Hi 8U Families,
I wanted to send out a message about the rest of the season.
Most athletes have at least 2 meets left: the first being our last regular meet this Saturday 4/16 at Buena High School and the second being the Conference JV Finals West also at Buena on Saturday 4/23.
Following the Conference JV Finals there are two additional meets, which are Varsity and Co-Conference. Athletes need to qualify for these meets in order to participate. Varsity finals is Saturday, 4/30.
Below is a description of the JV finals and the Varsity finals meets.
JV finals: April 23 at Buena High School
The JV finals are open to all athletes. In order to participate in an event in the JV finals the athlete needs to:
1) have participated in that event at least once during the regular season (except for relays, an athlete need not have competed in a relay during the regular season to compete in a relay at JV.
2) have NOT qualified for that event in the Varsity Finals. If an athlete qualifies for an event at the Varsity Finals, they can NOT participate in that event at the JV finals. Also, the same event limit applies (maximum of 4 events- a maximum of 3 running events plus long jump).
Varsity Finals April 30 at Moorpark
For each event in each age/gender group, the top athletes in the conference qualify for the Varsity meet. For sprints and field events (100m, 200m, 400m, and long jump), the top 9 athletes qualify. For the distance events (800 and 1600), the top 12 athletes qualify. If there is a tie for the last slot, they then look at the athletes’ next best mark. The last opportunity to qualify for the Varsity Finals is this Saturday April 16th. You cannot qualify for Varsity at the JV meet.
Athletic.net keeps track of the top athletes for the conference. The link for athletic.net is:
https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Division/Top.aspx?DivID=129725
Each club gets to send 1 relay team per age/gender group for each relay. This means that the 8U team will have one girls and one boys 4×100 team. A relay team member need not have run on any relay or competed with the other members of any relay prior to the Varsity Finals meet. I plan to ask 6 people total for each relay team so that we have two alternates in case someone gets sick or cannot participate for some reason.
There is no event limit at the Varsity Finals; an athlete can compete in all of the events for which they qualify. If an athlete is unavailable/doesn’t want to participate in the Varsity Finals, the athletes spot will not be filled by the next fastest athlete.
Co-Conference Championships May 14:
Co-Conference is a championship meet between our league (VCYTC) and a neighboring league (SYTFC). Qualification at co-conference is based on the results from the Varsity Finals. For laned events and field events, the top 5 athletes from VCYTC and the top 4 SCYTFC qualify. For non-laned running events, the top 8 from each conference qualify. If an athlete is not available to participate, they will take the next best athlete. The location of the co-conference championships is still not certain, but there is a good chance it will be at Rio Mesa High School.
Practice:
We will have practice like normal for all 8U athletes next week in preparation for the JV meet. Following the JV meet, most athletes will have completed their season and will no longer have practice. We will look forward to celebrating a great season with them at the team picnic on Sunday, May 15 at 12 pm at Buena High School.
Athletes who qualify for Varsity or are part of the relay team will continue to practice. This will continue if they advance to the Co-Conference Meet. It will be important that our relay teams commit to practice and competing in the meets to avoid having to scratch the day of the meet.
I look forward to closing out the season strong and having fun with these upcoming meets.
Thanks,
Coach Mike
805-320-3421