The picture is becoming clearer for the middle school state championship, as the planning committee and Florida Youth Running Association (FLYRA) , the newly formed non-profit governing association founded by Joe Mizereck, hammers out the details. The FLYRA planning committee, lead by meet director Laura Fredrickson, has narrowed down the field to three venues and discussions are well underway to decide between those options. All of the venues on the table are in Lakeland/Tampa vicinity and that announcement will be made here within a week or two.
The middle school state championship this year will feature two divisions: Championship and Developmental.
The championship races will crown both team and individual champions and is open to Florida residents in grades 6th through 8th grades, who meet the recommended individual or mandatory team qualifying standards (more on this later). The developmental race is open to athletes of all fitness levels and capabilities between 3rd and 8th grades. All divisions will race the 3K distance.
Note: While most races in Florida traditionally have raced 2 miles or 2.1 miles for cross country meets, the national standard is 3K.... as conducted by the USATF, AAU, Foot Locker South Middle School race, and other middle school state championships across the country.
Championship Race, Individual Qualification Standards
These time standards are to be used as a guideline, not a hard and fast rule, as to which race to put your athletes into. They are meant to err on the side of being inclusive, but also to pit the top athletes together. Coaches are encouraged to use their best judgement in placing an athlete in the championship or developmental division.
Boys - 13:30 for two miles or 12:30 for 3K
Girls - 15:00 for two miles or 14:00 for 3K
Championship Race, Team Qualification
While the championship division is individually technically an open, only teams that have qualified will be included in the team championship scoring--no other teams will be scored. There will be two types of qualifying meets: standard qualifiers and super-qualifiers.
Standard qualifiers meets will have one team qualify per five teams full teams (5 runners) competing, with a minimum of one qualifying spot if less than five full teams. This status will be awarded mostly to county and conference championship meets, but also potentially regionally significant invitational meets as well.
Super-qualifiers will have an automatic five qualifying spots granted (unless the 1 per 5 ratio would be greater). This is a designation reserved for the state's largest invitational meets that typically attract elite competition from around the state.
Team Eligibility
Since the meet is open to all individuals, everyone is welcome to come and participate. If you are not a part of the team championship, you can wear whatever jersey you like including school, club, or otherwise. HOWEVER, teams that will be scored into the team championship must meet the qualification requirements above.
First and foremost we want to encourage teams to compete as schools. Because of various rules and regulations of the various county or state athletic associations, we realize that some teams may not be officially allowed to represent their school in this meet. Athletes forming a team that is scoring in the team championship must have competed as a team and qualified at one of the qualifying meets. Only athletes who competed at that meet, representing the same group of athletes, are eligible to represent that team at the championship... regardless of what jersey or name you compete under at the middle school state championship.
Athletes who did not score or competed in a sub-varsity race at that qualifying meet ARE ELIGIBLE to compete (and score) for that team at the state meet. The purpose of this is to prove that the team did compete as a team during the regular season... and are not a hand-picked all-star team, which is strictly forbidden.
While we may not be able to check each and every every athlete to verify this, we are asking coaches to abide by the honor system here. Should an ineligible athlete be suspected of competing for a team at the state championship, any coach may file a protest. If the allegation is found to be true, the team will be immediately disqualified and forfeit all points at the championship.
How many athletes can compete in the meet?
You may run an unlimited number of athletes in both the championship and developmental races. For team championship purposes, the top five will score and next two will displace. You will not need to designate ahead of time who your scorers will be.
What are the qualifying meets?
We will be announcing a full list of qualifiers as soon as possible. If you want to inquire about making your meet a qualifier, please send meet information to Jason Byrne (jason@flrunners.com) so that the meet information will be added to the master calendar. Those details will be forwarded to the meet planning committee for consideration.
As a rule of thumb recognized county or conference championships (public or private) that run a quality meet and report complete meet results to flrunners.com will be given the rubber stamp as a standard qualifier (1-to-5 qualifying teams ratio). All other meets will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
In addition to known county/conference championship meets, these meets are currently recognized as qualifiers (* = super-qualifier):
10/2 - flrunners.com Invitational 11 Presented by Nike*
10/8 - Disney Classic
10/14 - Little Everglades Prestate*
10/22 - Miami-Dade County Youth Fair
10/23 - Panhandle Championship
How to Sign Up, Register Online
Online registration is now open. Since the meet has an open aspect in addition to the team championship, all teams and individuals may go ahead enter their athletes and plan on attending now. Athletes and teams of all levels are welcome.
The entry fee will be just $10 per athlete, with a $50 maximum per team ($100 max per school).
ONLINE REGISTRATION: Enter Online Here
MORE MEET INFO: Official Meet Web Site at FLYRA.org... (currently under construction)
P.S. - Thank you to the planning committee...
(personal note from Jason Byrne, flrunners.com)
Thank you to the coaches who joined the conference call a couple of weeks ago. Joe will be scheduling a follow up one soon, as I understand.
I have been assisting with the planning committee thus far, but myself nor FLRUNNERS.COM will be responsible for or in charge of this meet. While I am lending my full support and energy to this effort and will do whatever we can to help it be successful, let me be clear this is not my initiative and not my meet.
I can not say thanks enough to Joe Mizereck, who has been the one to get this off the ground. He has taken the initiative, invested his own money, and gotten this thing organized and moving. He recently founded the Florida Youth Running Association (FLYRA), a non-profit whose mission is to grow the sport and specifically foster and encourage our young runners and their teams. This meet is an arm of that group.
Thank you also to Laura Fredrickson who has stepped up and hit the ground running as the meet director. She has been touring courses in the Tampa and Lakeland areas like crazy and doing all of the preliminary planning to pull this meet off. And she has been soaking meet director experience from me like a sponge. :-) She will be GREAT!
And finally thank you to Billy Convey, a legendary Florida runner himself and parent of a middle school athlete. He has stepped up big time providing his insight and energy. This has been invaluable and I love that he disagrees with just about everything I say because usually half way between his idea and mine is a good one!
The picture is becoming clearer for the middle school state championship, as the planning committee and Florida Youth Running Association (FLYRA) , the newly formed non-profit governing association founded by Joe Mizereck, hammers out the details. The FLYRA planning committee, lead by meet director Laura Fredrickson, has narrowed down the field to three venues and discussions are well underway to decide between those options. All of the venues on the table are in Lakeland/Tampa vicinity and that announcement will be made here within a week or two.