Dwight Stones just resign

whoever posted that montgomery is "possibly worse" than dwight, there is no "possibly" here. she's definitely worse. both feel the need to educate the audience by saying things that are patently false, or even nonsensical, especially with races 400 and up (like when montgomery mentioned "you need to run an even pace, then pick it up each lap"). i agree with the above that dwight is good for field events, and i'm ok with getting names wrong on relays--unlike the nba or other sports where you have only two teams, it's tough when you've got 8 teams, some with similar jerseys, not to mention teams switching out legs. but if he says "it's easy to see who's in the lead--just watch who goes over the hurdle first" one more time in the long hurdles race--it's NOT easy on the first hurdle when there is a huge stagger! and if montgomery says "they just need to not panic" about one more athlete...

i found myself, with montgomery especially, muting the volume. track is actually an amazing sport when you let the events speak for themselves...

Coaches News Network wrote:

Agreed. And as bad as Dwight is, Jill Montgomery is possibly worse. She talks like she is getting paid by the word, but clearly has little to no clue about anything from the 400 on up. I hate the tact that NBC takes which gives them the impression that they have to explain the sport to the viewers. Watch EurpoSport and discover that really all we want is: A) to see the entire meet-field events and all, B) Get the names and the schools right, and C) have a clue as to who the major players are prior to each event, and D) don't feel obligated to talk the entire time. Dump the fluff pieces and the artsy close ups of runners feet and pan out far enough at the end to allow the viewers to see the races unfolding and finishing.

Jill has skills man I’ll just leave it at that.

Literally any meet that I've watched flotrack do, almost all of their commentators are phenomenal. They are knowledgeable and communicate accurate information to the fans in an exciting way. I don't think flotrack does a great job on the field events at most meets, but I think that's mostly limitations with cameras, personnel, etc. Get a couple field event people with the Flotrack crew and the cameras covering each event and it's game on.

The track announcers in the US have actually hurt the sports . Stones at the NCAA level is the worse . I mean who can forget his calling Morgan McDonald ;” Morgan Fairchild “ during the indoor meet . OMG . That was awful .

He'd never make it as a race caller in thoroughbred racing, that's for sure. But it would be hilarious.

Stones does well in SEC meets but doesn't do enough homework once it reaches NCAA level. That's why he continues to default to the SEC names and teams, no matter what is going on. I have no idea what Stones and Montgomery are going to do, now that Payton Chadwick is out of eligibility. I imagine she'll still receive three mentions per race.

Some of the teams don't exactly aid the cause by wearing ridiculous color schemes that aren't identifiable with their school. In contrast, it was simple to pick out USC in every event all week.

Stones has enough very good moments that I don't mind his mistakes so much. As mentioned above he should be doing the color commentator role and not play by play. However, the track and field play by play commentators in the United States are so miserable as a lot I can't come up with anyone who is an obvious choice as replacement.

At least Stones keeps talking, unlike that Diamond League 1500 in 2017 in which the NBCSN announcers were so bewildered over the final 200 meters that they literally didn't mention one name. Once Kiprop fell out of contention they couldn't name anyone else in the race so they were giving time splits. I think it was Swangard during his early and inept transition to international events. When the winner hit the wire he had no clue who he was so he rattled off the final time and final lap time. Then Ato Boldon jumped in a few steps beyond the line to provide the name. That video really should be legendary on YouTube but NBC was too scared to post it and it never appeared.

The whole broadcast sucked. Still cutting away from the races for interviews and commercials.

Hoka lookin fast wrote:

Gramps wrote:

Bring back Larry Rawson

I love Larry because he stupid

It's funny though- you make fun of him for his- go to your local track thing but:

Sometime around 1990 I worked at a CVS drugstore and Rawson was commentating a marathon, NY, Boston, I can't remember.

But the next day at work the pharmacist went to his "local track" and was going to run a 5:00 mile to see what it was like for those marathoners- as Rawson suggested.

He made it 200 meters in 37 seconds and had a profound respect for distance runners, even me.

Hoka lookin fast wrote:

Gramps wrote:

Bring back Larry Rawson

I love Larry because he stupid

Isn't he a Princeton grad?

He is a former HJ'r. What did you expect?

I expect an announcer to correctly announce a track meet. That's not possible when Dwight Stones is doing the broadcast. Dont care about his HJing in the 70's. It's funny that the color analyst (Dan O'Brien) is the more accomplished world class athlete but he hardly ever talks about his alma mater and his GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

I really don't care about anything the announcers say. I could just mute them and know more about who is racing based upon me following the sport. I could do without the stupid interviews right after the race but I guess they need to fill the time during a live broadcast. But what really grinds my gears is that they can't leave the camera on the finish line for more than a split second when the winner finishes. There are between 8-12 (and 24 in the 5K/10K) in each race and they think that people only want to see who finishes first and then follow them around as they grab their knees or wave to their families in the stands. What about the rest of the freaking race?

