Orange Lutheran HS to be declared
outright team champion as Serra HS
has team member compete beyond limits.

By Richard Gonzalez - Editor, DyeStatCal
May 26, 2004 -- The CIF-Southern Section announced at its Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday that Serra High School of Gardena was stripped of its share of the CIF-SS Division IV team title at the 2004 CIF-SS Divisional Championships, DyeStatCal has learned. The action results from infomation presented from multiple sources that indicated one of Serra High's team members competed in more than the allowed maximum of four events under National High School Federation rules.

As a result, Serra will lose all 22 points in which the athlete played a role in as a member of both relays and the long jump. The placings earned by the athlete in violation of the rules will be vacated in the official results, and no other teams will have their scores affected by the ruling. However, since Orange Lutheran and Serra each scored 60 points to share the Division IV title at the championships prior to the discovery, Orange Lutheran will now be recognized as the sole team champion with 60 points. Serra, which has its score adjusted to 38 points, will officially finish second in the division's team standings. The athlete in question, senior Kimberly McNeal, did not post marks that would have qualified her for this Friday's CIF-SS Masters Meet.

Although competing in the allowed four events (100, 200, long jump, 4x100) during the CIF-SS Division IV prelimiaries the prior weekend, McNeal competed in a fifth event (the 4x400-meter relay) at the CIF-SS Divisional Finals. Under CIF-SS rules, the CIF-SS Divisional Prelims and Finals meets are considered one meet in the same. Hence, an athlete can take part in no more than four different events during the course of both days.

A similar violation involving another school occurred during League Finals week the week prior. In that case, the athlete was barred from advancing to the Division I Preliminaries despite posting qualifying marks/placings in an event..

Under National High School Federation Rule 4-2-2: "A competitor shall not compete in more than four events, including relays."

The rules go on to stipulate the penalty for such a violation as follows: "All individuals points, team points and places earned by that competitor exceeding competition limits in the meet shall be forfeited and the competitor disqualified from further competition in that meet. Relay points shall be forfeited if competed in a relay(s)."

Through email communication with Orange Lutheran coach Jonathan Zimmerman early Wednesday, the veteran coach commented about the direction of the investigation into the matter, which was brought to light via at least four sources on the day after the meet. Orange Lutheran believed it had earned only a share of the title when it won the final Division IV event of the meet, the 4x400-meter relay, in thrilling fashion, running a seasonal-best time and ironically edging Serra by less than one second.

"(I'm) not sure what (the) Serra HS coaches said... (It) could have been simple error," Zimmerman wrote. "(I) will try to put best construction on things on this end. Our kids are champs. We knew we had to win last event. We did. (We) broke our school record in the process. Our kids were extraordinary! They have been all season... In track there is NO defense. So... just have to worry about our offense."     

Multiple sources within the CIF-SS office indicated to DyeStatCal at the start of the week that it would officially announce the decision as soon as both the Principal and/or the Athletic Director from the offending school were notified, but at least one of the two school officials were not on campus during the first two days of this week. DyeStatCal then learned of the Executive Committee meeting announcement that came during the order of business on Wednesday.

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