NCAA Shot Put mismeasured? Should Florida have won?

I wasn't there for the men's shot, but eyewitness accounts say that the official picked the wrong imprint to measure from.

need to work on your meteric system. that is WAY over a meters difference. Only one guy threw past the 20m line in the entire competition.

2 Mason Finley FR Kansas 20.68m 67-10.25 8

18.02m 18.40m 19.29m 20.68m 19.30m FOUL

3 Blake Eaton JR Penn State 19.57m 64-02.50 6

18.06m 19.57m 19.28m 17.91m 19.02m 19.20m

4 Kemal Mesic JR Florida 19.42m 63-08.75 5

18.44m 18.31m FOUL 18.60m 19.42m FOUL

Why is this not on the front page of Letsrun?

Florida’s Kemal Mesic was 3rd place

The results says 4th

That one point makes UF tied with T A&M for the National Championship

It's a hard case to make, saying that this is an Oregon official. They fly in officials from around the country for this. The argument in the past is that they don't let the local officials run these meets but instead bring in people that are less familiar with the given location(Hawyard Field) and things like this happen. It's possible that it could be an Oregon official but the odds are that this guy was from a different state.

That should not make any difference. Either an individual is qualified or he/she isn't. Point a finger at the NCAA for bring in an alleged incompetent?

Do you not mean "Booth"-Negative Karma?

Finley knew that he was fourth...he got on the award stand in fourth place because he knew he threw 2 meters less then they measured it and his coaches knew he didn't throw that far and they didn't have the integrity to say he didn't earn that mark and here is why...if Finley is 4th and not 2nd then Kansas is not in the top ten and the coaches do not get their bonus for being in the top-10. How could you sleep at night knowing you cost another team the share of a National Title. I feel bad for the kid because he is getting hell for this and he wanted to make it right but his coaches wouldn't let him...they told the officials there is no way you can prove that he didn't throw that and we want his second place trophy. Shame on you Kansas coaching staff!

This is a HUGE throw by a true freshman, finley. does this put him in NCAA All-Time Top-10? Kansas should be celebrating this!

Scary Larry wrote:

need to work on your meteric system. that is WAY over a meters difference. Only one guy threw past the 20m line in the entire competition.

One meter less would be 19.68... He had throws of 19.29 and 19.30, so 19.68 isn't unreasonable. 19.68 would still place him second, thus not affecting the places or team score.

Not only that, but in the last month Finley has regularly been throwing in the 19's in meets. As I should have said, LR posters are not mathematicians, in fact many of them are morons. Finley was second, either at 19.68 or 20.68, so no harm was done in the end. If Florida is seriously whining about this, they are showing their true colors. A&M won fair and square, and Florida didn't step up.

sounds like you are agreeing 20.68 was an inaccurate mark. So, it's ok to just "guess" that his throw was the second best one of the competition?

makes sense to me

polevaultpower wrote:

I wasn't there for the men's shot, but eyewitness accounts say that the official picked the wrong imprint to measure from.

Sweet Jesus.

Salvador Dolly wrote:

Not only that, but in the last month Finley has regularly been throwing in the 19's in meets. As I should have said, LR posters are not mathematicians, in fact many of them are morons. Finley was second, either at 19.68 or 20.68, so no harm was done in the end. If Florida is seriously whining about this, they are showing their true colors. A&M won fair and square, and Florida didn't step up.

He did not throw 19.68m He knew he was 4th and stood on the awards stand in the 4th position. His coaches made him accept the 2nd place so that they would finish in the top 10.

I repeat Finley did not throw 19.68m it was a total mis measurement.

throw chick wrote:

sounds like you are agreeing 20.68 was an inaccurate mark. So, it's ok to just "guess" that his throw was the second best one of the competition?

makes sense to me

I was referencing the theory that the actual mark was 19.68 and the official read 20.68, which to me seems the most plausible of the theories presented.

polevaultpower wrote:

I wasn't there for the men's shot, but eyewitness accounts say that the official picked the wrong imprint to measure from.

If this is the case, there's no way he picked one over a full meter away from where the shot actually landed.

I was at a meet this year where they gave a discuss thrower a 5 meter pr. Kid didn't deserve to make regionals and didn't really throw a regional throw. So number 49 on the discus in west was sitting at home for no reason

Is there any video of the throw?

If not, then why not? When stuff like this can happen, why don't they put a camera on the competition so that at least gross errors can be caught?

If you read the Holloway article (on LR's front page), you will learn that when the protest was filed, the Protest Committee looked at video of the throw and then denied the protest. So there was video to view the marking.

Interestingly, for both this and the Gergel Pole Vault issue, both the officials who were in charge were NCAA officials from outside the area. I don't have a problem if the NCAA meet management wants to bring in outside head officials, but if they do, at least bring in competent people.

T-man wrote:

How do you mismark by a METER?

I've often seen kit. The official looks at the nearest meter measurement to get that, then looks at the centimeters. In this case, assuming the 19.68 throw, the official sees 20m, then looks at 68 cm. Instead of going below to 19.68, he says 20.68. Very easy to do and the reason you should have two people confirming the reading at the board.

This is all completely ridiculous.