2010 Indoor Classic Information
Meet Records UPDATED
Meet Schedule UPDATED FOR AAA
PAST RESULTS
2009
Complete Coverage
Class A & AA
Class AAA
2008
Class A
Class AA
2007
Class A
Class AA
2006
Class A
Class AA
2005
Class A
Class AA
2004
A Girls
AA Girls
A Boys
AA Boys
2003
A Girls
AA Girls
A Boys
AA Boys
2002
2001
| It's that time of year again. With the Indoor Classic right around the corner, there are several questions that loom for those interested in participating. We have decided to take this time to address some of the more common questions and misconceptions out there.
Provisional Qualifying
The idea of provisional qualifying came about after we first implemented qualifying standards in 2005. The term provisional was first used by coaches after folks noticed that it mirrors the NCAA qualifying procedures. We never actually came out with the intention of having provisional qualifiers, but the concept was the same and it worked, so we went with it. Problems came in last year when we put the burden of registering athletes on the coaches, last season. From 2005-2008, we entered the athletes into the meet once a coach emailed us telling us that they were bringing their qualified athlete(s). This allowed for us to eliminate non qualifiers and let the coaches know if their athlete had not made the qualifying mark. Last season we had several coaches enter athletes based upon seeing their name on our leaderboards and assuming their athlete had qualified. It lead to several unqualified athletes being entered in the meet. Luckily, we were able to contact many of the coaches and they were able to pull their athlete out of the registration database before the meet began. To eliminate this problem reocurring, we eliminated listing on our leaderboards those athletes who did not meet the qualifying standards.
Leaderboards vs. TFX
In 2009, Dyestat National introduced the TFX ranking system. It "puts the stat back into Dyestat". From an operators standpoint, TFX is a simple to use, excellent way to rank athletes. It is not as cumbersome or time consuming as using the excel spreadsheet like we do for our leaderboards. When we receive Hy-Tek results, it takes us about two to three minutes to upload the results into the TFX system. It is a simple copy and paste procedure. Any other format used takes a little more time, since we have to manually enter the marks, but is still very simple. TFX can keep track of an athlete throughout their high school career, keeps track of their college choice, and can even keep track of entire teams, or leagues. The rankings can keep track of rankings by State, Class, Event, and National Rank.
This year, our leaderboards are only listing qualifiers for the Indoor Classic. Starting this outdoor season, we will solely be using the TFX system, and will be used next cross country season as well as for next indoor season. Our leaderboard editors are becoming more familiar with the system, and we are working out the very few bugs with the system. Throughout the next couple of months we will be adding older results, and putting athletes’ pictures with their profiles.
Reporting results
This season we stopped accepting faxed, hand written, or PDF file results. This was something that was strongly suggested by Dyestat/ESPN. The current system used by Dyestat does not support PDF files, and over the past two years we have continued to post PDF files on the old Illinois Prep Top Times website servers. In an effort to save money and time, we decided to go ahead and stop publishing PDF files. This is a good thing for us in several ways. First off, many results were unreadable when scanned. Either the results were too dim to be seen, the handwriting was poor, or the page was larger than what the scanner could scan. Secondly, scanning results took hours and left us with A LOT of left over paper. Very often we would receive several duplicate copies of results that had been faxed to us by just about every coach at the meet. We can hardly forget the day we came to the office to find 15 copies of the same meet, faxed by 15 different schools and the results were almost 20 pages long. The cost of ink, paper, and the fax line itself was also an additional financial burden.
Our hope is that coaches and meet directors can now email us those results. We prefer to get those results as a Hy-Tek html report (mainly for inputting into the TFX system), but understand that the Hy Tek program can be costly. We can accept text files such as Microsoft Word or Notepad, Microsoft excel files, or random html files.
If you are now planning on typing your results, understand that we don't need to see every place. It is nice to see complete results, but can understand if you choose to limit what you send to us. As a minimum, we are asking for the top three place winners, as well as team scores. If you have a field that has more than three athletes that meet the IPTT Qualifying standard, or for outdoors, those that meet our TFX ranking standards.
