Updated April 2006

ANCHORAGE SCHOOL DISTRICT MIDDLE LEVEL ACTIVITIES

TRACK AND FIELD HANDBOOK
FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLS 2005
The A.S.D. Coordinator will coordinate with the FDCC to order buses, unless private contractors are required. In this case, the ASD AP Directors will order buses to fill the transportation needs for the schedule.

TRACK MAINTENANCE
The ASD Coordinator will work with ASD AP Directors to schedule work through ASD maintenance on track plowing and lining of tracks. Individual schools will be responsible for start/finish lines and lane stagger marks.

FIRST AID CARD
All mid level coaches are required to hold a valid first aid card.

CANCELLATIONS
Meet cancellations will only be made through recommendation of the ASD Coordinator to the ASD AP Directors and the Director of Middle Level Education. Every effort will be made to reschedule canceled meets.

COMPETITION STRUCTURE
The competition structure will use a 7th and 8th grade format, with 6th graders competing as 7th graders.

All coaches will be working with the philosophy of a participatory meet season and competitive championships. Coaches build two-year (in some cases three-year) programs and will place students to meet their athletic needs and abilities to ensure healthy growth in skills and a desire to return to their middle level team the following year or to become part of their high school team program.

REGULAR SEASON & CHAMPIONSHIP RULES

All ASD Middle Level Track & Field event will be officiated in accordance with the NFHS Track and Field Rules Book for the current year of competition, except where modified and noted in the ASD Track & Field Handbook.

SEASON
The season will be comprised of 4 weeks of dual or tri meets that will be held at 7 venues throughout the district. The Championships will be held over three days at three middle level sites. Please see attached schedule for season dates, school sites, and teams involved.

EQUIPMENT
Coaches will check on availability of high jump pits around the district and if possible, two pits will be left at hosting schools during regular season. Gruening will need 2 pits to host the second day of championships. Coaches will be flexible in practice schedules to allow equipment to be truck transferred to hosting meets. Host schools will be responsible to communicate a list of needed equipment to be provided by the visiting schools.

Shot & Discus Weights
Girls' shot 6 lbs.
Boys' shot 4 kg (8lbs. 13 oz.)
Discus (boys' & girls') 1 kg

OFFICIALS
Hosting Schools are responsible for assuring that there are an adequate number of officials at each meet. All participating schools will share costs of officials.

UNIFORMS
Athletes, who compete, must wear a style of uniform that identifies them as a member of that school's Track and Field Team. The uniform should identify the school by name and/or by logo.

Athletes competing in a relay event must all wear the same shirt or jersey to assist in the identification of a relay team. No exception will be made to this rule. A relay team will be disqualified if all four runners are not in identical shirt or jersey.

JURY CONFIGURATIONS
A race committee consisting of the meet director, the starter, and the host administrator will resolve regular season rules infractions. The Championship Race Committee will consist of the meet director, the starter, 4 head coaches (assigned by district coordinator) and host administrator.

RESULTS
During the regular season, host schools will provide copies of results to visiting schools at end of meet. Host schools are responsible for sending results on provided spreadsheets via e-mail to the ASD Coordinator at his/her home school.

All results will be posted on the track and field website:

http://www.asdk12.org/schools/romig/pages/track/main.html

Scores will be announced at the end of each Championship. Scores will be posted on the web from day two and day three of championships. Final results will be posted on the web.

EVENTS
Each event will have four heats, run in the order of 7th girls, 7th boys, 8th girls, and 8th boys. Meets will start at 3:45 PM. Field events will run concurrently with running events.

The triple jump will be competed at the 2nd and 4th meets, and the long jump will be competed at the 1st and 3rd meets. Long jump and triple jump will both be held during the championships. The order of running events will be:

1600 Run
75 hurdles
100 Dash
400 Relay
400 Run
800 Run
200 Dash
800 Relay - Host schools will determine if this event will be run completely in lanes.

1600 Relay--1st and 3rd meet optional based on mutual agreement of
Schools at the meet -- must agree on 48 hours before meet. 2nd and 4th meet + championships required

Entries
Individual race entries (75 h, 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m) will be e-mailed or faxed to the host school no later than the morning of the event.

Participation
Each race will be run four times. The only exception to this rule would be at the meet director's discretion, and if participant numbers are low, to run the 7th and 8th girls or 7th and 8th boys together in the following events: 800, 1600, 400R, 800R, or 1600 R.

HIGH JUMP
Opening heights 7th Girls-- 3' 4"
8th Girls-- 3' 8"
7th Boys-- 4' 0"
8th Boys-- 4' 4"

The bar will be raised 2" until there are two competitors remaining, in which case the bar will be raised 1". The bar may be raised for warm-ups.

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS
Field Events
All meets -- 3 athletes and one alternate

Hurdles, 100, 200, 400 Running Events
Dual meets --8-lane track -- 4 athletes from each school
6 lane track -- 3 athletes from each school

Tri meets -- 6-lane track -- 2 athletes from each school.
8-lane track -- follows the following format for running individuals or relay teams in a rotating manner:
Hurdles -- host team runs 2, other two teams run 3.
100 -- 1st school alphabetically runs 2, others 3.
400 -- 2nd school alphabetically runs 2, others 3.
200 -- host team runs 2, other two teams run 3.
400 relay -- 1st school alphabetically runs 2 teams, others 3.
800 relay -- 2nd school alphabetically runs 2 teams, others 3.

