Timing Controversy Unable to Dispirit Garden City at Divisions

Less than a week after the intrepid freshmen and sophomores went off on their own to impress at Mitchel Field, they joined up with their veteran teammates to impress again, this time at Wantagh High School and the Division IIB Championship meet. 

Divisions, the last full-team meet of the year, showcased both Garden City's boys and their girls. And while the girls continued their ever-winning ways, it might've been the Trojan boys who stole the spotlight. 

Out of the 13 events on Monday, the boys placed in nine. 

"Just about 95 percent of everyone 'PR-ed' [set personal records]," said Coach Bob Busch.

The boys even expanded their usual arsenal of point scorers. Of course Michael Gallagher placed in the 800 meters, but so did Daniel Finnegan in the long-distance 3200 meters, setting his second consecutive PR with a 10:53.0. 

Of course Matt Trabold placed in the 100 (and 200), but so did Will Hopkins in discus, nailing second place with an explosive 114' 9" throw.

Of course the 4x400 relay team placed, but so did the 4x800 relay, which Coach Busch said "...was a surprise. We weren't sure how we'd handle the other teams." 

Even the runners who didn't place made remarkable advancements.

Freshman Andrew Quigley, a 400 meter runner, shaved almost five full seconds off his personal best, putting a 0:68.3 on the board. And senior Teddy Tomao, typically a strong relay runner, pushed himself under 2:10.0 in the individual 800 meters. Coach Busch noted how hard Tomao had been working towards that mark.

Unfortunately Monday wasn't exclusively a day of achieved goals. 

In the 400 meter intermediate hurdles, Mike Trabold and Al Russo had to deal with a mis-timed photo finish.

After clearing the final obstacle in a dead-heat for third, and crossing the line at nearly the exact millisecond, the judges announced they had finished fourth and sixth, respectively.

Their times were listed at 0:61.3 for Trabold and 0:61.7 for Russo.

Now 0:00.4 doesn't seem like much, but some of the team dads and Russo and Trabold's teammates did the physics and a half-second differential comes out to something like eight feet of distance.

This was clearly human error on the part of the judges.   

Russo was frustrated with the outcome. "It doesn't accurately reflect the way we ran ... You're telling me a neck and neck race was [almost half] of a second? I thought they would have given 0:61.3 for both."

Russo, who remained composed throughout the whole incident, wasn't all that upset with the outcome. "It wasn't a PR that they messed up," he said. 

Fortunately, the error was (somewhat) resolved, with both runners eventually being awarded 0:61.6 times, though the fourth and sixth place finishes stood. 

Coach Busch reserved comment on the mistake. "I'm not really informed on that," he said. "Because we have four division meets going [today], we're very short on officials. We try to use coaches or supervisors ... We do the best we can." 

When asked if they should change the way the meets are timed, Russo said, "I'd love to have electronic timing." But he also understood the expenses involved with that type of technology. 

Coach Busch joked, "If that's the only race that had a problem then it was a successful meet. These things happen, and unfortunately it happened to us."

And truthfully, when your team's performance allows you to brush off a timing error involving two of your best runners, you can keep your head up at the end of the day. 

The team now gets to look forward to next week's county championships at Mitchel Field. 

For more information and some high-quality pictures of both the boys and girls teams from Monday's meet (and all prior meets) visit gctf.shutterfly.com.