North Carolina Holds Indoor State Meet Outdoors

That is weird. I am only 29 and I remember having meets at a number of different venues when I was in High School.

They used to set up a 200 meter track in the Greensboro and W-S coliseums, but I guess that track no longer exists. I thought a couple of other school's had indoor tracks...

Since about 2002 (maybe longer? idk, but that's when I moved there) it has been held at UNC-Chapel Hill's indoor 200m track. Nice track.

Does this qualify as an illegal indoor track, give that it's, you know... outdoors?

The Stache wrote:

Since about 2002 (maybe longer? idk, but that's when I moved there) it has been held at UNC-Chapel Hill's indoor 200m track. Nice track.

I think that the football team is using it for training and so they won't let anyone use it for indoor meets.

FOOTBALL?! Football is over. I love football. I love football season, watching it, playing it, etc. But damn, for once F football. They can't give up the facility for a weekend to have a state meet? Cripes.

This is the article that I read, from the local newspaper: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/10/28/764360/indoor-track-season-currently.html

I doubt any of the resulting times could be used to qualify them for Indoor Nationals or anything, right?

The Stache wrote:

FOOTBALL?! Football is over. I love football. I love football season, watching it, playing it, etc. But damn, for once F football. They can't give up the facility for a weekend to have a state meet? Cripes.

The entire facility is covered in weight equipment. It is being used all year as the football weight room. Kenan is under construction. Believe it or not, football athletes train year round just like runners.

I am not even that big a fan of football, but even I understand this.

NCHSAA needs to secure another facility. They knew this was going to be unavailable. It is not UNC or Football's fault.

I understand the coaches and athletes were informed before the meet that no marks or times would be considered for NC Indoor Record purposes at the NC Indoor Championship because in fact the NC Indoor Championships was being held outdoors. Additionally they would not be considered for NC Outdoor records because they were run/achieved during an indoor championship meet not a snactioned "outdoor" meet.

So please, nobody do anything special here at this meet.

No word on whether or not they banned Garmn watches like they did in the NC Cross Country Championships. Wouldn't want people knowing their splits in a track race.

C/M Runner wrote:

I doubt any of the resulting times could be used to qualify them for Indoor Nationals or anything, right?

That's an interesting question. I'm from NC, and we would often have qualifying meets for indoor state meet outdoors. I don't know if whoever puts on indoor nationals would be different; maybe NC is more lax about that sort of thing!

And to another poster: NCHSAA tried to find another facility, but had no luck. Interestingly, I don't know why they didn't/couldn't use the indoor track at Appalachian State.

Bet the milers were pissed off about that turn of events.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3913837

I remember in my day when we had the indoor states it was actually warmer outside than in the building.

legal eagle wrote:

Does this qualify as an illegal indoor track, give that it's, you know... outdoors?

Nope, not if it is really really small like 11 laps per mile.

I'm a coach in NC and a board member of the Coaches association. This issue has been discussed since July of last year when they found out the Chapel Hill would be unavailable as a host.

Apps track wasn't used because it is not spectator friendly and frankly it is not the best indoor facility to host a meet as large at the NC State indoors. It was an option. They also thought about going out of state but a lot of schools are not allowed to travel out of state.

Chapel Hill is really the only indoor track in the state that can host the Indoor Meet since the Greensboro track was sold.

They were able to host a collegiate meet there but the weights all over the place would have prevented a large crowd from being able to use the site for the NC Indoor state meet.

The only other two options was not to have it or have it on an outdoor track.

None of the performances count towards state records but the idea was to give people a chance to participate, especially seniors, a chance to run one last indoor season.

Next year the meet should be back at Chapel Hill.

The temps for the state meet were in the lows 60's so it was a nice day to run outside.