West Region Masters championships returning to one-day meet
At yesterday’s Southern California Association masters championships, meet director Mark Cleary had a dilemma: Buy pizza for the USATF officials or print out entry fliers for the June 11 USATF West Region Masters meet. Mark went for pizza. (Cost issue, he says.) The SCA meet, contested at Long Beach City College (with throwing events at Long Beach State University), was sparsely attended, but Mike Sullivan drove 8 hours from his home in Arizona to pull off another great 100-200-400 triple. See results here. And Nolan Shaheed battled stiff winds in low 60s temps to clock a mile in 5:06.01 at age 61. Not an American record, but an amazing solo effort. And, of course, I was the star of the show with my jaw-dropping fourth-place finishes in the 100 and 200 (season best 29.03 with a heavy crosswind on home stretch.) I took a few pictures.
John Dobroth still has the best Brumel form in masters. His 1.55 jump at recent Striders meet is the top M65 mark in the nation. In January, he retired as a Ventura County judge after 24 years on the bench. Time for more track!
But the real news is that Mark is reducing the West Region meet from two days to one. (One-day meet was the norm until Mark took over as regional coordinator maybe 5-7 years ago.) It’s a financial issue, he says. Can’t afford renting track for two days. USATF site doesn’t have info posted, but we do! See it here. Thanks for the flier, Mark. Too bad the meet can’t accommodate throwing events and track at the same site.
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Ken, just to clarify the cost issue it’s one that I think can be remedied for next year, but we could not overcome this year. Yes, it is ideal and preferred to have all events at one venue, but those details cannot always be worked out–we had to get a Track for these two meets ( time was getting short) and that facility does not have a Hammer cage and has a short landing area for Javelin–so the event sites had to be split and it makes since to have all the throws in one place in this case.The results from yesterday’s SCA Masters T & F Champs are now posted at http://www.scausatf.org and the online entry should be set up by the end of the week for West Region Meet and the entry forms can be downloaded at the same site.I hope to see everyone on June 11th for the West Region Champs
June 11th is the same day as th PA Masters meet I think.
Also does anyone know the total entrants for World’s- did we break the 5,000 mark? Late registration should be over now and all status of entries updated.
Excellent question, Matt. I am sure that Ken Stone will publish it when he gets the final number. You may not recall, Matt, that Buffalo (1995, the last Worlds within the 50 states) drew 5,335 entrants. In the intervening years, the US population has grown by over 48 million people!!!
Given the explosion in population, the growth of participation among the women, and the relocation of the meet from an old industrial city in western New York to the capital of the Golden State, the state with by far the most people of any of the 50 states, it would be simply unthinkable not to get at least 5,336 entrants for Sacramento (1 more than Buffalo).
In truth, Sacramento should have easily cleared 6,000, but the early and intermediate returns suggest it did not. I am looking forward to the publishing of the actual total.
Re the subject of this post, thanks to Mark Cleary for all of your work and congratulations to all of the fine performers.
Why are the throwing events held 35 miles from the running and jumping events?
If you look at my original post Karen I address that very issue. We could not secure a Track anywhere-a new member to my club is the Distance coach at Long Beach City College so he was able to get us that venue on short notice–if not for that the meet may not have been this year. Next they do not have a Hammer Cage-so I had to go in search of a facility that has what we need-other facilities near by were being used on that date–so I when back to a facility that has worked well with us in the past. Do you think I would purposely put the venue that far away if I could have secured one closer-please give me a little more credit then that. Yes, it’s not ideal and yes some athletes will have to make some tough decisions. I’m sorry about that, but it’s reality.
Thank you Mark. I will clarify my inquiry. Knowing in advance that Long Beach CC does not have the needed facilities for the hammer, why not seek to have the entire meet at Citrus College? They are allowing the masters to use the field facilities, but not the track?
And yes, it still looks as if the throwers and multi-eventers are treated like second-class athletes.
It’s reality.
Mark
I really appreciate the effort you put in to run these meets. I’m not sure if everyone realizes, but meets in general are incredible hard to do. And getting a quality facility that will take masters athletics seriously… Forget about it!
Good job Mark!
Mark, I also appreciate your efforts. The one Western Regional I attended (in 2005, two-day meet at Carson) was great! I really like the two-day meet format and hope you can return to it.
It also seems there was short notice for the SCA meet, which may have affected attendance. Being in the Pacific Assn, It’s possible to make some SCA meets, but not at two weeks notice for me.
Plus, having the Western Regional this year the same date as Pacific Masters is a bummer.
Ideally, it would be great to make the SCA Masters Champs, the PA Masters Champs and the Western Regional Masters Champs.
Karen,
Lets see if you can do any better than Mark. Stop complaining and do something. It is extremely difficult to arrange these meets and colleges are not exactly throwing(pun intended) themselves at us masters.
Thanks, Mark, for all the hard work!
Ken
What does “your comment is awaiting moderation ” mean
Bert
Mary,
Karen stated that she thought “the throwers and multi-eventers are treated like second-class athletes.” Might be her opinion, but it suggests that Mark has a bias against this group, As a meet director of Masters meets, I repeat my earlier statement. These meets are difficult to hold and organize and to suggest that directors intentionally give short shrift to certain groups is nonsense.
Mike
Mike-
as a fellow meet director, I totally agree with your statement about the difficulties involved with putting on a quality meet at any level. I just didn’t “read” Karen’s question/comment the same way as you, I suppose. Nowhere do I see any suggestion, direct or otherwise, that meet directors intentionally give short shrift to anyone.
Reality is, unfortunately, some groups do not always get the same opportunities as others due to a variety of issues, including but not limited to venue scheduling.
Long Beach City was already booked so that could not be changed –again I repeat I always try to have the throws and the Track events at the same venue that is the obvious first choice–This year we were running out of time and had to get a Track booked first and formost or would risk not having the meet at all this year–so Karen I did what I could and I am sorry that it appears what I did,is not up to your standard– I do appreciate the athletes who understand the time and effort involved and are glad to have an opportunity to compete.
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