As for announcing, I want to reserve special criticism for Jill Montgomery. Stones is fine, nothing brilliant--makes mistakes, but quickly corrects them, is straightforward and pretty likable. Rawson's mannerisms are legendary, but you can't help but regard him with some affection, like Phil Rizzuto or Howard Cosell. My wife, not really a track fan, but willing to sit with me for the big meets, loves him, waiting for him to say "long story short" counting how many times he reverses verb and subject "from Michigan, is Brazier" and rooting for him to repeat origin stories that may or may not be true: "they used to literally run from steeple to steeple." So we'd both really miss him.
But Montgomery not only continually repeats the most annoying question a trackside announcer can ask. "You just won the NCAAs--how does that make you feel?" (I just would love it for someone to say "I feel like I'm going to throw up.") When she is not asking the "how does that make you feel" question she is making a statement and then turning it into an unanswerable question. "You won by turning it on down the final straightaway. How did you turn it on down the final straightaway?" (Here the response I'd like someone to say is, "No, I won by running the curve well.")
But tonight is why I'm off on this rant. It was clear to anyone watching T.V. that Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake was injured in the 4 x100. Stones and Rawson missed it, probably because they were watching from above. But Montgomery not only must of witnessed it directly trackside, she interviewed the LSU team with Blake missing! Would it have killed her to mention what happened to Mitchell-Blake--what the injury was, how likely he was to return? No, we were left in the total dark, as we always are with her trackside interviews.
How does it make me feel? Frustrated!