Unbelievable!! Albany Loses Conference Championship due to EPIC DQ!!

It's not like they shoved an official over to get onto the track. There were no officials controlling entrance onto the track! There were people sitting in lane 6 during races. Non-competing athletes were on the infield, the entire thing was horribly organized and officiated. And then they not only DQ a relay that didn't do anything wrong, they cost a team a championship. Outrageous.

Possible. I only noticed something was going down when what looked like the UML coach rolled out holding up some bright red card in the air which I assumed was kind of like the NFL challenge flag. But maybe that wasn't the UML coach? His team did then start going wild, so they definitely were celebrating to whomever above said they weren't.

reformer wrote:

not the right call wrote:

this was not the right call. nobody on the 4x4 interfered with anyone.

there should be officials there to keep people off the track, and there weren't.

this DQ is proof that the america east is a joke of a conference.

I agree it's the "wrong call" in that this should not have cost them the meet.

But that's the rule, and they had a particularly egregious violation of it. The only way to not DQ their relay would be to say "well, we'd follow the rule if it didn't matter, but this is a big deal, so screw it."

How would you resolve this?

Let UNH run it again. Look at the USA women's 4x1.

I don't know if you have ever been to BU but the infield is the warmup area. There are always a ton a people there. The back stretch there are usually people (mostly coaches) on the edge of the track. The curves there are always people leaning under the rail when the outer lanes aren't being used. Typically there is 1 official standing near the area the Albany athletes came from. I don't know if there was, but even at meets like Valentine, that official more than has his work cut out for him as that area is the easiest way to get to the infield. This meet was organized and officiated by the same officials that do all the BU and Massachusetts meets. They always do a great job.

It sucks for Albany, but hey, you always have to look before you cross the track, especially during a race.

Update, I watched the video and it looks like i have slandered the UML coach. All the officials I was talking to were in green, but the guy who held up the weird red protest card was in a UML looking blue. It looks like he was actually the starter. Either that or the UML coach carries a handgun to meets.

The UMass Lowell coaching staff had nothing to do with the call at all. The call was made entirely by the officials. After the officials held up the red flag there was immediate discussion at the finish line between the officials, meet director, and soon Albany coach. The UMass Lowell head coach was actually on the opposite side of the track when all of this was going down.

LOL at storming the track over an indoor track conference championship.

I agree with wejo, the Lowell coach should hand them the trophy then come back next year and take it back. On record his 1) team wins,2) he looks magnanimous, and 3)next year's team will be majorly fired up. That is win+win+win.

Have to DQ them. This isn’t like one of those accidental things where one athlete walks across the track and kind of gets in the way. This was athletes intentionally running into the track. It impacted a teams time so theoretically it could have impacted other teams’ scoring.

not the right call wrote:

there should be officials there to keep people off the track, and there weren't.

Or grown men should just keep themselves off of the track.

look to olympics wrote:

reformer wrote:

I agree it's the "wrong call" in that this should not have cost them the meet.

But that's the rule, and they had a particularly egregious violation of it. The only way to not DQ their relay would be to say "well, we'd follow the rule if it didn't matter, but this is a big deal, so screw it."

How would you resolve this?

Let UNH run it again. Look at the USA women's 4x1.

So I like this idea, but that Brazilian team was still DQ'd. This is different since it wasn't the relay team that did the obstruction, but there's still no punishment in your resolution. There's got to be a punishment of some sort for this--it's one of the most important rules in T&F.

Plus, that's not in the rulebook as an option for THIS YEAR. I'd like to get some rules changed, but I don't think it would have been reasonable for the officials to say "OK, we're not going to punish the team that did the obstruction, and instead why don't you UNH guys just run the entire relay again right now."

All of us here know that track etiquette rule #1 is to always look out for a runner before stepping onto a track.

If you ever even do this in practice, you should have your track licensed revoked.

But to step in front of a runner during a race? Death penalty

This is the coach's fault for poor discipline.

I've been on teams that won big races and team championships.

I've never seen anyone storm the track like that at the conclusion of a race.

DQ is warranted.

reformer wrote:

look to olympics wrote:

Let UNH run it again. Look at the USA women's 4x1.

So I like this idea, but that Brazilian team was still DQ'd. This is different since it wasn't the relay team that did the obstruction, but there's still no punishment in your resolution. There's got to be a punishment of some sort for this--it's one of the most important rules in T&F.

Plus, that's not in the rulebook as an option for THIS YEAR. I'd like to get some rules changed, but I don't think it would have been reasonable for the officials to say "OK, we're not going to punish the team that did the obstruction, and instead why don't you UNH guys just run the entire relay again right now."

Definitely let UNH run again (if they want to), and then figure out a penalty for Albany. Here are some possible ones:

1. Fine the team $$

2. If the conference has entry limits for the meet, reduce Albany's allowed entries by 1 or 2 next indoor season.

3. Make Albany run the relay again along with UNH

4. Take a couple points away from the team (but don't DQ the relay).

5. Make the coaches ineligible for coaching staff of the year.

Literally anything but DQing the relay who didn't commit a violation.

Star wrote:

All of us here know that track etiquette rule #1 is to always look out for a runner before stepping onto a track.

If you ever even do this in practice, you should have your track licensed revoked.

But to step in front of a runner during a race? Death penalty

This is the coach's fault for poor discipline.

I've been on teams that won big races and team championships.

I've never seen anyone storm the track like that at the conclusion of a race.

DQ is warranted.

Albany is known for poor discipline and overly boisterous celebrations, this is karma

I will say, there were multiple public address announcements made prior to the 4x400m for "all athletes to stay off the infield. Only coaches allowed in the infield during the relays." I also heard a number of coaches telling athletes to leave the infield before the race. No similar announcements were made during any of the other events. Just surprised some thought it would be okay to storm the infield after repeated announcements.

This is clearly Albany's fault. If they had been leading by 11 points, they wouldn't have to worry about the relay.

These seem like fine ideas, but none of them is the rule or even close to it, You're doing the same thing as I did: trying to find a better way to treat this situation in the future.

But they can't just make it up as they go. It was a major rule violation that the impeded team protested, and there is only one possible punishment on the books for that violation.

Some really creative, intriguing ideas here. I like most all of them!

But if there is a penalty on a potentially winning score in a championship football game the penalty stands.

It's a rule- the athletes should be more careful.

As a coach I always reminded my athletes to stay off the track after a relay win.