NCAA DI to go to East-West regional qualifying

[Barto]

2008 East vs West Regional Breakdown

Men
12th best in the West 5.30
12th best in the East 5.20

Women
12th best in the West 4.16
12th best in the East 4.00

[polevaulter08nw]

are these marks from regionals or conference? I know that joe berry jumped 5.40 to win his region and that most of the pr's are higher than in that list. just wondering where it was from.

[Barto]

That was the national descending order list before regionals and nationals.

[vtcoach]

There weren't any proposals that would have made the west any easier in the pole vault. The problem is that in pretty much every other event the east was and still is stronger. This is mostly because there are so many more D1 programs in the East. Last year, not counting relays and not counting athletes that only got in because of the conference champion rule there were 389 athletes on the regional list from the old west region and 574 from the old east region. In the M and W 100 and in the W 200 they only had to run semi's and finals in the west because 16 or less qualified.

There will always be stregnth differences from one region to another. The at-large births were what helped balance the strength differences in individual events between the different regions so there is no doubt that the NCAA meet, in all events, will be weaker under this system. I don't see how that can be seen as an improvement.

These super regionals are going to be huge meets... way bigger in terms of the number of athletes than nationals. There won't be many sites/cities that can handle it. I also don't understand doing this at time when athletic associations are trying to save on travel/energy costs. The odds of the regional meet being a reasonable drive for most teams just disappeared.

I hope they reconsider this. I am glad at least that is not scheduled for implemetation until 2010.

[SlickVT]

Exactly. I can only think of a few facilities in the new east region that even have two parallel runways to run this meet.

[SlickVT]

Another thing to consider is this:

This system will weed out the spark jumpers... AKA athletes who only have a few huge jumps per season. Lower level, consistent vaulters now have the advantage in that you have to make it through 4 rounds of competition without a hiccup to become an All-American. Essentially, take all the surprises that we normally see at a national meet and square it.

This significantly lowers the level of competition, but like Becca said, if you are at that level, you should be able to have a bad day and still make it through. Keyword being SHOULD.

[zipsDIGSpv]

Nothing that I have read has said that they are going to do a qualifying round in the field events. This only being a three day meet it seems like they do not plan to have qualifying rounds. Has anyone heard one way or the other? One final with 48 competitors would be an absolute nightmare.

[rainbowgirl28]

Nothing that I have read has said that they are going to do a qualifying round in the field events. This only being a three day meet it seems like they do not plan to have qualifying rounds. Has anyone heard one way or the other? One final with 48 competitors would be an absolute nightmare.

They would have to do qualifying rounds. Like you said, there is absolutely no way you could run a final with 48 vaulters.

I don't know what they plan to do, but on day 1, I would have 2 fields of 24 and reduce it to 24 total. Should only take 2-3 bars max. I would do both genders that day so they both get the day of rest. Probably 2-3 hours per competition if you are going from 48 to 24 as long as you start the bar high enough.

Day 3 I would have 24 person finals for the men and women. Yeah, that is a LOT for a final, but it's a lot less than 48 and I am sure every vaulter there has jumped in fields much bigger than 24. I don't think too many people will care as much about winning anyway, the main goal is making that top 12.

You'd have 2 runways, so the girls and guys could overlap on that day.


They had better be willing to run 5-alive!!!!

[rainbowgirl28]

Exactly. I can only think of a few facilities in the new east region that even have two parallel runways to run this meet.

Icahn Stadium in New York (seems like they would have a hard time getting someone to run the meet there)
IUPUI (again, seems like they would have a hard time getting someone to run the meet)
LSU

What other schools have 2 parallel runways?

In the west region you have:
Oregon
Sac State
Arkansas
Texas

Who else?

[zipsDIGSpv]

In the East Ohio State could do it (granted it is a terrible place to PV - almost guarenteed crosswind), I forget if Tennessee is in the East or West but they have parallel runways

[rainbowgirl28]

In the East Ohio State could do it (granted it is a terrible place to PV - almost guarenteed crosswind), I forget if Tennessee is in the East or West but they have parallel runways

Yeah, Tennessee is in the East.

[SlickVT]

The only ones I can think of are:

Tennessee
Icahn Stadium
Georgia (One just on inside of track, one on outside of track going same direction)
IUPUI
LSU