The yearly post-season meeting for the NJSIAA Cross Country Committee took place Tuesday in Robbinsville, NJ at NJSIAA headquarters.
(This story was updated at 4pm 11/23/2021 after a follow up from Assistant Director Al Stumpf regarding the status of team competition at the Meet of Champions.)
The proposal to remove teams from the cross country Meet of Champions was presented to the committee in error, it doesn't exist as an official proposal. Teams are still part of the Meet of Champions at this time.
"The current legislation listed the specific sports in which the TOC was being eliminated and cross country was not one of them. My mistake." NJSIAA Assistant Director Al Stumpf cleared up in an email to the committee.
He did add however that the NJSIAA is looking at all the options, "Any proposal to modify the existing MOC will be presented to the Executive Committee at a later date, but we (NJSIAA) are still assessing the options and soliciting feedback both for and against any changes."
It was also noted if the topic comes up with the Executive Committee at a later day they will need to know why cross country Meet of Champions should run differently than track and field. Example, the team scoring ends at Group Championships for track and field while cross country has historically held a team championship at the Meet of Champions level.
After hearing the possibility of removing teams the committee advocated for keeping the meet as is with team advancement and scoring. They also requested that a team championship at the Meet of Champions remain in place.
2022 Cross Country Meet Dates
First Practice - August 22nd
First Scrimmage - August 29th
Competition Starts - September 8th
Sectional Meets - October 29th
Group Meet - November 5th
Meet of Champions - November 12th
*Note earlier dates for Championship meets.
Also Covered On The Agenda
- Sectional and Group Meet Directors provided updates on how their locations ran. In general everything ran smoothly other than time schedule issue at South.
- The South Sectionals may be adjusted to add five minutes between races to ensure less crossover between races finishing and starting at DREAM Park.
- All the various Sectionals, Groups, MOCs must look to secure a weather postponement date at their parks ahead of time. And postponement plans will be placed in the regulations. This is coming off of how Groups were postponed with three races still to run due to storms.
- The classifications this year are now in a two year cycle, they will remain in place for next year.
- There was discussion about cleaning up advancement language for teams and whether to keep merge style or return to the pre-2018 method of total time. However the committee decided to revisit this discussion once they knew what was happening with teams at MOCs.
- There was a request to increase time between races to an hour at MOCs which was well received by the NJSIAA and committee and approved.
- There was a request to return to top 15 individuals advancement from Sectionals to Groups, this was well received and approved. Medals will remain at top 10.
- The internet situation at Holmdel Park was discussed without solution.
- Timing was discussed including bibs from other meets being used in races, bibs being ripped off by athletes before the chip readers at the finish, and the review process for official verification of the results at the meet before posting.
- After many years of service this was Ed Colona's final cross country season at Tournament Director. He is retiring this year and will finish out his final indoor and outdoor track and field seasons as well. The NJSIAA thanks him for this work and time.
While this is a general outline based on observation of what was discussed official meeting minutes have yet to release.
The committee is made up of an Executive Committee representative, Tournament Director, State Rules Interpreter, Coaches, and Athletic Administrators.
