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

Complete impedence, obvious DQ.

Just because you want to pretend it didn't happen, doesn't make it okay...

Took the words right out of my mouth

Macie wrote:

The question is what constitutes the word "Flagrant". In 2014 the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved adding the word "flangrantly" to the rules pertaining to when a competitor should be in violation of impeding a runner. The rule now distinguishes flagrant contact or impedence from the incidental contact that can occur during running races. By all accounts the student-athletes ran accross the track to congratulate their teammates. This action did not in any way aid their teammates and any impedence was incidental.

Incidental impedance is when two runners in a race collide through no one's fault.

These Albany athletes were not in the race.

They impeded a runner and it was not incidental at all.

in the interest of full disclosure and transparency, what school do you coach for?

It seems like Albany just got Hengsted!

Proud Albany alumn here.

A shame to see their nice streak of consecutive championships snapped this way, but you cant be doing stuff like that. It is selfish and thoughtless. This is ultimately the right way to handle things and now conference teams will all be more thoughtful in the future.

Coach Vives has been there for more than 30 years and was my head coach. He will have the men's team ready for outdoors.

Only semi-related: how bad must those teams in the second heat of the 4 x 400 be if the UNH team that was so far behind that you couldn't see them on the video feed beat them out for the last spot in the first heat?

I think they did the heats based on season bests, but UNH ran a B team because they had already used all of their best 400 guys in multiple open events to try to maximize points. Just a guess though

"yes exactly. the "interference" did not aid the team at all and thus should not have been a DQ"

This is the dumbest post on the thread. Sure it may not have aided Albany, but if it impeded another team, its worthy of a DQ. Duh. By your logic, a race leader could just go punch a lapped runner in the face. Wouldn't help the leader, so why should he be DQd?

I had no idea that Albany won their conference 13 times in a row, and can't name another school in the conference besides them and UML. Honestly, can't even name the conference off the top of my head and I just read it a second ago lol. But none of that matters because any team in this situation would be DQd. Hell, teams get DQd for less. A few years ago in the NAIA, a team won the 4x400m at indoor nationals and then was DQd because a teammate jumped out of the stands and ran across the finish line to celebrate with his teammate. At outdoor nationals last year, a runner up 4x100m relay was DQd because they threw a baton. Neither of those scenarios impeded anyone else nor provided any benefit to the winners, but the DQs were still obvious.

Albany coaches should sit their athletes down and have a little chat about track etiquette. It's a mistake. It cost them. Life lesson.

Seems like a reasonable guess to me, especially since the first couple of legs of the UNH team seemed to be closer to the rest of the runners. Maybe wanted to get some of their lesser 400 runnners some work on the first leg or two, them filled in the back part of the relay with distance guys nor something. That's not something I ever had a problem with on paper (I actually anchored a 4 x 400 once under those exact circunstances, but it was a smaller meet and no one really cared), but it ended up contributing to the issue here. It's still on Albany, but that team didn't belong in that heat.

Okay? There’s a lot of range in this conference. It’s no PAC 12 or Big 10 but last outdoor the 10k was won in 30:30 for a championship type of race is fast. It was the fastest 10k conference time out of any conference in the northeast besides ACC don’t classify this entire conference as a joke for one bad call you’re just making yourself look ignorant

This.

The burned hand teaches best.

Preface: I'm a proud UAlbany alum. I was on the last team that lost a championship in the winter of 2005 and the first of 25 consecutive championships in the spring.

My humble opinion:

Letter of the law - Albany should get DQ'd. Clear violation, rules are rules.

Spirit of the law - Albany should be conference champions. The violation didn't impact the standings, or even the places in this particular heat or the standings in this particular relay.

New streak will start outdoors.

Should be DQed just for celebrating an indoor America East championship like they just won the World Series. Let's see how you do at nationals before you act like you've done something.

[quote]never heard of America East till now wrote:

Should be DQed just for celebrating an indoor America East championship like they just won the World Series. Let's see how you do at nationals before you act like you've done something.[/quote

Any conference championship win big or small should be celebrated with enthusiasm when coming down to the 4x4 we all love the sport of track and field enough to appreciate and embrace the intensity of that kind of atmosphere. Have a nice day lad

Side note: (Elinor Purrier is from the America East and she ran an NCAA #2 all time in the mile) were not that good but good enough to be recognized

HerbNerd11 wrote:

Letter of the law - Albany should get DQ'd. Clear violation, rules are rules.

Spirit of the law - Albany should be conference champions. The violation didn't impact the standings, or even the places in this particular heat or the standings in this particular relay.

I think the spirit of the rule is to be respectful of other competitors.

Running onto the track during a race and bumping into a runner is being being respectful to the other competitors.

this-guy-gets-it wrote:

What??!!???!! wrote:

"yes exactly. the "interference" did not aid the team at all and thus should not have been a DQ"

This is the dumbest post on the thread. Sure it may not have aided Albany, but if it impeded another team, its worthy of a DQ. Duh. By your logic, a race leader could just go punch a lapped runner in the face. Wouldn't help the leader, so why should he be DQd?

This.

The burned hand teaches best.

+1

i think the spirit of the rule is to prevent interference from wrongfully interfering with the outcome of a race/meet.

I don't think you need a rule to tell you to be respectful of other competitors. Obviously what they did was wrong. These young kids just got caught up in the moment during the last heat of the last race of the meet at a facility where people come and go on the infield without much supervision from officials, staff, or coaches. Worst part is I believe the culprits were actually part of the women's team? But I can't confirm that.

Sorry my fellow Great Dane (class of 1994), I have to disagree with you here. The actions of our team impacted the performance of one of the competing athletes. It may not have impacted the outcome at the front of the event itself or of the overall meet, but they impeded a runner who is out there working hard doing his best to finish in his best time. You can't do that just because you're excited about the outcome of your team's performance. That's why I think it is a selfish thing to do, and the decision that was made was right.

I get why it happened, it was a great race and a great outcome. The Albany runners held off several moves by maintaining great inside position during the 4 x 400. It was an exciting outcome, and it is one of the few times that are sport gets to be a pretty decent spectator sport. I don't think anyone was saying "screw everyone else, we won!" or even intending to disrespect their opponents. But you have to have regard for others. This sport teaches you things about life in a way that a few other sports do. That is one of the reasons why we celebrate it so vigorously even though it gets no respect elsewhere. You can't take the pride that we take in that, and at the same time ignore those lessons. You can't disregard everything else that's going on the track, ignoring the lessons of discipline, long term planning and delayed gratification that are the essence of the sport so as to celebrate your outcome. When you do that, you pay the consequences and hopefully have those life lessons further reinforced through this great sport.