Friday, May 23
By STEVE PORTER
When the spring of 2009 rolls around, the state track meets will look different. And they may never be the same.
The IHSA is taking the two-class system and expanding it to three in both boys and girls. So a two-day track meet will become a three-day one on two weekends in May.
Think 1A, 2A and 3A.
Class 1A competitors will serve as the guniea pigs next year. They’ll compete in the preliminaries on Thursday, then take the day off Friday and return for Saturday’s finals. Class 2A and 3A comeptitors will do the normal Friday-Saturday routine.
The IHSA says it’ll all rotate. Thus 2A competitors will get the Thursday/Saturday shift in 2010 and 3A will follow the next year.
What’s left unsaid is what the Thursday competitors will do on Friday. They could remain in Charleston and wait for Saturday, but that’s another day of expenses.
Or they could return home and then come back again. Yet then there’s more gas costs, wear and tear, logistical problems, etc.
It’s also unclear what happens to Thursday’s competitors who fail to quality for the finals. If some of their teammates qualify and the team decides to stay over, the nonqualifiers are hanging around town for two days — with little to do.
There could be some trouble in River City, if that’s not monitored.
I don’t have a solution for the new problems except one:
The answer is to keep two classes.
The chances of that happening are slim and none, and slim just left town.
I hope slim doesn’t have to return for Saturday’s finals.

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