×

Power failure forces rerun of boys AA 1,600 relay

Hunter Confair paused a moment to take in the scenery around him Saturday night. This was pretty special, he realized.

The lights of STA Stadium illuminated it like a lonely baseball field in an Iowa corn field. Minutes past 8:30 at night, there wasn’t supposed to be a track meet running at Williams­port High School. But here were a hearty couple dozen fans to watch the final race of the District 4 Track and Field Championships which should have been completed hours ago.

The weight of his teammates rested on Confair’s shoulders as he soaked in the moment. He knew it. They knew it. He loved it.

Confair stood on the finish line along with the anchor leg of five other teams, anxiously awaiting his Warrior Run teammate to hand him the baton in the 1,600 relay. Truth be told, nobody wanted to be there running maybe the toughest race of a track meet again. But they had to. It was the only option presented to the coaches by the PIAA after a power outage caused the Fully Automatic Timing system to fail during the final heat of the Class AA 1,600 relay.

Confair, for a moment, though, soaked in the moment to realize just how cool the setting was. Then he ran the anchor leg of his life.

His finish, combined with Addison Magyar’s blistering opening leg, helped Warrior Run finish third behind winner Danville and runner-up South­ern Columbia, and hit the state qualifying standard. When Con­fair learned of the team’s 3:28.17 time, he felt elation and relief.

“I took it all in. And when the pressure is on you, you have to show up,” Confair said. “And I felt like everything was weighing on me.”

The race concluded the most perplexing finish to a track meet anyone could remember. Head meet official Joe Kelly had never seen a situation like Saturday’s play out in more than 30 years as an official. The power outage left Kelly on the phone with PIAA officials trying to resolve the situation. It left coaches of the affected runners firing questions and concerns at Kelly like he was the lone man left in a game of dodgeball.

On the second baton ex­change, a Lewisburg runner tripped near the finish line and fell. When he fell, he rolled into and disconnected the extension cord which powered the FAT timing system at the finish line.

As the anchor legs of the race were about 200 meters in to their 400-meter split, the starter fired his pistol twice to signify a problem and essentially call and end to the race since there was no timing device. None of the runners slowed down and Danville easily won the race with Southern taking second and Warrior Run third. Warrior Run, according to numerous handheld stopwatches, eclipsed the state qualifying standard.

But after a conversation among the officials and meet director, and phone calls to PIAA Executive Director Robert Lombardi and Chief Operating Officer Mark Byers, it was determined the race had to be rerun.

Participants in the race quickly commented that they couldn’t run potentially the most physically demanding race again. Coaches quickly protested offering alternate solutions.

“To my knowledge, I have not seen a situation like this where it died in the middle of a race and they fired a gun essentially to call a restart,” Kelly said. “This, I have not seen.”

“I can’t hold it against anybody. You can’t plan for something like this happening,” Warrior Run boys coach Shaun Landis said. “You roll with it the best you can and try to move forward. You try to make lemonade out of lemons. What else can you do?”

Kelly said the PIAA would not allow the use of handheld times because they’re not official times. Some coaches wanted to submit the finishing places since Danville and Southern Columbia clearly took the top two spots which automatically qualified for next week’s state meet in Shippensburg.

Other coaches contended that if a rerun of the third heat was to occur, reruns for the other two heats should also occur because those in the third heat would be at a distinct disadvantage. Some coaches even lobbied for the rerun to be conducted this morning.

All those suggestions were turned down by the PIAA. Instead, Kelly and the coaches agreed to a rerun after a two-hour break in order to allow the athletes a chance to recuperate as much as possible.

“None of them wanted to do a rerun, and that’s perfectly understandable,” Kelly said. “A 400 might be the toughest event on the track, and now I’m asking them to do it again. I fully under­stand the coaches’ frustration.”

Knowing his team had already snuck in under state qualifying standard once, Landis wasn’t sure if his Warrior Run team could do it again. He just wasn’t sure how their legs would respond after already participating in a full meet. And that was his concern with a rerun.

“We’re all frustrated because it’s not fair,” Landis said before the rerun. “According to our watches, our team hit the time. Now we’re asking our kids to come back again in a couple hours and duplicate that race. Do I think we can hit the time again? I honestly don’t know.”

His Defender team left no doubt, though. Their rerun time was 1.43 seconds under the state qualifying standard and actually faster than their first race time. It’s why the entire team and coaching staff went nuts celebrating afterward. They knew the intestinal fortitude it took to run that kind of time again.

“I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Confair said. “At first, I thought it was going to be tough to run that time again. But once I saw Addison go out and kill his first lap, I thought we could do this. I don’t think I can be more proud about a race. This was amazing.”

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today