The PIAA XC Sterling Committee met on Wednesday, July 22nd to discuss plans for the fall. They will present their recommendations at the PIAA Board meeting tomorrow (July 29th). Full meeting minutes can be found here. Below are the key notes taken directly from those minutes:

– It was unanimously voted to support , if conditions require, the Board of Directors reducing the number of qualifiers to the state championships to the team champion and five individual qualifiers from each participating district/region

– XC specific return to play recommendations were made by a consensus of the committee and include:

1. Schools are encouraged to comply with NFHS Rule 8-5, that events contested with 4 or fewer teams be limited to a maximum of 12 participants from each team

2. With no FAT timing system consider alternative means of finish place and time to address a congested finish line. If sticks are used for determining place, disposable sticks are recommended by race

3. Establish cross country specific social distancing meet protocols including the elimination of handshakes before and after the race

4. The use of team tents is discouraged

5. Teams are expected to provide individual water for their athletes and discourage the use of water stations and open cups

– Discussion was held regarding the availability of post-season race sites. This will be an individual school/college consideration

– Discussion was held around the sponsorship of the Foundation Event. Mark Byers (PIAA COO) shared that consideration will be given to reducing the field, and possibly conducting the event in a time trial format to permit the greatest amount of participation.

– Discussion was held concerning how to manage the PIAA Championships. Mr. Byers shared two separate thoughts regarding competitor: 1) running teams and individuals in separate races, and combining results to determine the overall individual medalists; or 2) reducing the field to permit single races to be conducted by classification. 2 members voiced concerns about the difficulty for providing 12 separate races over 2 days and the limits of officials availability to participate.

Next meeting of the PIAA XC Steering Committee is not scheduled until Jan 13th.