Cold Water Thrown on Track Athletes

Should the State track and field meet at Cerritos College have been canceled Saturday?

Tom Byrnes, CIF commissioner, announced the cancellation after a morning of heavy rains. He made his decision an hour before the finals were scheduled to start.

“If I had to do it all over again, I would make the same decision,” Byrnes said Monday. “I made a decision I could live with, and that is why I haven’t been second-guessing myself.”

Although other states hold meets in inclement weather, California has not faced such a problem in the 75-year history of the event. That might explain why CIF officials acted hastily.

Byrnes assembled his track management team at 1:15 p.m. Saturday to inspect the conditions. Five members of the team spent nearly 45 minutes looking over the facility before unanimously agreeing to call off the meet because the health and safety of the participants could not be ensured. Byrnes concurred.

Shortly after the meet had been canceled, the rain stopped and the sun came out.

Byrnes said no consideration was given to postponing or delaying the meet because many of the participants had travel plans that could not be changed.

“No one wanted to have this meet more than me,” Byrnes said. “Calling it off was in no way is advantageous to the CIF. But it was a Catch-22 decision. If we went on with it and the rains persisted, it is likely someone would have gotten injured. Then people would have accused us of holding an event just to make money and not thinking about the athletes.”

Byrnes estimates that the CIF will lose nearly $40,000 on the cancellation.

This is the only State meet in the country that was canceled this year. Other states had contingency plans to deal with bad weather. Heavy thunderstorms interrupted the finals in Colorado last month, but officials delayed events for 35 minutes until the rain let up and the track could be cleared off.

“We evaluate things on an event-by-event basis,” said Bert Borgmann, an administrator with the Colorado High School Activities Assn. “When we get heavy rains or severe thunderstorms, we wait until things clear up and proceed when we can. In some years, we’ve even delayed the pole vault for a day so the pit could dry out. But we would never cancel the entire meet.”

CIF officials not only made their decision too early, they failed to have a contingency plan. A backup facility should have been made available in case of such of a problem. With proper planning and warning, they also could have notified participants that the meet would be delayed a few hours or even a day in case of severe weather.

It is suspected that few, if any, of the finalists would have minded paying an for extra night of lodging or altering airline tickets, given a chance to compete for a State title.

“We had no backup plan because we’ve never had this kind of a problem before,” Byrnes said. “But that is a fair complaint and something we will make sure we do next year.”

Byrnes will have a meeting with the track advisory committee this week to decide if any medals or trophies will be given out.

In the meantime, he is busy explaining a decision that pleased few of those whom the CIF is supposed to serve.

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Hal Harkness, City Section commissioner, said Monday he expects to conclude his investigation of the Crenshaw boys’ basketball team in the next week.

He has been meeting with school officials since The Times published an article alleging that four of the team’s transfers did not meet residence eligibility requirements. The players in question are seniors Calvin Valrie and Rico Laurie, junior Reggie McFerren and sophomore Ronnie Arch.

If one or more of the players is ruled ineligible, Crenshaw might be stripped of its City Section and State titles.

“The school has been cooperating, and I’ve been involved in all facets of the investigation,” Harkness said. “But these things take time.”

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District officials expect to hire a replacement for Harkness by July 15. The application deadline is Thursday, and a seven-member committee will then review the candidates.

Harkness announced his resignation last month after seven years on the job. He will step down Oct. 1.

Dick Browning, who oversees athletics for the district, said he had received two applications as of Monday but expects several more by the deadline. He said the replacement will be someone who already works in the district.

“We are not advertising outside of the district,” Browning said. “But I am pleased with the list of candidates we’re receiving.”

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The Southern Section will conduct a baseball tripleheader at Anaheim Stadium on Wednesday to make up Saturday’s rained out sectional finals.

The rescheduled games will begin at 1 p.m. with Westminster La Quinta and Tustin in Division III, followed by Goleta Dos Pueblos and Lompoc at 4:30 in Division II and Simi Valley and Anaheim Esperanza at 7:30 in Division I.

The Division II championship game between Yucaipa and Riverside Norte Vista will be played today at 3:15 p.m. at the Riverside Sports Complex.

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The third National Scholastic Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be run Friday and Saturday at Birmingham High in Van Nuys and at UCLA.

More than 600 athletes will compete in 31 events.

The preliminaries will begin Friday at 7 p.m. at Birmingham High and Saturday’s finals will begin at 1 p.m. at UCLA.

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The 26th Watts Summer Games will begin Saturday and conclude June 20. More than 12,000 local high school students will compete in 12 sports at venues around the Los Angeles area.

Times’ Top 20 Baseball Poll

The Times’ top 20 high school baseball poll, with teams from the City and Southern Sections.

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Simi Valley SS I 27-3 1 2. El Camino Real City 4-A 24-2 3 3. Esperanza SS I 24-5 4 4. Crespi SS I 27-3 2 5. Bishop Amat SS III 27-1 5 6. Tustin SS III 21-9 18 7. Irvine SS III 23-8 6 8. SO Notre Dame SS I 22-6 8 9. Fountain Valley SS I 23-5 9 10. Diamond Bar SS I 22-5 10 11. Lompoc SS II 24-4 14 12. Dos Pueblos SS II 22-7 19 13. Norte Vista SS III 24-3 16 14. South Hills SS II 26-3 7 15. Millikan SS I 18-7 15 16. La Quinta SS III 25-5 NR 17. Sante Fe SS III 25-2 11 18. Yucaipa SS IV 23-7 NR 19. GH Kennedy City 4-A 24-4 17 20. South Gate City 3-A 26-5 NR