The NCAA Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee recently approved rules regarding the surveying of indoor and outdoor tracks, and moving events from main meet venues.

The committee, which held its annual meeting July 21-24 in Whitefish, Montana, voted to require institutions to have their outdoor tracks surveyed after initial construction and after each resurfacing. Portable indoor tracks will require surveying before the first competition each year, and permanent indoor tracks must be surveyed after each resurfacing.

This recommendation will be forwarded to the Division I Championships/Competition Cabinet and the Divisions II and III Championships Committees, in their oversight role relating to rules with significant financial impact.

"The track and field committee felt it was important for institutions to have a surveyor's report on hand that verifies that their facilities are in compliance with NCAA rules with regard to length, grade and slope," said Margaret Simmons, assistant athletics director at Murray State University and secretary-rules editor of the committee.

"Such a survey is commonly done as part of initial construction. The committee wanted to make sure it also was done whenever a track is resurfaced and re-striped, as well as whenever an indoor track is put back together after being in storage."

Another rules addition charges the games committee of any meet to verify that all events will be held at the main meet venue. The rule is intended to keep host institutions from moving events, such as the long and triple jumps, and the sprints, to a nearby location, just to take advantage of more favorable runways or wind conditions.

Conference championships are excluded from the rule, since many conferences conduct the decathlon and heptathlon at different venues and times from the remainder of the meet.

There will be a process implemented in which institutions may request a waiver to the rule should there be safety concerns or extenuating circumstances over holding all events at the same site.

Among the other rules approved by the committee were:

Deleting maximum weights for all implements.

Allowing competitors to apply chalk only directly to implements. Previously, they were permitted to apply any suitable substance on their hands or neck.

Defining the completion of each flight in preliminary events as when the last competitor in the flight has either taken the final attempt or the time limit for the attempt has expired.

Playing rules changes

In addition to the rules changes discussed in the accompanying article, other major rules changes are listed below in the order in which the change will appear in the 2002 rules book.

In Rule 5-5-3-f, the referee, after consulting with the appropriate officials, shall disqualify a competitor who is paced by a competitor of the opposite gender in the same race.

Rule 5-8-4 will prohibit outgoing runners in relays other than the sprint relays from placing any markings on the track.

The following sentence will be deleted from Rule 6-1-15-b: "Discus, hammer and javelin throws shall be measured and recorded to the lesser even centimeter, except when electronic measurement is used, in which case they may be measured to the nearest lesser centimeter."

Rule 6-2-2 will recommend that in scored meets with four or fewer teams, the top eight performances advance to the finals, plus a minimum representation of two competitors (if entered) from each institution in conformance with Rule 6-2-1.

A new article was added to Section 3 of Rule 6: "The games committee/meet management may establish a minimum distance that must be reached to guarantee a measurement of an attempt. All attempts that meet or exceed the minimum distance must be measured."

The following sentence will be inserted between the third and fourth paragraphs of Rule 6-4-3: "When the number of competitors remaining in the competition is fewer than nine, the five-alive system is abandoned at the next height change and replaced by a continuous flight for the remainder of the competition."

In Rules 6-5-4 and 6-6-3, a failed attempt shall not be called if a high-jump or pole-vault competitor clears the crossbar, lands in the pit and, while exiting under control, accidentally displaces the crossbar. Rules 6-5-3-c and 6-6-2-f, which identified such actions as failed attempts, were deleted.

In the first sentence of Rule 7-1-5-3-a, replace "highest height attempted" with "lowest height attempted by any of the tied athletes above the tying height."

A note will be added to Rule 10-4-7 that will allow competitors in races with staggered starts to place their hands outside their lanes, but not beyond the starting line extended, due to narrow lanes.

The following is the new Rule 10-5-2: "If preliminaries are contested in the 400-meter dash and six competitors advance to the finals, the heat winners plus the next fastest times shall qualify." The succeeding articles will be renumbered.

Other highlights

Men's and Women's Track and Field Committee
July 21-24/Whitefish, Montana

In addition to the joint committee actions described in the accompanying article, the committee's division subcommittees also took the following actions:

Division I

Voted to change the method by which team ties in cross country regional qualifying meets, only in those places where advancement to the national championship is involved, are broken. The new method will use the place finish of each team member one through five compared to that of their respective competitor on the opposing team. The team that wins the majority (best of five) of the comparisons wins the tiebreaker.

