cif prelims top girl dq'd

[old vaulter]

Frosh girl dq'd from cif prelims division 1

-- Culver, Carissa 9 Los Alamitos DQ

she was the top qualifier and it says she was dq'd for behavior....does anyone know what happened???

[bjvando]

"rumor has it"

she was asked to leave the 'area of competition' while the mens competition was going on. She was supposedly asked 3 separate times and was threatened with disqualification.

This is 'here say' so please don't hold me liable..

[higherflyer]

She was not the top qualifier, her teamate Alexa Ward was the top qualifier at 12 feet.

Thats how i heard it also.
Remember who was running it though, he also had an athlete in the competition Kind of fishy if you ask me.

[bjvando]

Ya, that was interesting how it worked out. I didn't know you could RUN the event AND COACH an athlete...

[higherflyer]

He had a girl and a guy in the competition.

He was also part of the officiating crew at the Masters meet last year,
they had the bar 6.5" low for the whole girls competition including when Allison Stokke when for a new record of 13-10 and made it but it was really 13-3.5.

[rainbowgirl28]

Ya, that was interesting how it worked out. I didn't know you could RUN the event AND COACH an athlete...

You guys must be lucky to have enough officials out there that coaches don't have to do it. I can't remember the last meet I went to that had someone that wasn't a coach officiating. At League we had vaulters of the host school (but opposite gender of who was competing) running the clipboard. All of us coaches enforced the rules. I am sure at Tri-Districts this week myself and a coach from another school will be in charge.

But we all get along and play nice

[Pole Vault Fan]

I appreciate the fact that you are asking what happened and saying you don't know all the facts, but I am Carissa Culver's aunt and I will give the facts from what I saw with my own eyes. We arrived at 12:00 as told by her coach. Carissa and her other two teammates went onto the field and set up their chairs and umbrellas and other female athletes also started arriving and setting up. They were all there for at least 20-25 minutes and absolutely no one told them to leave.

I was watching from the stands as Carissa left the field to go to the restroom. When she left her other two teammates were still sitting in their chairs. They then got up to leave after Carissa left the field. Carissa then came back and sat in her chair when two officials approached her and said she was told to leave the field. This would have been the first time Carissa was asked to leave the field.

One official said he wouldn't do anything, but added she could be disqualified. She tried to explain that she was in the bathroom and then the Trabuco Canyon coach said words to the effect of "That's it, you're disqualified." By the way, one of her teammates is her same size and build and same hair color and they look the same when wearing the same uniform and hair pulled back. I think he got them confused.

The head track and field coach for Los Alamitos argued with the officials for approx. 45 minutes. They went to the Trabuco coach and questioned him, but at no time whatsover did they ever question Carissa or her two teammates to see if Carissa was with them when they were told to leave the field, which would have been such an easy solution. It was such a frustrating day because what the Trabuco coach said was law and there was no refuting him, he simply refused to listen to any other view.

We wrote a letter to CIF headquarters, but of course no response was ever given. Carissa was number 2 at that meet and was robbed of her opportunity to compete on a whim and a power play. He is the same exact official at the Trabuco Invitational when she had won the meet at 11'6 and was attempting a P.R. at 12 feet. After expending her energy on two jumps and making it over and the crowd going absolutely crazy, he then tells her the bar was not at 12 and she had to try it all over again and then he only gave her two jumps before calling her out.

Luckily she has another three years to compete and hopefully set records, but she worked hard all year and it was an honor to compete in CIF as a Freshman and it would have been nice for her to be able to say she went to CIF all four years. I cannot for the life of me understand why every possible avenue was not explored to determine the truth. For crying out loud this is the CIF Championships, and not just another meet.

Thanks for wanting to get the record straight and not going on heresay or rumors.

[mcintyretj]

Good post!

For the most part, officials I’ve come across have the athlete’s best interest at heart. In fact, I feel Southern California has some of the most knowledgeable and generous officials as well as coaches. If I can’t make an away meet, I just call our opponent’s coach and ask them to help my vaulters and they’re usually willing to do so. I think most coaches would.

This is the first disqualification I’ve heard of for mistaken identity. I know CIF meets are crazy with something like 1500 athletes, so I see how it could happen. I’ve also seen many other athletes lingering on the infield to watch the polevault even though their event/season is over. Therefore, the enforcement appears arbitrary. I wasn’t there at the time, so this post is all the information I have.

Hopefully, Carissa will come back strong and have as much fun next year as she seemed to have this year.

Tim McIntyre
Los Al
Class of 79
Whittier HS pv coach

[Split]

^^^^
You're the pole vault coach at Whittier High School?
Of the Del Rio League?

[mcintyretj]

Split,

I was the polevault coach for the last three years. Hopefully next year also. We have vaulters from La Serna there too but any vaulter in the district/league/area is welcome. I am always looking for help taking in the matts after practice, especially near the end of the season.

Tim

[Split]

Cool.
I don't recall there being any Whittier vaulters this year. Just La Serna and Sante Fe.

[vcpvcoach]

Hey Pole Vault Fan,
I feel sorry for your niece. Every conference or sectional have a coach like the one from Trabaco Hills. I make every effort not to be "one of those guys".

Quick question, where was your niece's coach during all of this? And, did he go over the CIF rules with your niece? I coach one boy to the state meet in California before moving to Illinios.

My best girl vaulter, a sophmore, no heighted because we are not allowed to run flight at our sectionals here in the Land of Lincoln. I was running the event with 22 vaulters. They gave me 15 mins to warm up the vaulters meaning most got one run through. I had coaches threating me with harm if their girls didn't get more warm ups. I couldn't do anything about it because as an official, I had to run the meet by the games committee rules. What a mess. Oh, by the way, my girls had the second best height coming into the meet.

Tell your niece to keep her chin up.