Class AA will compete on Friday, May 28 and Class AAA will compete on Saturday, May 29 at the PIAA State Championship meet at the its usual venue at Seth Grove Stadium at Shippensburg University, pending PIAA Board of Directors approval.
The PIAA's Track and Field Steering Committee met on Monday and laid out its plans for the state meet and decided on a two-day meet with a few changes to the normal meet setup, District 1 Track and Field Chairman Ron Lopresti told PennTrackXC.
The state meet was canceled last spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, but the PIAA plans to move forward with its championship meet this spring with some changes.
In past years, AA and AAA have competed on the same days, with Friday devoted to track prelims and Saturday featuring track finals, with field event finals divided up between the two days. But this year, it will be all AA on Friday and then all AAA on Saturday.
All of these points are pending approval by the PIAA Board of Directors when they meet next on April 7. Lopresti shared the Steering Committee's decisions with PennTrackXC:
- As of now, masks must be worn at all times, even while in competition, however, that is subject to change.
- Spectators will be permitted, but Shippensburg University will enforce a capacity limit of 5,000 people, including competitors, coaches, officials, and media.
- Qualification standards will remain the same as past years.
- The 100m, 200m, 100m hurdles, and 110m hurdles will have preliminary rounds, but every other track event will be a timed final with seeds determined by district meet marks.
- There will be no "practice" in the track area the day before the meet.
- There will be 750 rooms available in the Shippensburg University dorms for competing teams.
- "Tent City" will be moved from its usual spot on turn 1 to a baseball field next to the track.