Noted that this method also will be used to break ties in regular-season meets for the sole purpose of awarding points for possible at-large selection to the national championships. This will be done only during the determination of the at-large team selections and will not affect team scoring at meets.

Voted to break any ties for at-large individual qualifiers to the championships based on the smallest time differential of the tied competitors to the last (fourth) automatic qualifier in their respective regionals.

Recommended that the 2 1/2-day per diem for the cross country championships be allotted as one-half for travel on Saturday, a full day for practice on Sunday and a full day for competition on Monday.

Noted the 2001 cross country championships will be scored using technology in which computer chips are attached to the competitors' shoes.

Voted to eliminate all manual timing at the indoor and outdoor championships, as long as there are two fully automatic timing systems with independent circuitry in operation.

Agreed to survey Division I coaches as to their preference on how the 1,600-meter relay at the indoor championships should be conducted.

Recommended that the host institution's facilities staff at both track and field championships thoroughly inspect all equipment before each day's events.

Considered the necessity of preparing scripts for all event officials at the track and field championships.

Appointed John Kane of Boston College to the rules subcommittee and Kelly Landry of the University of Illinois, Champaign, to the standards subcommittee.

Division II

Noted it also will be using computer chip technology to score the 2001 cross country championships.

Voted to eliminate entry forms for both the indoor and outdoor championships.

Reviewed the language regarding media access from the championships handbooks.

Voted to implement a rule for the indoor and outdoor championships that states that one additional student-athlete who has not qualified may be declared as a relay alternate. The NCAA will not reimburse transportation and per diem expenses for any alternate, whether or not he or she competes.

Established four sets of qualifying standards for the indoor championships in running events of 400 meters and greater. The standards are for tracks of fewer than 200 meters, 200-meter flat tracks, 200-meter banked tracks and tracks of more than 200 meters.

Noted the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles will replace the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles at the indoor championships, beginning in 2002.

Agreed to allow qualifying marks in the high jump and pole vault for the outdoor championships to be made indoors, only if the events were moved for safety reasons by a decision of a competition's games committee.

Reaffirmed its commitment to include the outdoor championships in the sports festival concept in 2004, as long as it does not necessitate a change in dates.

Division III

Voted to change the women's cross country race distance in the regional qualifying meets and national championships from 5,000 to 6,000 meters, beginning in 2002.

Recommended presenting awards to the top eight finishers in each event at the indoor championships, subject to the approval of the Division III Championships Committee. If approved, the top eight places also will be scored.

Approved indexing for oversized, undersized, banked and flat tracks in indoor track and field qualifying standards.

Recommended an increase in the number of participants in the indoor championships to 230 men and 230 women, beginning in 2003. The increase of 30 participates per gender, subject to the approval of the Division III Championships Committee and Management Council, would be accomplished by adding the 200-meter dash and 3,000-meter run.

Voted to implement a rule for the indoor and outdoor championships that states that one additional student-athlete who has not qualified may be declared as a relay alternate, as the result of an injury or illness to a declared relay athlete. The NCAA will not reimburse transportation and per diem expenses for any alternate, whether or not he or she competes.

Recommended to the Division III Championships Committee that each eligible student-athlete and coach receive per diem for one travel day and each day of the track and field championships, up to and including the day on which the last athlete from the institution competes.

Approved allowing athletes who qualify in multiple events in the indoor and outdoor championships, but who do not wish to compete in all of them, to indicate preference for the events in which they want to participate.

Voted to require that last-chance meets, with dates and order of events, be included on an institution's schedule and Web site, and also sent to the NCAA.

Voted to require qualifying marks for the outdoor championships to be made using an outdoor facility, unless events were moved indoors for safety reasons by a decision of a competition's games committee. Previously, only field events moved indoors for safety reasons were eligible for qualifying purposes.

Recommended St. Lawrence University as the host for the 2003 outdoor championships, subject to the approval of the Division III Championships Committee.

Verified that the 3,000-meter steeplechase will replace the 3,000-meter run in the women's outdoor championships, beginning in 2002, and that qualifying marks may be made with the water-jump barrier at either legal position.