera. These officials probably jumped the gun before verifying the results.
Read the whole article. Those poor girls went through a lot. If the Hilton coach hadn't spoken up nobody would've even checked. At a NATIONAL NIKE MEET! At first they didn't believe him! Incredible story...
this wasn't the only problem, can name at least 12 others
Nikecoursehelper wrote:
this wasn't the only problem, can name at least 12 others
No.1 being the course, it's crap.
This leaves the door wide open for next year's inaugural Border Wars Challenge! http://www.borderwarsports.com
kind of funny how dyestat hypes the hell out of the race . . . which always turns out to be crap . . . and parents and coaches come on here and say how nice the whole Nike experience was . . . which kind of makes me long for the old days when zillion dollar corporations and cross-country did not mix. the scenerio for the future will be kids showing up for non-corporate-funded dual meets but refusing to run because there are no goody bags. no schwag no run. just as there are 32 college bowl games, there will be 32 team national cross-cross races sponsored by everyone from Poulon Weedeaters to Tampax tampons.
it's too bad high school cross-country on a national level doesn't have it's shit together. and won't for many years.
the meet is not helping hs xc. number one problem is the subjectivity of the selection process. then there's: (i) the problem of forcing a season long peak; (ii) the course location (portland); (iii) the course itself; (iv) the dyestat video stream and promotion; and (v) the meet management.
why do high schoolers (and their parents and coaches) drool all over themselves about this meet?? they are like lambs being led to slaughter.
Which way do you (the LetsRun naysayers) want it? Little or no support from the running corporations, or would you like to see a little of the cash flow that you plunk down for your shoes or shorts go back into funding some events for the sport?
Yeah, it's horrible that Nike steps up to sponsor an event for high school XC. It's horrible to have dyestat generate publicity for an event. It was certainly sad to see the 500-800 high school runners excited about extending their competitive season and racing in the mud.
Dude, the meet sucks. You need to face facts.
This thread is about the scoring. How could they make such a poor mistake? They had to yank the medals from around the Yankton girls' necks, and they had a sorry excuse for a second medal ceremony after everybody went home, when the Hilton girls finally got theirs.
saw it coming -- wrote:
the meet is not helping hs xc. number one problem is the subjectivity of the selection process. then there's: (i) the problem of forcing a season long peak; (ii) the course location (portland); (iii) the course itself; (iv) the dyestat video stream and promotion; and (v) the meet management.
why do high schoolers (and their parents and coaches) drool all over themselves about this meet?? they are like lambs being led to slaughter.
Agree with everything except the course, and possibly location. Just because Footlocker has bastardized the meaning of cross country with a manicured national course for 20 years, it doesn't change the fact that NTN is the closest thing to a REAL cross country course - from a historical - perspective that most of these athletes will ever run on. Except in the NorthEast where we hit the slop all the time, which is why we keep on winning.
Didn't this happen to Hitlon against Radnor too? Is the team jinxed. Props to their vigilant coach!
Keep that excess corporate money away from scholastic sports. High school seasons are too long and high schoolers are over-raced as it is. Kinney/Foot Locker is more than enough for those who want to race even later in the season, the team stuff just extends pressure to do that onto those who otherwise wouldn't choose to be racing at that point. I'd rather see the money spent on some of the poorer college teams so that they can occasionally travel teams to better races and bigger invites, but that's not something that Nike would be able to exploit for marketing purposes.
agree that the NTN course is a good challenge and that hs cross-country as a whole has been standardized. it generates more interest if xc times can be compared like track times but it's counter to the very essence of cross-country. at least NTN doesn't adhere to that.
I think NTN does ramp up the pressure for kids to make adult dreams come true. no big surprise Joe Newton got busted coaching out of season or that Dave Houle is coaching at a 2A charter school now. if anyone could take a behind-the-scenes look at the adults who drive the sport--the people at NTN, borderwars, dyestat, and the coaches at some of the top programs, you'd find a lot of greedy little people with huge egos. kids really are secondary, but sshhh, don't tell the kids that. let them think they pwn everything.
Sagacious wrote:
it doesn't change the fact that NTN is the closest thing to a REAL cross country course - from a historical - perspective that most of these athletes will ever run on.
yes of course as everyone realizes the original cross country courses consisted of hay bales stacked up in a row on a horse track and then flooded like a race patty in lancashire.
dunes runner wrote:
yes of course as everyone realizes the original cross country courses consisted of hay bales stacked up in a row on a horse track and then flooded like a race patty in lancashire.
you've proven in the past that your actual knowledge of the sport is extremely limited, dunes runner. Why keep proving it?
Don't discourage dunes walker. His posts are amusing - like that guy in Iraq who insisted they were winning while the city was burning in the background. Even better he pretends to be a woman. Let him be.
As for Mcshag, you are right on so many counts but the kids really do love it. I thought Houle got a pretty raw deal. Am I wrong?
Kids really do love eating lots of ice cream and candy, too. Just because they "really do love" something doesn't necessarily mean that it's in their own best interest or should be encouraged.
Slippery Slope wrote:
Kids really do love eating lots of ice cream and candy, too. Just because they "really do love" something doesn't necessarily mean that it's in their own best interest or should be encouraged.
Ok, you want to pretend you know something about logic...
NTN motivates kids to work hard for a posistive end result.
Motivating kids for a positive end result is a valuable life skill.
Therefore, although it has limitations and flaws, NTN is still a good thing for kids as it promotes a valuable life skill.
I think you had too much candy and ice cream, and didn't run enough, as a kid.
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