Weather forces postponement of boys Delco Championships

Mother Nature threw a monkey wrench into the completion of the boys Delco Track & Field Championships.

Heavy rain and high winds forced the Delaware County Boys Track and Field Coaches Association to postpone the second day of the two-day county championship meet, which was slated for Saturday at Sun Valley High School. The postponement was done out of safety concerns for the athletes as well as the timing equipment, said Penn Wood coach Lenny Jordan, the president of the coaches association.

Jordan said the association hopes to find a way to complete the meet.

“I think we have to have a Delco meet,” Jordan said. “We want to reschedule it but we have to sit down and talk to the teams and the board. We’re going to see what we can find.”

A total of 13 events were scheduled for Saturday, track finals in everything except the 3,200, which was held on Wednesday, as well as the discus, long jump and pole vault. The shot put, javelin, triple and high jumps were contested on Wednesday.

There was the possibility that the field events would be moved to another day and that the running events would take place as scheduled but the situation changed as the weather worsened and at least seven schools said they weren’t coming for safety reasons.

Jordan made the announcement after consulting with members of the board, which consists of Jordan and the coaches from Bonner-Prendergast (Virgil Sheppard), Chichester (Chris Milnes), Marple Newtown (Vince Clarke) and Penncrest (George Munro).

“You want to run the meet, but you want to be safe,” Jordan said. “You want the kids to be able to run some times to have the opportunity to make districts.”

Rescheduling the meet this time of year won’t be easy. One big problem is time. Fitting the conclusion of the meet could be an issue because the various league championship meets are scheduled for this week. The Central and Ches-Mont League championships and the Del Val League qualifier are slated for Wednesday. The Bicentennial League championships are Wednesday and Thursday. The Inter-Ac League championships are Thursday and Saturday and the Catholic League championships are Saturday.

The District 1, District 12 and PAISAA championships are scheduled for the following week. Finding a day in that small window will be difficult.

“The plan is to make it happen,” Jordan said.