Aaron Sahlman breaks the NFHS rules by pacing a boys 3200m at Arcadia

Good lord, prison time?!? Don’t be barbaric: Forty lashes with a whip and then sending them to bed with no supper is plenty punishment for this egregious crime.

There is no way to objectively determine a runners intentions.
The sport tried for years to ban pacing but it can’t be done.

The pacers in Bannister’s sub four had to finish the race for his record to be official.
But what if someone leading a race honestly gets injured and drops? Do you nullify all results then?

A runner had be an official entrant.
They can’t get lapped and then start pacing either.
The 92 10,000 was very controversial for that reason.

What a dumb statement. They are two totally different situations. World Championships have qualification standards. Invitationals can put anyone in a race that they want.

Start list? What rule requires this? 100 years ago, races were timeby hand. There was no timing site. Fans didn't have a start list.

What in the world are you talking about? It's not 100 years ago. Rules change.

Maybe Sahlman just wanted to keep up NP dominance in the Arcadia 3200m. He also wanted to smash Colin's record to stop the comparisons. He joked around with people that he was going to pace the first half, so they wouldn't take him seriously if he stayed in for longer (giving him a better chance of breaking away eventually)

So he entered last minute and went out at 8:30 pace to absolutely destroy his brother's time. He was constantly checking his watch to ensure he was still on pace to win by a ton.

Then he hit 1500m and realized he didn't have it in the tank to do another 1600m, so he dropped rather than finishing at the back of the pack with a 9:0X time which means nothing for him at this point in his career.

Aaron Sahlman was asked to pace the 3200m by the race director Rich Gonzalez. Rich Gonzales added him to the start list last minute as the pacer. The boys in the race knew he was supposed to run 4:15-17 pace. The announcer Tim O’Rourke made a reference to Aaron Sahlman pacing the race though the mile.
I don’t think people care Aaron Sahlman was put in the race to help everyone run fast. The only rule broken would be some dumb NFHS rule. It’s still the second fastest time ever run in High School and no one cares about running it in a High School sanctioned race. That’s the only thing that having a pacer means. The times still count, but it might not count as a NFHS official race. Really no big deal.

I hate blanket statements like “no one cares.” That’s not true. Some people do. Burns had stated in multiple interviews leading up to the race (Running Effect podcast; Dyestat) that they were hoping Aaron would be allowed to pace them, but wasn’t sure if it would be allowed.

Then contact the NFHS or Rich Gonzales. He is the one who fu@ced up and put Aaron in the race.

yEaH bUt WhY wAs He aBlE tO bE a DnF? iS tHeRe A rUle fOr ThAt?

This is a race director messed up. Rich Gonzalez knows he can’t have a pacer.

It’s clear now that you can not have a pacer in an official NFHS high school race and it’s clear from interviews, Aaron himself telling the world he’s pacing, the announcer over the load speaker that Aaron was pacing.

Does Arcadia Invite now not follow the NFHS rules? Or even better, who actually follows the NFHS rules. The only thing you can do is not call it a High School only race record. it’s the second fastest time run by a High School athlete regardless of the NFHS rules.

Ok Karen!😂

Sahlman was registered, it counts. End of thread

It’s a completely valid question to ask because Rich Gonzales announced on twitter this as a National High School federation record. That would mean compliant with NFHS rules and High School runners only in the race. They tricky part would be having a pacer in a High School race makes the race non NFHS compliant.

It’s not about being registered. Of course he was on the start list. You just can’t have a pacer in a NFHS compliant race. Arcadia Invite is a NFHS High School only race. That means no pacers are allowed. That is the issue. The bigger problem is Aaron Sahlman and Connor Burns said in separate interviews Aaron Sahlman was pacing. If they just shut their mouths no one could have proved it.

No one is saying those times will be deleted. I think it’s a race director claiming its a High School only federation record that triggered this thread. It’s just becoming a debate if those times can be counted as High School only record. According to NFHS they can not.

This seems like a dumb, outdated rule to me. Why on earth should the rules for high school track be more strict than the rules for collegiates or pros?

It’s gonna be ok bud!🤣

I couldn’t agree more

Dude what are you, a cop?