I had heard that the OSAA had some issues with attached and unattached competitors competing in the same events, and it looks like it will now impact the cross country season. We have been bringing our team to compete in the Prefontaine 10k for years. It looks like they will be modifying their race to abide by the OSAA edict.
Here is the message from the Race Director:
"The 32nd Annual Prefontaine Memorial Run will be held on Saturday, September 17, and we would appreciate your team's participation.
We are making several important changes this year in the conduct of the high school competition to avoid eligibility issues with the OSAA. OSAA contacted us several weeks ago to notify us that it had come to their attention that the Pre Run had both "attached" and "unattached" high school competitors competing together, which is a violation of OSAA participation rules. We are not governed by the OSAA, but we certainly don't want teams, who have played such a large part in the success of the Pre Run, facing eligibility issues with their governing body due to their participation in the Pre Run.
OSAA gave us two options to consider, one of which we felt was not workable for many participating schools. The second option creates some logistical problems for our organizing committee, but we felt we could make the necessary structural changes in the race, and at the same time meet OSAA participation requirements. The following is how we plan to conduct the Pre Memorial Run 5K High School team competition, representing the second option:
1. We will be conducting a high school only cross country race that will start at 9:45 AM, 15 minutes prior to the start of the open Pre 10K Run.
2. The high school race will be run over a 5,000 meter course on the Prefontaine Memorial Run race course, but with a different turnaround point.
3. Participating teams will enter all of their competitors as "attached" runners, wear their team uniforms, can arrive using school-provided transportation and the school can pay the entry fee if they so choose.
4. Participation in the Pre Run 5K needs to be counted as one of the maximum number of events schools are allowed to participate in according to OSAA rules.
5. If schools wish to enter competitors as "unattached" they will need to be entered in the open competition over the 10K distance or 2-mile fun walk and assure themselves that they are in compliance with OSAA rules pertaining to "unattached" participants.
6. There will be no day of race registration for high school teams, due to the necessity of assigning and distributing race numbers to competitors. We would appreciate having your team's registration finalized no later than 10:00 AM on Friday, September 16th.
This is the 23rd year that we will be holding a high school cross country team competition as part of the Pre Run. We are very appreciative of the many schools who have chosen to participate in the Pre Run, including those who ran as part of the 2010 Pre Run: Marshfield, North Bend, Bandon, Pacific, Reedsport, Klamath Union, Lakeview, Mazama, Hidden Valley, Roseburg, New Hope Christian, North Valley, Cascade Christian, St. Mary’s, Taft, Ashland, Harrisburg, Douglas, Rogue River, Coquille and Dallas. We are very hopeful that the changes we have made will encourage additional team participation.
The Pre Run is held in conjunction with the Bay Area Fun Festival, the area’s largest annual community celebration. We encourage you to stay after the run to enjoy all of the festivities. Weather-permitting, we will again plan to hold our awards ceremony at noon on the Prefontaine Track adjacent to the finish line.
For your convenience, we have made arrangements with Athletic.net to register all team participants into their system, with which you are all very familiar. Athletic.net is not set up to handle t-shirt sizes or entry fees. We ask that coaches email their final team rosters with t-shirt sizes to
at least 24 hours prior to the race and bring their entry fees with them to registration. The registration fee for team participants is $10.00 per person and includes a commemorative Pre Run T-shirt. Complete race details can be viewed on our website at
.
We look forward to your participation.
Sincerely,
Bob Huggins, Executive Director
Prefontaine Memorial Run"