Published by the DAILY RECORD of Morris County, New Jersey
On Sunday, January 17, 2016
RUNNERS WILL SEE CHANGES IN 2016
The Long Distance running committee meeting this past
Tuesday was well attended despite the dusting of snow that could have kept
people away. Although pushback was expected on some of the
proposed changes to the team grand prix rules, none occurred. The proposal by John Sabatino of Morris Plains
to again allow each team to drop their lowest score in the team grand prix was
passed almost unanimously.
This change means that a team can miss a championship race
and the missed race zero will be counted as the lowest score. Sabatino sweetened the pot with a two point
bonus for any team that has made it to all the championships and had scored in
all of those races.
Weaker teams have been given a bonus too. If their team does not finish high enough to
garner points, 12-10-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 they will automatically earn one
point. Does this happen often? Yes, it does; for instance at the last open
men’s championship in 2015, twenty-three men’s teams finished. Only the top ten teams earned points. If that were the case this year, those other 12
teams would have at least one point on their scorecard. This will make weaker teams very happy. It will give them credit for coming and
competing and it will certainly make the scoring of the grand prix quite
interesting this year.
Some proposed changes were tabled. This will be the third year that the road
mile championships will be in the team grand prix. There was never full support for its
inclusion and now there is talk of dropping the mile. It would still be a team competition, but results
would not go into the grand prix. With the
proposal tabled, the mile will stay in for 2016.
This is the first year that the road mile has been
divided. The open men and women will
compete in the College Avenue Mile in New Brunswick in June, and the masters
men and women will compete in Montclair in the Midland Mile in August.
Also tabled was a proposal to include a relay in the grand
prix. The group that had asked that the
proposal be submitted did not attend and therefore could not speak for it.
TRACK MEET THIS PAST SUNDAY
Several Morris area road runners became track athletes for a
day at the USATFNJ track and field championship this past Sunday at the Bennett
indoor sports facility in Toms River.
Turnout was light but still competitive.
The lone woman competing from this area, Susan Stirrat of
Rockaway won her W60 division mile race in 7:16.22. Husband Reno Stirrat won his M60 division in
the 3,000 meter race just beating the 11 minute buzzer in 10:59.65.
Roger Price of Randolph won the M65 division mile in 6:17.10. Price took second in the 3,000 meters beaten
by a stride length by Runners World writer Marc Bloom. Bloom was clocked in 12:04.30 and Price in
12:04.73. Bloom runs for the Shore
Athletic Club.
Also in the 3,000 meters, Angelo Harasts of Pine Brook finished
in 11:32.98 for second place in the M45 division. Placing third in the 1,500 meter run M55
division was Anthony Boyadis of Morristown who finished in 6:23.47.
Robert Skorupski of Rockaway leapt 1.38 meters to take second
in the M40 division of the high jump. Back
on the track he finished third in his division in the 800 meters in 2:23.92.
Charles Castiglioni, M55, of Lake Hopatcong did an unusual double. He placed fourth in the 200 meter dash in
33.02 and came back to run the 800 meters where he was timed in 2:50.62 for
fifth place.
Next up is the East Region masters championship on January
31th in Providence RI, hosted by the New England Association. Also on the schedule is the Hartshorne
Masters Mile in Ithaca NY next Saturday, January 23rd.
#
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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