800 and 1600 Running Events
All regular meets -­unlimited entry for each school.

Relays
Coaches will designate "A", "B", and "C" relay teams, if applicable. "B" and "C" teams will run for participation, and may not score even if there is a DQ or a time faster than an "A" team. A teams should be run in lanes 1 and 2, in a dual meet, lanes 1, 2, and 3 in a tri-meet.

Starting Modifications
The false start rule will be modified to allow for an initial false start to be charged to the field, but any subsequent false start, will be charged to an individual, which would result in a disqualification for that individual.

CHAMPIONSHIP PROCEDURES

ENTRIES
All entries will be submitted in the required format. The district coordinator will provide each school with a spreadsheet for entrants. Entries will be submitted to the ASD Coordinator, no later then 5:00 PM on the Friday following the last regular season meet. Entries will be submitted as attachments to e-mail messages. NO FAX ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED. Coaches not providing entries by this time will have their athletes entered as ghost runners without seeding consideration.

SCORING
Regular Meets:
Dual: 1st - 5; 2nd - 3; 3rd - 1
Tri: 1st - 5; 2nd - 3; 3rd - 2: 3rd - 1.

CHAMPIONSHIPS
Scoring will be 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 for all events.

HURDLES, 100, 200, and 400 PRELIMINARIES
Three heats will be run. Each school will enter two runners. Fastest two in each heat and next two fastest third place finishers will participate in the finals.

Hurdle judges will be used, along with a camera, for all preliminaries and finals.

800 and 1600 FINALS
There will only be one race for the 800 and 1600-meter events. All participants will compete in the finals. Both will utilize a double waterfall start with seeds 1 and 2, 3 and 4 given preferential lane assignments according to qualifying times. The 800 will be limited to 2 entrants per school and the 1600 will be limited to 3 entrants per school.
Day 1--7th grade 1600 and 8th grade 800 Finals
Day 3--8th grade 1600 and 7th grade 800 Finals

1600m (7th grade final) run will be moved in the order of events. It will become the first event of day 1 of the Championships.

400, 800, and 1600 RELAY ENTRIES
Each school will submit the best regular season relay times to the district coordinator. The top 8 times for each relay event will be entered into the final, which will be held on the final day of the championships.

400 & 800 Relay will be run completely in lanes for the Championships.

SHOT, DISCUS, TRIPLE JUMP, LONG JUMP PRELIMINARIES AND FINALS

PRELIMINARIES - Each school will enter three athletes. Each athlete will have three attempts.

FINALS - The top eight competitors will progress to the finals for three more attempts. The farthest distance of the six attempts will stand for each athlete and will be recorded as the final distance for that athlete.

Field event flights will be staggered by school for the championship finals...teams will be participating in different events at different times.

HIGH JUMP
Opening heights 7th Girls-- 3' 6"
8th Girls-- 3' 10"
7th Boys-- 4' 2"
8th Boys-- 4' 6"
Proper flight rules for high jump are described in the NFHS Track & Field rulebook.

Seventh grade boys and girls high jump finals will be held on the first day of the Middle-Level Championships.

All shot and discs will be surrendered on the first day of preliminaries for certification. Only certified shot and discs will be available for championship competition. Any athlete using uncertified equipment will be disqualified.

MIDDLE LEVEL RECORDS
Mid-Level Records for 7th & 8th grade will be set based on the fastest time/distance/height that is currently held by either a 7th or 8th grader for prior championships. A record may only be set during preliminary or final events at the Middle Level Championships. These records are posted on the ASD Track and Field Website.

ATHLETE RECOGNITION
Individual ribbons will be provided to all top eight finishers in each championship event. Ribbons will be distributed during the post-season meeting.

SCHOOL PHONE FAX
CENTRAL 742-5100 / 742-5125
Jill Gann 742-5137
CLARK 742-4700 / 742-4756
Scott Kluever 742-4715
GIRDWOOD 742-5300 / 742-5320

GOLDENVIEW 348-8626 / 742-8273
Peter Weimer
GRUENING 742-3600 / 742-3666
Chris Cullings
HANSHEW 349-1561 / 349-2835
David Nees
MEARS 349-3332 / 349-7748
JoEllen Dunning
MIRROR LAKE 742-3500 / 742-3545
Mitch Tarter
ROMIG 742-5200
Rachel LeMon 742-5229
WENDLER 277-3591 / 272-3976
Nadine Price-Schruefer

Leslie Vandergaw 742-4249 / 742-4225
(Middle Level Director)

Peggy Huscusson 742-3600 / 742-3666
(A.P. Director)

Scott Batchelder 742-3500 / 742-3545
(A.P. Director)

Tracie Ashman 742-3500 or 742-3342

Matt Neel 742-5200 or 742-5236
(A.S.D. Coordinators)