I didn't watch the broadcast Saturday but did Friday night and I thought Dwight just botched quite a few calls. Play by play announcers are going to miss calls but I thought Dwight missed a bunch.

They need a play by play guy on the broadcast even if he/she doesn't know a lot about track. And Dwight's spotters need to help him out.

First event 4x100, he said Texas Tech dropped the baton. They didn't. I'd have to rewatch to see a few more examples but stuff like that really bugged me. Play by play needs to get the basics right.

Dwight's not bad.

I had to turn the sound off when Larry Rawson was announcing.

Hes okay wrote:

Dwight's not bad.

I had to turn the sound off when Larry Rawson was announcing.

I like Dwight. He's entertaining. I'm always only half listening to the talking heads anyway (my focus is on the race and/or field event) so if he screws something up, I rarely catch it.

But what really grinds my gears is that they can't leave the camera on the finish line for more than a split second when the winner finishes. There are between 8-12 (and 24 in the 5K/10K) in each race and they think that people only want to see who finishes first and then follow them around as they grab their knees or wave to their families in the stands. What about the rest of the freaking race?

This right here!! Someone get all the people making the decision what camera to use/what to show in a room and YELL this at them until they get it.

I want to see every runner crossing the line with a running clock.

Why can't we just have different announcers for sprints, distance, and field. Doesn't the NCAA pay for it? Are they really that cheap or is it ESPN who has control and won't let anyone else commentate if they're streaming? I have no problem with Dwight Stones in the sprints.

I'd rather have FloTrack commentate the distance, at least they know the facts. I mean, honestly let the Brojos and Jonathan Gault commentate. I know they would do it for free in a heart beat. I'm sure a lot of LetsRun fans would throw $5-$10 as a donation, I would.

I would actually love to hear someone who is as interested in field events as I am distance running, do the field events.

NCAAs is my favorite meet every single year (I enjoy it more than USAs + Worlds some years). Its become sad that I am literally rooting for Dwight to do a better job-- I should just be rooting for the runners. And after this year, I've just given up on Dwight.

Let's take the Women's 100m Hurdles prelims for instance. They cut to Chanel Brissett from USC. Dwight goes, "She's been rocking it for USC this year." Not one of mention of how she's the NCAA Indoor Champion in the 60 Hurdles, or how she's won the PAC-12 two years in a row as a sophomore. Nothing. You can talk crap on Larry Rawson, but he would've at least mentioned something like, "When Chanel was in high school, she advanced to the Olympic Trials semi-finals as a high school sophomore." Dwight doesn't do ANY homework, or even watch some high school races to see who is coming up the ranks.

I thought he did a great job calling Sha'Carri Richardson's 10.75, BUT... not one mention of how she went to Dallas Carter HS and was literally winning UIL State Titles on the exact same track 12 months ago. He doesn't do his homework, and it really shows when he's discussing people that don't run in the SEC conference-- or even people in the SEC conference. He seems to pick a couple of runners each year (Taylor Werner, Shamier Little, Aleia Hobbs, Janeek Brown, and DEFINITELY Payton Chadwick) and he mentions them again and again. Not even valid things about them-- he'll just mention dumb things like "Payton's cooking vlog" or "how she's working on her start in the hurdles" for the 1000th time.

I like Jill's energy, but if I had to hear her say, "I talked to ___________, the coach of _____________, and they said _______________ about this athlete's upcoming race." Nobody wants to hear about every single athlete and coach you came in contact with in the parking lot or the hotel. It's fine once or twice, but it was literally EVERY race. Not once did I hear her even mention somebody's season-best coming into the race (that wasn't from an SEC school because they covered it).

Her biggest flub: women's 100 meter prelims, she literally talked about how "Kayla White from NC A&T has a great start, and she really drives over 8 9 and 10." Too be fair, Kayla White did hurdle indoors, but she's SO dumb she literally couldn't even say, "It shows you how talented Kayla is that she finished runner-up indoors in the hurdles and isn't even running the event at the outdoor championships."

The video used on the field event stream is from Texas’ in house video production (for the stadium Jumbotron). The standings that you saw fonted on the screen was interfaced with the stats provided by Flash Results timing company.

No way in hell would I want FlotRack commentators announcing the distance races. If there’s anyone I’d trust to announce distance races, it would be Paul Swangard...except that he’s with RunnerSpace/NBC. In fact, I’d take Kevin Ullman over any one of FlotRack ‘s talent, including Ryan Fenton, who is probably their best on air talent.