Talk about your close calls

Many finishes in the regional meet at Central were so tight that a hand-held video recorder was used to back up electronic timers and finish-line officials. About 3.71 inches separated first and second in the 100 and 200 meters.

By GREG AUMAN

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 30, 2000

BROOKSVILLE -- Many of the sprinting events at Thursday's regional meet at Central were so close that neither electronic timers nor human eyes could be trusted to verify the finish.

[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford] John Emerson, left, hands off to Hernando teammate Joel Tierson in the 4x800 relay. Seeded seventh, the team finished third.

That's when Central went to the videotape.

In addition to timers for each lane and officials at the finish lane, Central kept a hand-held video recorder handy for review of the close calls when there wasn't an immediate consensus as to the outcome.

Three boys events were decided by 0.01 seconds: Citrus' Brent Mobley had that slim margin in winning the 100 and 200 meters, and Seabreeze's Carlos Miles won the 110-meter hurdles by the same fraction.

To put a 0.01-second victory in perspective, at Mobley's 100-meter pace, that's winning by 3.71 inches -- about 25 lines of the text you're reading.

"There were several close calls," said Central's Vic Cervizzi, who served as meet director. "We've used the cameras in past years, but we figured this meet could have a lot of races like that."

The most important call to make wasn't who finished first, but rather which runner took fourth, the last spot that earns a berth at the state meet. The difference between fourth and fifth often wasn't much either -- Central's Daisha Holland found herself on both ends of that line.

In the girls 100 meters, Holland finished fourth, just 0.04 seconds ahead of Lake Wales' Latesha Borders. But in the 200, Holland missed qualifying by an even closer call, finishing fifth, just 0.01 seconds behind Kathleen's Sonnil McBride.

Like most schools, Central uses a timing system that electronically starts eight timers simultaneously, but requires spotters assigned to each lane to click a trigger button when their runner crosses the finish lane.

"It's better than having eight people starting with stopwatches, so you eliminate a lot of human error that way," Cervizzi said. "Every person has a different reaction to the start, and if you use different fingers to start, even that takes different amounts of time. No matter how you do it, you're going to have to deal with human errors."

Cervizzi said the best option is a system called "Finish Lynx," which uses cameras and an electronic eye to record times for all eight lanes and requires only one person to operate it. Unfortunately, the system costs more than $6,000, which Cervizzi said is financially unrealistic despite its conveniences and accuracy.

"You'd have to do fundraisers for years," he said.

If Central can keep its bid to host a regional meet next year, Cervizzi said he would consider renting the equipment and the services of a qualified operator for use at next year's district and regional meets.

NEXT STOP, GAINESVILLE: Central and Hernando combined to have seven individuals and five relays qualify for Saturday's state meet in Gainesville. Hernando's boys and Central's girls had five qualifiers each, and Hernando's girls had two, while Central's boys team failed to qualify in any events.

The only individual to qualify in more than one event was Central junior Erin Courtney, who finished second in the 3,200 meters and fourth in the 1,600. Courtney improved on her district qualifying times by 6.1 seconds in the 1,600 and 16.75 seconds in the 3,200, joining Holland and Central's 4x100 and 4x400 relays in the state field.

The most dramatic improvement from district to regional came from Hernando's 4x800 relay, which was seeded seventh among the 16 regional qualifiers after running in 11:19.53 last week. On Thursday, the Leopards improved their time by a full minute, running 10:19.36 to finish third, joining discus thrower Raquel Lao to represent Hernando at the state meet.

Hernando's boys team also had solid showings in the throwing events, with Gabriel Boze finishing third in the discus and Dan Brown taking fourth in the shot put. Aondre Greene narrowly missed becoming the district's only regional champion, losing the 200 meters by 0.01 seconds, but he'll have another shot at Citrus' Mobley on Saturday.

"He had a motor," Mobley said of his friend. "I don't know where he got that motor from, but he put it into gear."

In the final event of the night, Hernando's 4x400 relay also qualified for the state meet, finishing fourth to take the last spot in the Gainesville lineup. Hernando's boys finished third in the regional standings, just two points behind runner-up Orlando Jones.

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