The Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California, is a showcase event — attracting thousands of fans and some of the world’s best athletes to its Sunday finale every spring. So when masters are allowed to compete, you gotta capitalize. This year we didn’t. The event organizers — John Cosgrove and Stan Whitley — blew it big time. And pretty much admit it.

First Cosgrove, the longtime organizer of the masters women’s 100 handicap races and the 800 handicap races at Mt. SAC.
When I ran into John at Mt. SAC this morning, he explained that Meet Director Scott Davis didn’t want to stage a masters handicap 800 this year — a race in which the oldest runners go first, followed at timed intervals by younger runners with the goal of seeing them all reach the finish line at the same time.
Scott offered two masters 800 scratch races instead. (In fact, the meet schedule still shows two masters 800s on the agenda). There could have been a scratch race for masters men and a separate one for women. But John couldn’t put it together, so no masters 800 was contested today.
John took responsibility for the snafu. Give him credit for that.
I’m a little less forgiving of Stan Whitley. Today they held a masters 100 scratch race. As usual, the race was restricted to men over 50 (which included 59-year-old Whitley). Unlike past years, Whitley didn’t win. A Canadian did. Worse for Whitley, five lanes were empty. So the results show four runners in a masters exhibition that could have been the thrill of a lifetime for five more deserving M50 sprinters.
I asked Stan after the race: Who such a small field?
His answer didn’t satisfy me.
Stan said that in the past, he’d get a flood of calls asking him for space in his 100. Over the years, he’d sort through the entrants and fill the lanes. This year, the phone flood didn’t come. Stan was caught flat-footed. The result was an embarrassment to masters locally. (Look, Ma! They don’t have many guys running this year.)
I gently suggested to Stan that:
1) Membership in his M50 race shouldn’t depend on being an insider who knew Stan was the man to contact. (Dozens of M50s would jump at the chance of traveling to Mt. San Antonio College for the Relays — if they only knew.)
2) Next year I’d be more than happy to publicize the race and assure a full field.
I think he got the message.
On the bright side, a masters 200 organized by Whitley had a pretty full field — and featured a battle between M40 national champ Kettrell Berry, M45 champ James Chinn and Chris Townsend, a Canadian sprinter with world-class credentials. Berry won with a wind-aided (4.3 mps) 22.52, followed by Townsend (23.22) and Chinn (23.43).
And the masters women’s 100, partly organized by W40 star Elaine Iba (now a wide receiver for a women’s semipro football team), saw Nadine O’Connor outleg defending champ Kathy Bergen. (The results page fails to indicate that nobody ran a full 100 meters, however. The oldest ran the shortest.)
Despite those exciting races, I left the meet dismayed by the masters showing. We simply can’t let opportunities escape for showing off our best — on the same day the likes of Marion Jones, Maurice Greene and Tim Montgomery compete.
I realize that many exhibition races involve personal relationships between meet directors and race organizers. But I think these cozy deals lead to problems of perception and bad feelings. Over the years, several world-class masters sprinters have accused Stan Whitley of excluding people from his races if they have a chance of beating him.
This year was an exception — Stan got beat at his own game (by another Canadian, it turns out). But the system is broke and needs fixing.
The No. 1 priority is filling every lane with masters athletes.
The No. 2 aim is to throw as wide a net as possible to find the best athletes.
Both goals can be assured if the Mt. SAC masters exhibition races are widely publicized — and well in advance of the meet. It’s OK to have a waiting list. Many big-time meets fill lanes when expected entrants are no-shows.
Next year, I hope the men’s and women’s 800 and men’s sprints are filled with national-caliber masters. It ain’t often when masters take center stage at a world-renowned meet. It’s a thrill that shouldn’t be denied masters because of a failure to make the races known.