D3 5000 outrage, Ethan Gregg DQ for a false start!

Agree. Based on the reports from the meet, it is a safe bet that the whoever issued this DQ is a miserable prick. These athletes train all year for this moment and then some random old c*nt goes out of their way to ruin it for them.

Is it up on YouTube? NCAA website only loads a minute at a time

Who is the official? Let’s make sure he never officiates another meet again

Sucks that he was DQed, but let's be real here. No way was Gregg taking down ALPHA Phillip.

wow, I watched the start, there's 3 others runners who flinch, probably more if I go back and watch it again - including the runner in yellow right next to Ethan. looks like everyone is ancy considering its the championship. Ethan Gregg is the only racer who actually jumps the line, but it's like in football where an offensive lineman draws the defense offsides by moving.

the official should have recognized the situation and that a bunch of guys were flinching and restarted without a DQ. a horrible call. totally unfair.

watching Ethan in the infield crying is heartbreaking.

The rules are the rules but we had a starter in our part of NY (high school and college) who, if he sensed a kid was going to go before the gun would call them to stand up.

His words- I'm not dqing a kid because of that stupid rule.

It IS the rule but it's ludicrous. At the very least we need one false start goes to the field. The second one, you're out- I think swimming does that.

And- If I were the starter I'd manufacture some noise I heard that MAY have caused him to go.

It's 5000 meters he wasn't trying to get an edge.

That is why Hott needs to go

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?“

well, he false started. the rules say a false start is a DQ.

This kid apparently ran his mouth and told everyone (including the announcers) he was going straight to the front to push the pace. He then tried to jump the gun so he could implement his plan. he tried to get an advantage at the start, this was a rightful DQ.

Not when you have the discretion to issue a warning

I don't believe he ran his mouth about anything? It is just well known throughout pretty much all D3 track and field and cross country that is how Gregg races. In his interview with D3GD after indoor he may have mentioned that he will continue to race like he always does, but how is that running his mouth?

Let the athletes race. While we’re at let’s visit these phantom “taunting” calls also. Track needs drama. Sprints should get the same treatment, no more one and done. No superstars in other sports ever get tossed unless it’s 120% out of line.

I agree, there was way too much movement on that line. In the NCAA West Regional, one official kept having them back off, even for the distance races. If they didn’t get set, she backed them off. I thought she was being too picky at the time, but she did exactly what was needed for a fair start.
In this race, they should have backed them off for too much movement, instead of issuing a DQ. It wasn’t a fair start.

I saw that too. there was also a restart in the west race. no DQ. usually backing them off is enough to calm runners down. I've gone back and watched the start of the race a few more times, I count at least 6 runners twitching and jumping around. a simple back off would have solved the problem.

and it doesn't look like the official on the track who gave Gregg the red card DQ'd him initially. he walked over and talked to someone else, most likely the head official who made the call.

That has not been my experience. My track days were more or less mid 1980's till mid 2010's, so maybe it's different now. To me, they were out there doing a job, following procedure, conducting a meet. I never had a negative experience with a meet official. Maybe that was because I yielded to their authority. It takes a lot of manpower to make it all happen. We need these people.

I don't know what type of discretion they have on certain rules, like a false start in a distance event, but I had this thought.... If discretion is allowed, and if its not exercised, then threads like this one get started. But perhaps there have been false starts in distance events where discretion WAS exercised. And maybe this has happened MANY times. In these scenarios, a letsrun thread is not started.

How could he fall forward if he using correct start technique for distance runners?

But Malmo said start technique is not important in distance races. Obviously it is.