Tweaks to track season near approval

The MIAA Track and Cross Country Committee unanimously agreed Tuesday to modifications for the Fall 2 and Spring seasons to send to the Sports Medicine Committee for approval.

Where some of those Fall 2 indoor track modifications will be implemented remains to be seen.

The Reggie Lewis Center expects to be closed for the duration of the academic year due to the pandemic. Boston University also said its facilities would not be available, as is the case with several other venues in the state.

Wheaton College scheduled four events this month for the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association, but told the MIAA that once students were back on campus next month, their facility would shut down.

One possibility is running some of those indoor track events outdoors, an option brought up by committee chairman Pete Rittenburg. He said there shouldn’t be any issues having those longer distance events outside. Rittenburg, the athletic director at Brookline, was quick to reject a notion put forth by some to combine the indoor and outdoor track seasons.

The committee agreed to form a subcommittee to determine the future rotation of state cross country meets. One of the concerns was trying to come up with a way runners would not be at an advantage or disadvantage by running at the same venue on consecutive weekends.

Another consideration was the possibility that six state championship cross-country meets could be held at three different sites. That was met with resistance from several committee members.

“They should be held at one site,” said Lincoln-Sudbury athletic director Art Reilly. “You have so much excitement that day if all six races were run at the same place.”

Longtime track icon Frank Mooney asked whether they could get enough officials to do indoor meets, saying he didn’t receive a lot of feedback. Committee member Ed Hichborn said Tri-Valley League meets have been running without a hitch; Fred Doyle said he’s run into officials who wanted to work meets.

The alignments moving forward for each of the three tracks: three divisions with three sub-divisions for cross country, five divisions for indoor track and six for outdoor track. The official announcements as to where schools were placed are slated to come out next week and appeals would be heard shortly thereafter.