Today was the day of the annual cross country committee meetings. This one rated as low-key and congenial, which is not at all to say that nothing was accomplished.
In terms of proposals to be forwarded to the CHSAA Legislative Council, the Mile High League brought a proposal to move 2A scoring from 6/3 to 6/4. The proposal passed the committee with one dissenting vote and will move on to Legislative Council in January.
A second proposal to change 2A's allocation of teams to State from each regional from 4 to 5 will have to be voted on by two committee members who were absent today before we know if that becomes part of the 2A package as well. If it does, that would mean 2A would have the same count of 20 teams at State that the other classifications have. (Update: This proposal also passed and will be added to the cross country committee report to Legislative Council).
Gary Strubel of the officials association gave a review of several items related to cross country, including reporting on increased compliance with the uniform rule and an update on availability of officials for cross country meets. The availability issue is still producing some complications. Of 12 different regional locations, eight had the CHSAA requisite of four officials for the event, three had three officials each, and one only had two officials.
CHSAA is standing with the expectation of four certified officials for each regional meet. Toward that end, Mr. Strubel will work toward producing a cross country-specific list of available officials, as some of the certified track and field officials prefer not to work cross country meets. If a list of available officials for cross country meets is generally accessible, issues of staffing cross country meets should be reduced.
Jenn Roberts-Uhlig indicated CHSAA will be taking proposals for new state meet venues at next year's committee meeting. That is not to say that the meet will necessarily be moving from its current location in Colorado Springs, but other venues will have a chance to submit bids next year.
And, finally, the committee and meeting attendees broke into groups to parcel out regional assignments for the next two-year cycle. The proposed regional assignments are as shown on the next page. Click on Next to view these.