Netters:
A few comments on the Witherspoon "record"
To begin witt the question, who keeps these records?
There are actually two outdoor lists, one published annually by the
National Federation of HS Atheltic Associations, the other bvy Jack Shephard
in his invaluavle national HS annual.
Why two?
Well, when TF News got under way, it recognized the federation
list, but that ended in 1961 when Tommy Carroll of Fordham Prep (later Yale)
broke the 880Y mark at the Eastern championships at randalls Island. The
federation didn't accept the mark because Fordham Prep was not (and is not
still) a member of one of its constituent bodies. T&FNews rightly concluded
that a national record should be open to any HS student and promptly began
its own list.
There is, however, just one indoor list, since the Federation does
not publish one (many states, after all, have no real indoor season). So the
final decision on the Witherspoon mak will come from T&FNews, whose editor,
Gary Hill, has aldready indicated a negative attitude/
But now, as Paul harvey would say, the rest of the story, There is,
as far as I no, no proscription in the HS rulkes against a three-turn
stagger for the 400M, though I had neverseen one used until last Sunday. It
is commonly used for shorter races, for example the 300M, both at the Armory
and at Fairleigh Dickinson (though not at Drew, its other main venue in NJ).
Evidently, IAAF and USATF rules ban it and the latter, of course, would be
the one that counted in the National meet.
Why it was used on Sunday I do not know. One list member said it was
because the trials were so close in time, I didn';t see them, but the final
certainly wasn't close at all, with big margins between first and second and
again between second and third. In can't see where it was any advantage to
Witherspoon who simply took off at the gun and ran away from the field.
Aside from the rarely-run 300M, the only race where a three-turn
stagger seems necessary is the 800R, where the exchange zone would be
chaotic otherwise. In fact, it is just that sometimes at the NJ indoor relay
championships where it is not used;runners must pass in the lanes they
started at,but the second runner can cut in as soon as he (she) gets the
stick and we have had some chaotic collisions as a result. (When Len Klepack
was coaching at Columbia HS, he automatically seeded his boys' teams at a
slow 1:40, wanting no part of the seeded heat.).
I had a decision to make a couple of years ago that was related to
the difference between HS and USATF rules. Metuchen, which had set a state
indoor 1600R recoird that year, ran its fastest outdoor time at the
Nationals, but was d/qed because its leadoff man stepped on or over the line
of the inside lane next to him. This was evidently in violation of the USATF
rule governing the meet, but not of the HS rule which requires three such
steps for a d/q. After some thought, I gave credit for the time since almost
all the other marks on my list had been made under uS rules. (No state
record was involved in that one)
Ed Grant
