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Vaultref, why was the 5-alive system not used during the finals at NCAAs?

I can see that the start list says no five-alive, but why? I can understand not using it in prelims, but it didn't make any sense in finals. At least it wasn't cold outside, but those girls had to wait awhile between jumps at 4.15.

this year at nike indoors they said it was illegal

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Vaultref, why was the 5-alive system not used during the finals at NCAAs?

I can see that the start list says no five-alive, but why? I can understand not using it in prelims, but it didn't make any sense in finals. At least it wasn't cold outside, but those girls had to wait awhile between jumps at 4.15.

We don't know why Becca, it caught us by surprise. At the pre-meet VJ officials meeting, we were told that the meet management/NCAA groundrules was to not do 5-alive at any time. If I had to guess, I think they didn't expect to have more than 12 in the finals in either of the VJ events.

For the mens PV final, it did not matter as there was never more than 8 at a height.
But for the women as you noted, with 16 entered they did have to wait for that second jump turn to come around.

Another meet management/NCAA item slowed things down a bit. Maybe you noticed. We were instructed to wait until the althletes name was on the field-lynx board before the cone would be removed from the runway.
There was someone turing the board, so it's not always visible.

At least a half dozen times during the women's event, the wait was becoming excessive, so I just pulled the cone anyway. I could see the vaulter was just raring start the attempt. I'm sure the name was probably on the board but since it couldn't been seen by the pit personal, we relied on a thumbs up signal from plam guy at the head of the runway. Distractions delayed that a few times not to mention the shotput people in front of this display board.

We believe this "name on board first" requirement was done because solely for TV purposes.

That field-lynx board positioning for the mens event was better and I don't think the delays there were as noticeable but they were there.

nitro wrote:this year at nike indoors they said it was illegal

(lol) what pray tell made this illegal at this USATF indoor meet?

Vaultref,

Are you one of the pacific assoc officials?

vaultmd wrote:Vaultref,

Are you one of the pacific assoc officials?

Nope.. I'm from three time zones east

I was just asking because I'm one of the PA Assoc officials but was in slacker mode and on the sidelines at NCAA's. Was just trying to figure out which one out there was you. About half were guys I work with on a regular basis. If I had known you were working the meet I would have made it a point to say hi.

You should have asked me Wilson! I could have pointed out vaultref.

Well, for the men's final I was the flight coordinator. Hanging out down by the standards board calling them up to jump and recording pass/fails/makes. The palm guy would check results with me during each bar raise to make sure he didn't miss mark anyone.

For the women's final I was sitting along the runway by the pit working the runway cone, catching poles when I could and providing take-off information if asked. I also validated each height with the measuring bar. I hate sitting. My legs are sore today from all the sitting, standing, sitting repetitions.

Gotta be careful about using the slacker word. It may look like an official is not doing anything, but in reality, he/she may be the first or second recorder, the timer, the vault judge who just has to raise a flag or the crew chief who basically is observing to make sure all is going smoothly.

It's being held one more time in Sacramento, so if I'm there, please do say hello. I met Becca for the first time last year. What a wonderful person she is!!

By slacker mode, I meant that I wasn't working at all and was hanging out in the peanut gallery antagonizing my coaching friends.