Sunday, January 19, 2014

CompuScore has a new look




Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, January 19, 2014
Copyright, Madeline Bost, 2014

 

Well look who has had a face lift!   Ok, it’s not a facelift.   It’s a website remodel for CompuScore, the timing company that times the largest number of races in New Jersey and is the timing company that times the preponderance of Morris Area races.

Go back thirty plus years and David Siconolfi of New Providence designed a computer program that would time races that Dean Shonts, owner at the time of the Sneaker Factory in Millburn.  At the time it was quite innovative.  Someone at the finish line would push a button on a computer each time a runner came to the line and then later that time was matched to runner.

A few days after the race the runners would get a post card in the mail telling them what their official finishing time was, where they placed overall and in their age division, even their age graded PLP (Performance Level Percentage).  It was quite innovative and appreciated. 

Those cards were phased out when CompuScore opened a website in 1998.  Now the runners could just go online and see the entire field of runner’s results.  They were listed there from first to last with teams, age group results, PLP, and any other special scoring.  That has not changed.  What has changed is how you will view it.

David Siconolfi’s son Michael is responsible for the redesign of the website, and once you get over your shock you begin to appreciate what he has done.

The first thing you see on the new home page is the upcoming event calendar.  Fifty races from the present date to three or more months out. You used to have to click on the month that you wanted to see, then go back to the home page and then choose another month.   Right now what is showing are the races in February all the way into May.

There is a box to indicate that a race is a “Live”.  That means you can get the results on your cell phone while you are still cooling down at the race.  Go to  “live.compuscore.com”  You then select the race and then enter a name or a bib number.

If you want to see the recent races you click on “Recent” in the box at the top of the page.  The most recent races will top the page and run back into October.  If you want to see the results of a race that was run farther back you can go to the calendar on the left side of the page.

What will be showing is the current month and year.  You select the month and the year to find a race.   The calendar will change to that month and you then can see that any day of that month that is blue will have a race.  Hover over the date and you can see what race is on that date.  Say, for instance you want to see how you did at the  President’s Cup Night Race 5K in June of 2013.  You know it is on a Monday in about the middle of the month.  Sure enough, there it is, June 21.  Click on the “Results” button and there’s the old familiar results page for the race.  Go back and you can click on all the precious years, as far back as 1999 with just a click of a button.

Two features on the old website are not yet on the new website; the PLP calculator, and the Google search for a person on the site, but they will be back soon.  Michael Siconolfi has plans for more features that will be added in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, if you want to go back to the old Compuscore just type in compuscore.com/index.htm

Back on the new home page you will see that the New Jersey Super Bowl has had an effect on the race schedule.  The Run for the Endzone 6K, obviously a tie-in to the big game had to be rescheduled.  Due to the expected pre-game activities on Saturday, February 1st, the police said no to closing down any roads in the area for a road race.  Right here in Morristown the NFL put pressure on the Super Hero race organizers and the four mile race on Sunday, February 1st, originally named the Super Sunday 4 miler has officially been re-named the Pre-Game 4 Miler.
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Race Results can often be found at www.compuscore.com or at  www.bestrace.com 
A calendar of USATF sanctioned events can be found at www.usatfnj.org or at www.raceforum.com for running and tri and biathlon events.
Contact Madeline Bost at madelinebost@verizon.net.

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