Winner of 3200 at Iowa State HS meet stripped of title - It's given to guy who was leading after 7 laps

Wolf's Bane wrote:

Part of the sport is counting your laps, watching your splits, and knowing how much you have left. If counting to 8 is too hard, wait until college when this guy may have to count to 25. Iowa screwed up big time.

I think it falls on the race officials to ring the bell at the correct point. The kid probably should have been able to keep track in a 8 lap race but I can't put to much blame on the kid when the race officials are the ones who really screwed up. And for your argument to watching splits, you shouldn't be watching splits in a championship race, you should be focused on winning and who knows if they had a clock or anyone yelling splits.

That being said it's a crappy situation. They should give it to the kid who won after 8 laps but it sucks for all parties.

Star wrote:

Hardloper wrote:

Solution: Award one guy the 2800m state title and the other guy the 3200m state title

That is the best post you have ever made.

Stripping the 3200 guy is a bad decision. (No, I don’t mean taking his clothes off). If you had to go one or the other, the 2800 guy should be stripped

.

The idea above ain’t bad. Two champs recognized. He would be the only 2800 m Iowa state champ in history, and he would have the “record”-LOL (unless someone has taken or will take an official 2800m split from faster races . Both times and distances could be listed in future programs with an * explaining the situation.

What did all the other guys in the field do? What do rule books say. If nothing, then what to do needs to be in a rule book. The runner who correctly counts laps should benefit.

Was the FAT timing turned on after the hell?

Hardloper wrote:

Solution: Award one guy the 2800m state title and the other guy the 3200m state title

There are a lot of things they could have done. This idea is great.

What they actually did seems surprisingly stupid.

NFHS rules say to Rerun the race.

lkmn wrote:

I did not know counting to EIGHT was such a challenge in Iowa high schools?

Idiots

Out

Wandering

Around

lkmn wrote:

I did not know counting to EIGHT was such a challenge in Iowa high schools?

Actually it is counting backwards from 8. Maybe they started at 7.

Some runners never learn their geometry lesson even though there are different starting lines in different lanes to help them.

Biggest thing that should happen is that all officials, timers and coaches associated should be fired. So they rang the bell early, at no time they figured it out after that? Don’t know what the kids should be running time wise? No one except the faulted lap counter is paying attention to what lap they are on? No one yelled out they have another lap after they rang the bell?

Mike Jay is the best in the business. He does every NCAA meet, the USATF, Drake relays, and many conference meets. I was surprised to hear him on the miscounted lap urging the runners on for their "last " lap. I guess he looks at the counter and relies on the bell just like the runners. Spectators knew if they looked at the clock and saw 7:30 that the runners weren't on 8:40 pace.

I was there. We had a freshman in the race. Multiple mistakes by officials and announcer confused the field. The noise in the stadium was loud enough and our runner reported he could not hear us yelling anything specific (even though we were screaming that he had 2 to go)... The announcer started getting the laps wrong about lap 5...I didn't think much of it until they rang the bell with two to go and the top two starting kicking-so our kid in 3rd went also and then everyone just followed. I believe a lot of kids knew the count was off but the announcer was really going with it-urging them on and the bell rang-so I think they were mostly convinced the race was ending early by mistake and team points/medals, etc were at stake. It was a tough situation even for kids who knew what was going on. If you didn't kick hard and spend yourself you might lose spots or medals-it was chaos. Our kid stopped at the line after 7...I think he actually took a cup of water from an official then looked up and saw 8:40ish on the board and knew it wasn't over. He thought with the announcer and bell maybe he'd miscounted but it was a confusing situation with everyone sprinting home. Thankfully in our situation it only affected our placing by 1 spot either way (2800 or 3200 (3rd-4th))...and it wasn't a matter of first place and being a state champion.

Crowded bood the lap counter pretty heavily....officials said that 10 or 11 of top 12 runners stopped at the finish line at least momentarily. Mistakes happen, but pretty bad one for a state meet. Not sure what best solution would be. Who knows what could have changed in a re run (kids were spent-and some might not have recovered well in less than 24 hours)...I've never seen anything like it in a state meet though....I went from feeling good about our kids race to sheer panic on lap 7 realizing what was happing. I thought he might miss out on a medal due to confusion but thankfully he regrouped and finished.

Additionally, the most baffling aspect was that no official caught the mistake until after lap 7 concluded. The officials weren't telling the kids to keep running from what I could tell-and just one of them had to look at the clock to know and no one looked at clock or was educated enough to understand the time situation...I was hoping the announcer would look at the clock and realize the time was off and correct the situation for the runners...but unfortunately just didn't happen.

Primo Numero Uno wrote:

That being said it's a crappy situation. They should give it to the kid who won after 8 laps but it sucks for all parties.

I agree, speaking of a crappy situation.. Sometimes it comes from the officials (worse) and sometimes it comes from other athletes. Which reminded me of this years Arcadia 4x1600 meter relay invitation. This one gives me a chuckle, it's just so crazy and unfortunate.

