“They just got to get it right. And I don’t understand how it can be that wrong.”
Pennridge coach Bill Smith was left searching for answers and the right words to say to his girls’ 4x100-meter relay team Friday after learning that a disputed exchange zone disqualification could not be overturned. This decision came despite still photo and video evidence apparently confirming that a Rams’ baton pass in the Class AAA prelims was in the zone and legal.
“They just have worked so hard and to have it taken away because I believe it was taken away,” Smith explained after meeting with PIAA officials about the DQ. “I don’t want to be in controversy. I want to stay as far away from this as I can, but here we are smack in the middle of what clearly is a controversy. Clearly there is footage to say that we weren’t the team that was out of the exchange zone.”
Looking to fulfill a season-long objective of climbing to the top step of the awards platform, Pennridge was in lane 4 in the fourth of five prelims of the sprint relay. With Taylor Chapman, Ariana Przybylowski, Lindsay Sheehan and Natalia Pinkney on the track, Pennridge was one of the favorites, entering the meet with the No. 2 clocking in the state.
A series of photos taken by a PennTrackXC photographer captured the first exchange for Pennridge. The seemingly routine baton pass got the Rams headed toward crossing the line first, and even an official’s yellow flag didn’t concern Smith.
“I had a sigh of relief because I felt it certainly was not us because we were in the middle of the exchange zone,” he said of which team caused the flag to wave for one of 14 disqualifications in the 400 relay trials. “We had somebody else who had a video of (our exchange), and it clearly, clearly wasn’t even close.
“I understand they don’t have the rules (on video evidence), but with the technology today, we’ve got to move forward. They can’t be that wrong. I believe they were looking at the wrong lane. That’s my belief.”
Meet referee and state rules interpreter Jack Hedlund met with Smith and his quartet about an hour after the event concluded, explaining the rules limiting video reviews and reinforcing the initial decision by the judge assigned to lanes 1-4 and the outgoing runners. The official was certain that the Rams’ first baton pass occurred outside the 20-meter zone, and the disqualification would stand.
“That precludes having any videos of the exchange zones or at the takeoff board of the long jump,” Hedlund explained of the national rule allowing only video review at the finish line of track events. “There can be people all around taking videos, but the fact of the matter is we can’t use them because of the rules we all have to use. That’s what’s in the rule book.
“As sympathetic as I can be with their plight, and I am sympathetic about it, I have nothing in the rule book that allows me to say we’ll run you in another relay or we’re going to kick somebody else out and put you in or run them by themselves.”
The unappealable decision left the Pennridge squad, which placed second at the Penn Relays Carnival in a season-best 47.55 seconds, in tears about the only and last blemish on their 2013 record.
“We haven’t been disqualified all year, not at all, not even close,” Smith lamented. “And quite honestly, we weren’t close today.
“To have an opportunity to win the 4x1 relay, that was their goal the whole year, and they’ve worked so hard. We’ve had injuries, and they’ve done everything they can to get themselves recouping and getting to this weekend. All the blood, sweat and tears, and right now there are a lot of tears going on.”
