North Carolina Great American Boys' race has first six disqualified

If you noticed the results of last weekend's Great American Cross-Country Meet in North Carolina had the top six male finishers in the Boys Race of Champions disqualified. We heard about a wrong turn late in the race by leader Bobby Curtis from Kentucky (this past spring's Arcadia 1600 Champ at 4:08.29 in mid-April) and the top pack. It turned out that Juan Robles of Valencia HS in Placentia, having a fine fall season, was included in the list of disqualified stars. We asked Coach Pat Hadley if Juan could explain to us what happened, and Pat explains below:

Juans interpretation of the Great DQ at the Great American!

"Juan was running in 5th with a half mile to go when the course was marked two different ways, straight for the previous days college 8k, and to the left for the 5k course. Juan said he saw Bobby Curtis wave his hands and ask a lady at this juncture which way to go, she did not know and Bobby chose the wrong way. Juan was not sure this was correct, but followed the leaders, who had formed a gap with the main pack. When he turned around a bit later he said he saw that the pack had gone the other way, but that it was too late to go back, he outkicked one runner and finished fourth in 15:38.

It was unfortunate that the promoters did not use a golf cart as the lead vehicle as they had done the previous day for the college races, or that the wrong markings were not blocked off or, that a course marshall was not positioned at that confusing point. The lead runners should not have been confused by multiple course markings.

Juan was disappointed to have been DQed but understood the decision. He felt so good about how he raced and how he felt that the DQ was not the main issue. Juan felt that the shortcut hurt him as he was moving up as the race progressed and could have used that quarter mile to close the gap with the leader. Juan left North Carolina knowing he can run and did run with the best; this type of confidence will benefit him the rest of the season and made the trip worthwhile! He only has good feelings about this race."

T hanks for your interest, it was a great experience for the team!

Pat Hadley
Valencia High School

Link to Boys Race of Champions Results - dq's listed at end

John Dye's DyeStat article on the dq's

DyeStatCal News

is published by

Editor: Doug Speck
Publisher: John Dye

�2002 by DyeStat