St. Francis and American Fork were leading on the 3rd leg with 1 lap to go. But the St. Francis guy thought he was done and called his teammate over and passed the baton. The American Fork anchor freaked out and ran and grabbed the baton from his guy, both anchors ran 5 laps and got disqualified. It's quite funny actually but must have been horrible for both teams especially American Fork.

(11:40 in the video is a good starting point)

The Overexplainer said: I understand championship racing very well. But has there EVER been an NCAA 1500m that finished over 4:00.00? Ever? In the last 50 years?

the slowest winning time was in 1948 when Don Gehrmann (Wisconsin) ran 3:54.3, but there have been slower times in the final. for example, in 1936 Archie San Romani (Emporia State) won in 3:53.0 and the 6th placed guy, Thomas Sexton (Ohio State), ran 4:03.0

for comparison, the first time it was held at altitude, at Provo, UT in 1982, Jim Spivey (Indiana) won it in 3:45.42 and the 8th placed finisher was Marcus O'Sullivan (Villanova) who ran 3:54.25

cheers.

brogan1 wrote:

This has happened before. Three results on the 1st page of Google. Funny how I had to use Google to find Letsrun links that their own search engine could not.

http://www.google.com/search?q=track+bell+rung+early+letsrun

Because the technology of this board predates Google.

Alan

I wonder if they will then consider the "winner's," time a state meet record and all-time state record? If they are not going to do that, then the first guy to 3200m should be called A winner, if not THE winner.

Terrible situation, but the official clearly does not have the authority to change the length of the race, so the first guy to 3200 is, at-least, a co-winner.

Forget the outcome of the race for a second. There’s a life lesson at stake. This kid lost because someone else was stupid and he listened to them. That’s what it’s like to be an adult and have a job. You have to count your own laps, bug your employer to make sure they pay you the right amount, etc.

Thanks for the detailed description. My question was going to be whether everybody stopped at seven laps, except one kid, or whether everybody ran eight laps, except one kid who finished hard at seven and then walked away. I guess the answer is, it was chaos, they stopped, then started again and completed eight laps.

To the post about NFHS rules calling for a re-run: That's interesting and perhaps what they should do to avoid a lawsuit.

So, do we think the kid who completed 3200 meters the fastest has a legit lawsuit? This strikes me as a pretty easy negligence case. (I won't go through the elements here). But a question would be whether there is a rule that stipulates that the bell dictates race length and that "a race shall be one lap beyond the bell" or some such. That seems like nonsense to me but would be the the only defense I could imagine.

Had to go searching a bit:

A statement by the IHSAA, first published in the Des Moines Register, read: "Race officials determined through examination of Finish Lynx finish line images that most of the race's participants stopped at the conclusion of their seventh laps. Those stoppages negatively affected the eighth lap and race officials ruled the race completed after seven laps."

The 3200 winner has "accepted it" as "God's plan" as is apparently moving on.

https://www.milesplit.com/articles/261967-detailing-the-bizarre-3200-race-and-decision-at-iowa-state

The official results are a mess

Event 42 Boys 3200 Meter Run 1A

State Record: * 9:09.60 5/17/2018 Gable Sieperda, Cent Lyon

All-Time: ! 8:50.43 5/22/2014 Thomas Pollard, Gilbert

Name Year School Finals Points

Finals

1 Will Roder 11 Gehlen Cath, L J1:00.00! 10 7 lap finish, NT

2 Joe Anderson 12 George-Little Rk J2:00.00! 8

3 William Gillis 09 Cent Decatur J3:00.00! 6

4 Ellis Regan 12 Central Sprngs J4:00.00! 5

5 Joshua Baudler 11 Nodaway Vall J5:00.00! 4

6 Randy Jimenez 10 SE Warren J6:00.00! 3

7 Justin Ambrose 12 Boyer Valley J7:00.00! 2

8 Bennett Heisterkamp 11 St. Albert, CB J8:00.00! 1

9 Logan Berg 11 Baxter 9:00.00*

10 Dawson Hatch 12 Sioux Ctrl, SR 10:00.00

-- Adam Thompson 12 Sidney XNT

-- Paul Hageman 12 S Winn, Calmar XNT

-- Riley Witt 09 Saint Ansgar XNT

-- Caleb Christiansen 12 Springville XNT

-- Owen Dawson 12 Valley Lutheran XNT

-- Oskar Andersen 12 Springville XNT

-- Quentin Dreyer 10 IKM-Manning XNT

-- Stephen Ringo 12 Newman Catholic XNT

-- Zach Dixon 10 Earlham XNT

-- Caleb Silver 12 BCLUW XNT

-- Brady Millikin 10 Pekin XNT

-- Hansi Hudson 12 Prince of Peace XNT

-- Ben Breheny 10 Nodaway Vall XNT

-- Colten Glosser 11 Pekin XNT