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Nike Indoor Nationals will move to Boston
PG Sportsplex praised, but lure of banked track is strong
Wednesday, January 15, 2008
By SteveU
After long planning and consideration, the National Scholastic Sports Foundation has made it official: It is moving the Nike Indoor Nationals meet to Boston and the Reggie Lewis Center, beginning with the 2009 meet.
“We have always wanted to hold our meet in a facility with a banked track,” said Jim Spier, Executive Director of the NSSF. “In this day and age, it is almost a necessity.”
The meet has been held since 2001 at the Prince Georges Sports and Learning Complex in Landover MD (or, as it is also known, the PG Sportsplex). “That facility is without equal when it comes to its layout and staff,” said Spier, regarding the Sportsplex. “We can think of no better place to hold a track meet. The lack of a banked track has been the only thing which has left something to be desired. Every other feature of the facility - the clerking area, registration, hospitality and medical rooms, the cooperation of the staff and volunteers - has been spectacular.”
The move takes the NIN meet north of New York’s NSIC meet at The Armory, for which it has competed for top athletes for several years. But beginning in 2009, both meets will be contested on 200 meter banked tracks. The Reggie Lewis Center is currently used for the Reebok Boston Indoor Games, which features a top junior mile for prep boys and girls, along with a number of other Massachusetts prep meets.
“We were recently given the opportunity to host the meet at a banked track facility at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Boston,” said Spier. “It, too, is a wonderful facility and has a friendly, able and cooperative staff. We held the meet there through 1997 when the Meet Director was Tracy Sundlun, and Mike Byrnes and I were the Assistant Meet Directors. So we are well aware of its capabilities.
“Though we sincerely regret having to leave the "PG" facility, we look forward to moving to the Reggie Lewis Center in 2009.” |
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