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Disney World meet to spotlight top I track talent

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER

Super Bowl MVPs aren't the only athletes going to Disney World. Soon, some of the finest Division I track and field athletes also will be traveling to the world's most famous theme park.

On April 5, 1997, student-athletes from seven Division I men's and women's track and field teams will display their talents at the 1997 Collegiate Track and Field Invitational at the Disney World Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida.

Created by the United States Track Coaches Association (USTCA) and sponsored by Disney Wide World of Sports, the invitational will showcase men's and women's teams from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; men's teams from George Mason University and the University of Florida; and the Florida State University women's team. High-school competition featuring nine or 10 teams also will be held.

"We're excited about the meet. We've got a number of excellent teams and outstanding athletes," said Jimmy Carnes, executive director of the USTCA. "We've received a lot of phone calls from other teams interested in getting involved in meets similar to this."

The first track meet to be held at the Disney sports complex, the invitational will feature team scoring in 17 individual events, including women's pole vault. All events will be finals only, with the exception of the 100-meter dash and the 100/110-meter hurdles, which include preliminaries.

"It's a great way to open our new facility. I don't think we could have opened with a better event," said Brooks Johnson, sports operation manager for Disney Wide World of Sports, who added that the event would be televised.

"This is an excellent opportunity for us to get involved in the promotion of track and field. We're going to get intersectional competition very early in the year. We'll have teams that did very well at the NCAA meet last year, so it will be a quality event.

"It's also a good way for us to find out what combination of events works best and which ones have the greatest promotion potential. It's a way for us to feel our way into doing bigger and better things."

Energize the sport

Conceived by the USTCA as one way to increase the sport's visibility and interest, Carnes believes the meet -- and ones similar to it -- will energize the sport.

He contends that the key to success hinges on whether coaches buy into the concept of head-to-head competition and team scoring. While acknowledging the success of invitationals such as the Penn, Drake and Texas Relays, Carnes believes that the future of collegiate track and field -- specifically regular-season competition -- rests with meets such as the Disney invitational.

"There's no way for excitement to filter down to the fans unless the coaches create the excitement for a track meet," Carnes said. "You have to create and promote. You have to create a happening around your track meet just like we've created around football and basketball. They have gatherings. They have all kinds of things that create a happening."

Doug Brown, men's track and field coach at the University of Florida, believes the invitational format accomplishes that objective.

He said the opportunity to compete head-to-head in a scored meet against some of

the best collegiate track and field teams is very appealing. He added that similar meets have been held for years with great success at places such as the University of Oregon and Louisiana State University.

"(This meet) has a lot of appeal. It's going to be a great event," Brown said. "The athletics directors want to see a team score, and the fans want to see a team score. People want to know which team won. It's good for the athletes because they need to compete for points on a regular basis. It's also conducive for qualifying performances. It really encompasses a lot of needs."

Expects positive impact

Carnes believes that the team-scored invitational concept -- while not the solution to the sport's ills -- can have a positive impact. He contends that interest in collegiate track and field has declined largely due to programs abandoning the team concept in favor of specialization in certain events.

"The single greatest thing that has hurt track and field is schools going away from scored track meets," Carnes said. "People want to know if Clemson beat North Carolina, if Florida beat Florida State. For everybody to continue to go to invitational meets and run a few athletes...then track and field will continue to die a slow death.

"Therefore, we need to do whatever it takes to put scoring back in track meets."

In addition to providing a team-scoring format and a quality field, the Disney invitational's biggest plus may be its time schedule, which should require only about three to four hours to complete.

Running-event finals are scheduled in a two-hour-and-10-minute time block; field events will be conducted simultaneously and last about three hours. The running events include two high-school relays.

Typically, a regular-season track meet takes more than five hours.

The invitational format does not provide for competition in the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs, the hammer throw, and the decathlon and heptathlon.

"Knowing that we have to keep the meet within a three-hour format in order to keep fan interest, we eliminated a few events. You can't run the men's and women's 10K and expect to complete a meet in less than four to five hours," Carnes said.

"We wanted to create something that would require teams to have a full team in order to compete and yet wouldn't take all day to complete. We wanted to create something that coaches have a desire to be in with a full team, to create an atmosphere of excitement so teams will want to get into this type of competition."

The excitement seems to exist. The only questions are what impact the invitational will have and whether the concept will succeed.

Brown already has made up his mind.

"This is the future for regular-season collegiate track and field," he said.

As for Carnes, he envisions the invitational serving as a springboard for a collegiate track-and-field series comprising up to 10 events that will be held throughout the country beginning in 1998.

If Carnes' goal is realized, more and more track-and-field athletes will be heading to Disney World.