Jewish School Wins Appeal; Track Meet Rescheduled

The California Interscholastic Federation on Tuesday reversed an earlier decision and agreed to hold one heat of the preliminary cross-county finals on a Thursday, enabling a top-ranked Orthodox Jewish school to attend.

Yeshiva University High School of Los Angeles, which leads its league in cross-country, had asked the group’s executive committee to change one heat of the event on Nov. 15 because it is the Jewish Sabbath and the boys would not be able to attend.

The committee ruled that the number of teams involved made changing the date too difficult.

But on Tuesday, with proof that a number of other schools supported Yeshiva and would agree to participate on another day, the school won its appeal.

The group voted 39 to 28 in favor of changing one heat, provided the teams in the heat would be balanced by skill and that Yeshiva agreed to pay for use of the track, said Harold Cebrun, an assistant commissioner.

Yeshiva officials have said that even if their boys qualify they will not run in either the section finals or the state championships because those meets are held on Saturdays. The school said it believed that asking for a change in those schedules would be unreasonable.

“We just want to give them a taste of what it would be like,” Yeshiva Principal Marion Peterson said.