Also, for obvious reasons, we are no longer requiring an official’s signature on the results. As a courtesy, we are asking (not requiring) that you list the meet officials' name and ID#. This helps other coaches when rating the official, and brings credibility to your meet.
Can my kid get in?
In 2001, while coaching at St. Patrick High School, I contacted Mike Stien (the Indoor Classic meet director prior to 2005) inquiring about an athlete of mine getting into the meet. I was met with a quick and direct "No!" Back then, I thought it was a somewhat rude response, I was just asking a question. After rationalizing the response, I realized that he must have been under a lot of stress with the meet approaching, etc. Boy, did I have no idea. When I took over as meet director in 2005, I thought that by adding qualifying standards, the need for coaches calling to "get their kid in" would be non existent. How wrong I was. I receive hundreds of phone calls and emails from coaches, parents, and sometimes the athlete themselves asking "can I get my kid in?" Most are very polite and I try to respond equally as polite, but as my predecessor once stated, most of the time the answer is "no!" Every once and a while I get a pushy coach or parent, but I understand that they are just trying to do their best for their kid. I once had a parent go onto the balcony where we did the timing at the University of Illinois Armory (a feat in itself) and he got on the computer to find an open lane in the 200 for his kid who was there running a relay. That was perhaps an extreme, but an example of what parents will go through to get the best for their kid.
So, here's how the qualifying procedure works:
1. Athletes who meet the listed qualifying standard are automatically qualified for the meet. Once listed as having qualified on our website, the coach can then register the athlete on Coach O.com by following the link on our front page. After registering, the coach should go to our payment center and pay the entry fee.
2. On the Monday after the final weekend of qualifying, we will extend invitations to those who are not qualified, in order that we can fill the field in each event. The event is considered full if the following numbers have been met:
55 M. Dash & 55 Hurdles- 21 entries
200 M Dash thru 800 M. Dash- 12 entries
1600 M. Run & 3200 M. Run- 15 entries
4 x 200 & 4 x 400 relays- 12 entries
4 x 800 relay- 15 entries
All field events- 12 entries
After the Tuesday following the final qualifying weekend, all entries are closed regardless if the field is full or not. We have to move forward at that point putting together team packets, meet programs, and going through the final preparations.
It is our intent to put together the best field possible without compromising the integrity of the meet.
FAT vs. Hand Times
Last year we decided to not accept Hand Times for automatic qualifying in the 55 M. Dash, 55 M. Hurdles, or 200 M. Dash. We did this after noticing that there were several place winners coming from outside lanes in prelims and that those with hand qualifying times were under performing. An audit of the times revealed that very few of those athletes who entered with hand times came close to their (converted- adding .24) entry times.
We do, however, give preference to hand times that have met the qualifying standard when selecting provisional qualifiers.
Also of note, to those who do use hand timing at your meets. There are still several schools that host meets and submit their hand timed results incorrectly. When hand timing, all results should be recorded in tenths only. A time is always rounded up. For example, a 6.51 and a 6.58 both get rounded up to 6.6 when recording results. This should be applied to all running events. This also helps us differentiate between a meet that uses fully automated timing rather than hand timing.
The Time Schedule
OK, we're the first to admit, the idea of running essentially two meets on Friday last year was a big mistake. Before the meet even began, we had already made plans to change it for this season. 2010 will introduce the first time we implement a time schedule as well. The time schedule was based upon the times that the events ran off from last years class AAA meet. By separating the meet into three separate meets, we hope that the meets will flow smoother, have less crowding in the stands, and provide for ample parking for spectators.
We have recently corrected a typographical error in the Class AAA schedule. Please double check it.
Other notes:
Last year, we had to cover the high cost of damages made to the floor of the warm up gym. Several folks felt the need to wear their spikes and then drag them accross the gym floor. This year we are going to be on the lookout for spike on the gym floor. No one should be wearing spikes in the warm up gym, and if you are caught wearing them you're going to be hung from the basketball nets by your toes. Ok, maybe not, but we will not be nice in asking you to remove them. You've been forewarned.
If anyone has any other questions, please email us at geiger@illinoispreptoptimes.com
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