Coaches Plan Interstate Track Meets

A group of nearly 50 collegiate track and cross-country coaches from California and Nevada who met last week at Cal State Northridge has announced plans to stage annual championship meets in track and field, and in cross-country, beginning in 1994.

The track meet, which will pit the best athletes from each state against one another, is tentatively scheduled for April 30. UCLA, Stanford and Fresno State have expressed interest in serving as host. Athletes will be invited based on qualifying marks.

The coaches also decided that beginning in 1993, coaches from California will select a Southern and Northern California male and female track and field athlete of the week, release a top-10 performance list in every event for Southern and Northern California and compile state dual-meet rankings for en and women.

The coaches also devised a plan to limit scoring meets between teams to three hours. In the past, meets frequently have lasted as long as five hours, which many coaches believe has led to a decrease in the sport’s popularity.

The time-saving measures, to be implemented in 1993, include reducing the number of attempts by performers in the long jump, triple jump and weight events from six to four, and limiting performers in the high jump and pole vault to seven attempts. “The meeting was a big step in the right direction,” Northridge Coach Don Strametz said.