NBON girls steeple and many other officiating screw ups

I noticed the same. In the steeple especially it cost the kids time. The girls in the fast section had to do over the rail and then come back out. imagine if someone from the first heat had won by .1 or so.......Did coming inside of the rail cost .1? Absolutely.

Also, can you imagine if the winner had broken any sort of record? school? State? National?

Guess what?? It wouldn't have counted because of the inept officials.

Meet officials are notorious for screw ups everywhere. I had to assist officials at a DI college last chance meet in properly setting up the 3K steeplechase hurdles. I also recall officials forgetting to make sure that all of the hurdles were at the women's height in a pro/am race and the women ran a couple of laps screaming at everyone that the water barrier was at the men's height. Screw ups occur on every level, at every stage.

2) 5K was bad - complete clusterf*ck, were told Boy's heat 1 had to report and STAY in the tent area at 7:15 so warm ups were done at 6:30. Ended up racing at 8:30.

regardless of the fact that screw ups happen, don't you think it would behoove the officials to tell the fast section of steeplers that they were not doing the water jump first lap? I do. Seems like a no brainer.

Was this an inside or outside water jump?

For inside, you skip the jump the first time around.

Also, steeple isn't a high school event, so it's weird it would be at a championship meet. 5000 isn't a HS event either. Of course, this is an unofficial championship, so I could see it having more mistakes than a normal meet.

The steeplechase is run at the NY STATE HS champs

Well, disregard my comment above, just looked at results that it was a 2k steeple, so I don't know that they do on the first lap of that, maybe the officials didn't realize that (which is a pretty bad mess up).

That was the problem....It was the schools grounds people not track officials dictating this.

2k steeple starts about 19 meters back from the start finish line for an inside water jump. The first two hurdles are placed on track after they pass by. They take the first water jump. 18 hurdles and 5 water jumps. 5 laps plus the adder for the inside water jump 'shortcut'. An easy way to figure the 2k start line when not marked on the track is to measure the setback of the 3k steeple start line from the normal 3k start, take 5/7 of that (since they do 5 water jumps instead of 7 water jumps in 3k), and measure back from start finish that 5/7 distance.

It's not a National Championship. Not when Brooks host's a meet on the west coast and many of the top athletes go to that one. Boston had a high caliber meet as well plus many of the top high school kids opt for next weeks junior nationals. It's only a New Balance money maker since they basically accept anyone and put them in the emerging elite and run every relay known to man and accept pretty much anyone who enters.

Yes, they basically accept anyone....

4:13 for Champs and 4:18 for EE mile. That's sure anybody

Deer numbnuts, there are 50 States that hold championships just for their state. Most are extremely competitive. And you're completing about THREE meets? That mostly attract the better athletes from the aforementioned Fifty?

So what, they run lots of events. Big deal. And everyone is not a future Olympian , so what.

They still attract plenty of elite talent. Look at the results.

Looking at the girls mile and 2 mile I'd say new balance was better actually

Fan of the sport wrote:

It's not a National Championship. Not when Brooks host's a meet on the west coast and many of the top athletes go to that one. Boston had a high caliber meet as well plus many of the top high school kids opt for next weeks junior nationals. It's only a New Balance money maker since they basically accept anyone and put them in the emerging elite and run every relay known to man and accept pretty much anyone who enters.

This is pretty much the case when it comes to relays. Individual entries seem to be more competitive. Any school that wants to go gets to be a contender at "Nationals"!

DKCCC wrote:

This is pretty much the case when it comes to relays.

Any school that wants to go gets to be a contender at "Nationals"!

Really? ANY SCHOOL can make the relay standards?

Fan of the sport wrote:

It's not a National Championship. . . It's only a New Balance money maker since they basically accept anyone and put them in the emerging elite and run every relay known to man and accept pretty much anyone who enters.

Let me clear up some things. I have been coming to Nationals since it was in Raleigh and was sponsored by Adidas and then Nike. The meet has always been run by the same management--National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (NSAF but they were once NSSF for some reason).

Over the past 4-5 years, you are right that the meet has become a money grab but not for New Balance. I am not even sure if they make a dime off the meet. I know this because I complained to the main New Balance person last year and he informed that they only spend money at this meet. However, the NSAF makes money off this meet. And they make a lot. They had almost 5,800 entries this year. If each kids only enters one relay or one individual event, that is $250,000 (I would guess it is probably double that). That doesn't include the tickets they sell, the heat sheets, the meet programs, the sponsorship money from New Balance and East Bay, the $40 for a locker, the $5 to charge your phone, the $20 to replace a lost bib and all the other ridiculous ways that these people try to make money off this meet.

Just to be clear, I don't have a problem with people making money. My problem is that they are cramming as many kids into the meet as they can with the Emerging Elite events and all the other dumb events (Swedish Relay, Shuttle Hurdle, freshman mile, freshman 400). What is the point of these Emerging Elite events? It isn't like these events are run on their own day before the National Championship starts. They happen all weekend. They are just money makers. It is like someone saw an empty shot put sector and thought "we could make more money by adding a new event with softer entry standards." Did anyone ever stop to ask about how all that blubber and fat has made the meet a pile of crap?

Here is what this pile of crap has become. Getting your packet or even into the gate this year took over an hour. There is one entrance--ONE--to an entire track facility. Parking is such a pain anyway and then they make your walk all the way around the stadium to the one entrance that people can use. The clerking of events is a total mess and my athletes have had their stuff stolen from clerking multiple times. They ALWAYS RUN BEHIND SCHEDULE. How the hell do they do this? At Indoors, the joke among us distance coaches is about the 5k on Friday nights. It runs 2-3 hours late every year. My kids started racing at almost midnight a few years ago. Plus, there is way, way, way, way too much time between events. The time between starts is probably 4-5 minutes? Why? Because they are doing damn awards for Emerging Elite events. It is the most frustrating, poorly run meet I go to each year.

Also, I tried to figure out where all the money goes on GuideStar for this supposed non-profit organization. Their #1 payment was for salary. But, I didn't want to pay for the full report. does anyone know? I know they take a team to Cuba every year but all I hear is about outlandish travel for their employees and high dollar meals. They sound like USATF more and more every day.

I just want to second (or third) how disappointed I have become with whoever runs the national meet. Like the last poster I have been coming for years and have seen the meet become more and more about cramming kids on the track not about giving the top kids in the nation a once in a lifetime experience. Sucks.

The 2k Steeple has 4 water jumps. They run past the first water jump.