Arkansas Rulebreakers: Campbell/Kebenei DNF/Scratch at NCAA Prelims, still go to Eugene

In the case of Kemoy, have you never raced in the heat and humidity of Austin this time of year and NOT had a bad cramp? I remember running past a passed out Ed Eyestone in Austin at the NCAAs. If it wasn't the NCAA championships, it would have been difficult for any of us to finish. Smart by Kemoy to protect himself from injury that would have prevented him from running any event in Eugene and starving the team from points.

As for Kebenei, he qualified in the Steeple easy, but then I bet his coach pulled him from the 5K with the heat and humidity. Smart moves by everyone by my count.

limitless wrote:

In the case of Kemoy, have you never raced in the heat and humidity of Austin this time of year and NOT had a bad cramp? I remember running past a passed out Ed Eyestone in Austin at the NCAAs. If it wasn't the NCAA championships, it would have been difficult for any of us to finish. Smart by Kemoy to protect himself from injury that would have prevented him from running any event in Eugene and starving the team from points.

As for Kebenei, he qualified in the Steeple easy, but then I bet his coach pulled him from the 5K with the heat and humidity. Smart moves by everyone by my count.

I agree 100% that it's a smart move - I'm just questioning whether it's legal by NCAA rules (rules which seem pretty silly but are nevertheless in place).

It is not legal unless the medical doctor cleared the athletes to run/not run. Kemoy looked like an easy one to let back in as he could have said anything and still be accepted (Stinson with the shits two years ago). Kebenei may have been sick or medically not able to run. Everyone knew of the heat in Austin so just because it was a smart move does not make it legal. I bet if something happened and Kebenei did not qualify in steeple he would have ran 5000. The rules try to prevent this from happening but do a poor job of it obviously.

Do they have special rules for the prelims that are different from other meets? Under the usual honest effort rule, both athletes would be fine (assuming Kemoy did give an effort in the 10k).

Since the NCAA calls these heats and semis, it would seem they are all the same meet as the final, thus subject to the honest effort rule throughout.

The pre-championship rules:

http://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/DIMWOTFCHAMPMANV1.pdf

Salient bits:

Scratching Student-Athletes from Preliminary Championships Competition after Declarations. Scratching a student-athlete from any event for any reason at any point after the declaration deadline eliminates the student-athlete from preliminary championships competition and from advancing to the final championships competition in any event (including combined events). Final notice of scratches for those ill or injured must be submitted by deadline [Reference: Important Dates]. All scratches must be emailed to Sean Laughlin (email:

sean@recordtiming.com

). Failure to notify Mr. Laughlin may result in a $400 fine.

Lets be honest here. Campell just got tired and with so many guys left at that point in the race he didnt think would be able to finish and qualify and have enough to run a good 5k two days later. He wussed out then the coaches got some doctor to say "oh yea, he was dehydrated". Everyone was dehydrated to some extent. Ive seen Arkansas do it before and they'll do it again.

Guys,

Every competent coach has and will continue to do this with their athletes. If this is "cheating" then every team in the NCAA is cheating.

This is definitely and clearly against NCAA rules -- both should be DQd from the remainder of the championships.

Sammy Seems.... wrote:

Guys,

Every competent coach has and will continue to do this with their athletes. If this is "cheating" then every team in the NCAA is cheating.

Rules are in place for a reason. In the case of the steepler, it sounds like he was probably only using the 5000m as a backup plan (meaning he would run it if he did not qualify in the steeple). Because of this "competent" coaching maneuver, some kid who would have been thrilled to run in the 5000m preliminary round was left at home so that *no one* could run in his place. Long story short: don't declare yourself in 2 events if you aren't actually going to run them. Honestly, I may have done the same thing, but it is clearly against the rules.