Dual Standards Set Up for Division II Track Nationals

In an effort to improve the quantity and quality of the fields in the 1990 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. Division II track and field championships, two standards have been established in each event for the meet next May in Hampton, Va.

An athlete who meets the absolute--or A--standard automatically will qualify for the Division II meet. But there also will be a provisional--or B--standard that would allow athletes to qualify for the Division II championships if the fields in their events were below desired size.

Previously, there was one qualifying standard in each event. If an athlete met that standard, he or she automatically qualified for nationals.

In the past three or four years, problems have arisen because some events lacked a sufficient number of qualifiers.

Only two women qualified for the 200 meters in this year’s championships, three qualified for the 100-meter low hurdles, and five women met the standard in the high jump. The women’s 400- and 1,600-meter relays also had only five entries each.

The top eight finishers in each event score points and are honored as Division II All-Americans.

“The standards were there for a reason, to keep the quality of competition at a high level,” UC Riverside Coach Chris Rinne said. “But when the standards are such that there are only three or four entries, there’s not much competition.”

The six-member NCAA Division II track and field subcommittee, of which Rinne is a member, will decide which B-standard athletes compete at nationals and will base its decision on two major factors: the number of athletes meeting the A standard in a particular event and the quality of the field in an event.

Ideally, the NCAA would like to have 14 to 16 entries in each event, but Rinne said that won’t always be the case. “If one event is particularly strong and loaded with depth, it may have more entries than the desired level,” he said, “and if another is weaker with less depth, it may have less.”

Although the 1990 B standards are inferior to the qualifying marks in 1989, the A standards are superior to 1989’s in all 21 men’s events, and in 16 of 19 women’s events.

“It’s still not a perfect system,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said. “But it’s a big improvement over what it was.”