Boys NJ MOC 3200 stopped with one lap to go

"In a pretty incredible turn of events, the seeded section of the Boys 3200m was stopped during the 7th lap of the race.

The race was being led by the Rosa Brothers with Morgan Pearson running gamely just a couple of steps behind."

Uh...what?

Any idea what happens now? Do they re-run at another time or is that it?

what was the split through 6 laps?

I officiated at a track meet where something similar happened. (Not a State championship meet, though--just an all-comers' meet.)

The meet was at a hilltop track. As we started the final event, the 5,000 meters, we could see the clouds starting to build. After about eight minutes of running, as the clouds became more and more ominous, the meet director simply told each runner "one lap to go" as s/he crossed the finish line. The race was "won" in something under ten minutes, and none of the runners stopped after the "finish"--everyone just ran for cover.

The rain started immediately; the hail, which dented the hood of the car I was taking shelter in, about two minutes later. The lightning was amazing. [People in that locale were particularly alert to lightning, because a HS football player had been killed by it just a couple years before.]

It was a great move by the meet director, and I vowed to have the same kind of balls if ever I were conducting a meet and there was a question of athletes' safety. Kudos to the officials at NJ's MOC, for looking after the runners.

FWIW we're experiencing an amazing thunder/lightning storm in NYC, as I write this--probably the same storm they had in Jersey, and spectacular. Dangerous, too.

I was in attendance for this absolute disgrace of a call. Joe Rosa was well under state record pace and clearly had the race won, being about 4 seconds ahead of brother Jim and Morgan. The officials formed a barricade at the finish line and stopped Joe who threw his palms up in the air. Jim got there and pointed for Joe to come on let's finish this. Pearson was also visibly upset.

The entire last lap fans were screaming for them to let them finish it out seeing as they had about a minute of running left. The last 100 fans were yelling at Joe to go right by the officials. When they stopped them the place went nuts with people screaming obscenities about the NJSIAA. One rogue man grabbed the microphone and said something along the lines of this is the worst decision in the history of the NJSIAA.

It took them about 30 minutes to clear everyone from around the track out of the storm. There has been no word yet about what they will do as ar as redoing the race. Shameful!

Oh boo hoo!

Gonna run an 800 wrote:

what was the split through 6 laps?

I heard that at one lap to go, they were at around 7:40, or just under. There could have been a state record time.

I was at the 200, I saw the leader around 7:37ish, the other two were 740-7:41, not sure I was to busy trying to figure out how they could cancel with a lap left.

And if they'd let the race continue and some kid got killed by lightning, then you'd be calling the officials incompetent murderers. Don't disrespect them. At the high school level, officials do their job purely for the love of the sport, usually for little or no money. They work hard, they do their best, usually they get it right, sometimes they don't. In this case, they made what they felt was the safest call for the runners. Life goes on. It's not the end of the world.

A lot of time officals at meets will ignore a not so close lightning strike but still within the 30 mile radius, maybe this one was super close or some but head offical ruined the afternoon. tough call

Whether or not the decision was correct, I have at least a half hours' worth of negative NJSIAA officials experiences I witnessed as an athlete.

Why was the race STARTED in the first place?

I was not at the race, but am in the local area. The storm did not come up that quickly. There were signs of impending doom long in advance of the lightning starting. If you know that the race is going to take anywhere from 8:40 to 10:00 to finish, why start it with that storm abrewing?

Having failed that bit of foresight, if the kids are already 8 minutes in, why don't the officials let them finish the last 30 seconds to 1 minute? It is not like they were going to instantaneously be transported to shelter! Let them 'run for the barn'!! Who knows how fast they could have finished with lightning on the horizon and "Death or Glory" as motivation?!

I hope nobody was DQ's for cursing when this all went down.

No word on how, when or where the race will be rerun, but this is a disappointing end to instate competion for two great legends (as well as several other seniors) that have made a giant impact distance running in NJ and the country.

Lets hope they have great days at nationals and healthy successful careers beyond.

If the lightning was so close they clearly shouldn't have started the race.

Completely agree with you, this storm was not some sudden unexpected burst, it was preceded by 90 minutes of building winds, dropping temps, and ominous dark clouds to the north. The officials gambled with trying to get in the championship 3200 (having allowed the unseeded heat to run right before it!), and they lost. A number of respected people had Rosa at 7:38 with one to go, even with slowing as he approached the barrier of officials who were apparently at the finish line. SOmeone has suggested that the police actually stopped the race, which is feasible.

Lots of dreams died in that race, not just the Rosa's, kids with a good chance to go sub-9, PR, etc... a GREAT field. On top of it, if they do not reschedule, no PV champs, Vena does not get his 4th MOC crown in the shot (had not begun his flight), many others. Just a debacle... not to mention the wisdom of not postponing the meet (temp close to 100, high humidity) to Monday, as many had lobbied for.

freakin' ridiculous...i would probably have killed an official

It would have been awesome if Joe Rosa had lowered his shoulder and taken out an official to get to the finish line.

This is ridiculous i would have been so mad if i was going to PR and a line of righteous old officials made a "barricade" at the line. The Rosas should have went D tackle on those guys and went on to finish

On a rubber track...I'm sure they would have survived.

Its more to clear the stadium and the fans in it, but by stopping the race a lap short, they probably made it harder to clear the stands