State Meet course

oncearunner said:
B1G Champs at OSU's golf course. Piggyback on them... state meet next year?
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1. B1G Championship rotates from school to school.
2. Others in Central Ohio have pointed out that there is nowhere near enough parking at or near the golf course to accommodate the crowd. Would most people be willing to board shuttle buses for the state meet?
 
Mr. Slippery said:
1. B1G Championship rotates from school to school.
2. Others in Central Ohio have pointed out that there is nowhere near enough parking at or near the golf course to accommodate the crowd. Would most people be willing to board shuttle buses for the state meet?
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Would shuttles be able to handle the volume of our State meet? OHSAA can barely manage the inflow of fans as is with lines longer than 100 at times.

I think anything that goes with OSU also goes with a premium $$$$. Using their property will leave you feeling abused. Paying for shuttles will increase that feeling.
 
CatchKokopelli said:
Would shuttles be able to handle the volume of our State meet? OHSAA can barely manage the inflow of fans as is with lines longer than 100 at times.

I think anything that goes with OSU also goes with a premium $$$$. Using their property will leave you feeling abused. Paying for shuttles will increase that feeling.
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You make a lot of good points, and you get where I'm coming from as far as identifying the potential shortcomings of using an OSU facility, especially if it's during football season. I can't answer the question about shuttles, but they do manage to transport a certain amount of students around that campus on a daily basis.

Incidentally, are any of the HS fall sports championships aside from golf held on OSU's campus?
 
Not to mention what happens when the Buckeyes are home on that Saturday. I know it's a ways from the field, but where would you park people to even bus them?
 
In my opinion, Tiffin and Troy wouldnt work. There definitely wouldn’t be enough parking and would probably see major influx of spectators attending. Also since Troy is mostly ran on a floodplain I don’t know why that would be a better option. They’ve been looking to move it once the race director calls it quits because of this and admission gates are bad (you have to keep walking in and out to go from the camps to the course) and there is not enough area to accommodate the team camps.

Per one of my oatccc friends, one of the main components that ohsaa looks for is a grandstand to attract older family members to watch along with physical barriers to keep clueless spectators off the course. There has to be a fairgrounds somewhere that would be ideal.

Also, this parking situation is unacceptable. I was told by one of the state officials that the owner of the place told them there’s more than enough space to accommodate all the buses. Bull$$!
 
Cedarville has a traffic issue, getting 10000 people into a venue there would be a nightmare... 2000 cars more or less. Traffic would literally be backed up 72 all the way to 35. There's no grandstand(granted one could be brought in, but it's an expense) I love the course as much as everyone else does but there's issues.
 
I have been told by some who have been at the facility today that the course is in good condition, but that being able to watch the race will be horrible for spectators. I have tried to confirm it with better sources, but have not heard back yet.
 
The Christmas lights will definitely take away from space for buses and take away access for spectators to move around the course.

Also, While we are changing the course location, can we also move the race times so that each division races together? D1 boys and Girls, D2 Boys and Girls....etc.
 
The course is in very gpod shape. Parking will be a problem for busses
But the course is not near “the worst course of the year”. Not really challenging, but as good as Tiffin and our kids like it. In the past, it’s the best course of the season according to our kids. Not manicured footing, has some woods and it’s obviously competitive. More hills than legends and many other “big” invitationals. Still, could be so much better.
 
psycho_dad said:
I have been told by some who have been at the facility today that the course is in good condition, but that being able to watch the race will be horrible for spectators. I have tried to confirm it with better sources, but have not heard back yet.
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Course is in good shape. Consider the area where the buses were last year as a "No run zone". It is literally fenced off. 3-4 acres completely fenced off. You can go around it along the course or directly to the finish line from the tailgate section. Aside from less bus parking I see the spectating as unencumbered. I am not sure how many people run from the start along the fence directly to the bleachers.

Our athletes were unaware of anything going on and were more than happy to be on the course. The course is in pretty good shape and in following last year's course - very coachable.

Make some lemonade folks because this could be much worse. We could be at a high school running a two-day XC meet where you don't even get to see other divisions or genders. At the very worst we could be racing next weekend... :)
 
CatchKokopelli said:
Throwing an option out there - Hartford Fairgrounds. A meet was hosted in August this year to explore the development of a championship style course.

Historic grandstands, 30 portable bleachers that can be placed anywhere on course, a 1, 2 and 3.1 mile that all coincide at the same location. The course, unfortunately, is flat, but with the support of the Hartford fair staff we have tons of options to make improvements.

Not to discourage the FinishtTiming course - but an out and back makes coaching pretty difficult. Spectators deserve a course they can get near and cheer on. Spectators deserve the opportunity to park and get into a meet ASAP! We would have 3-4 gates open and a dedicated bus entry point and spectator entry point.

If interested in knowing more we will be posting info on Athletic.net for next year's August 29th meet. Results can be found on https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/157245/info

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Access roads are tough here but there's a ton of parking and several entrances. And, I'm sure the Fairgrounds folks would fall all over themselves to host it. Question might be who would make a good meet manager but there are a few strong programs in the area so maybe someone can be identified.
 
Also, While we are changing the course location, can we also move the race times so that each division races together? D1 boys and Girls, D2 Boys and Girls....etc.
The downside to this is those who coach both teams. What if the team who runs first does well, no time to celebrate because you are off to the start line for the next race.
 
gatornation said:
Also, While we are changing the course location, can we also move the race times so that each division races together? D1 boys and Girls, D2 Boys and Girls....etc.
The downside to this is those who coach both teams. What if the team who runs first does well, no time to celebrate because you are off to the start line for the next race.
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Solution to that is go something like this. This way all the times between boys a girls for each division is a little shorter. Add a 4th division and then all can run every other race.
D3G
D2B
D3B
D1G
D2G
D1B
 
I would like to walk back some of my earlier comments.

The State Meet experience was much better than I anticipated. They took care of parking very well from what I saw, and there was plenty of room for spectators to run around and watch.

But more than anything, the course itself was in amazing shape. I was shocked at how much better it looked compared to Thursday.

And the new course layout is exciting and fun for spectators. There's a lot of good energy in that initial start and on the dragstrip.

That being said, if the State Meet is to continue at National Trail, this Christmas Display must be held off until after the State Meet weekend. It looked so tacky and just caused a lot of crowded areas. I still think that is non-negotiable.

I do still believe that that NTR is not the best option in Ohio for the State Meet, and there could certainly be better options out there.

But, the meet and experience overall was generally positive yesterday, I certainly enjoyed it, and if NTR and the OHSAA continue to improve the experience, I would not be that disappointed if it were to remain there.
 
Terry Ortman and his staff did an excellent job of staging the Championships while dealing with a number of issues at National Trail Raceway.
 
Our boys team ran in the D-1 Race. I was pleasantly surprised with the conditions of the course. Also, our team bus parking was not a problem. Things turned out much better than it looked like it would when we worked out on the course on Friday afternoon.
 
The Big Ten meet held on OSU's University Golf Course was beautiful in almost every respect. The weather which is in no one's control was amazing. The course layout had a 1k start and 1k finish with 2k loops. This meant that the men and women ran the same course and many of the key splits (1k, 3k, 5k, and 7k) were all in the same place. They made sure to include the biggest hill on every 2k loop. The start and finish were long straightaways.

I would guess there were ~2000 spectators on the course, many of whom were high school athletes and their parents. There were only a couple areas near the start/finish that were restricted.

Admittedly, there were only ~250 total runners on the course combined in the Men's & Women's races, but it's a shame our high school kids can't have a course/experience like this.
 
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