Photo by Phil Grove
WPIAL athletes will no longer have just one chance to qualify for the District 7 Championship Meet. As first reported by Chris Harlan the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, the WPIAL will do away with the five "Qualifiers" that determined who would participate in the district championship a week later. The change will take effect before the start of the upcoming spring season.
Instead, the WPIAL will use regular season performances as a means to qualify for the District 7 meet, which is consistent with the other 11 districts in the state of Pennsylvania.
This change eliminates the "do or die" nature of the qualifiers, which sometimes prematurely ended the season of some of the state's best, who had an off day at the qualifier. The Tribune reports that both invitational and dual meet performances can be used to qualify. Hand times will be converted appropriately.
Read Harlan's full story on TribLive.com here.
What do you think? Was the WPIAL right to eliminate the qualifiers? Vote below and feel free to leave a comment to discuss the issue.