In a letter to parents and coaches, the president of the Cape Atlantic League has apologized for the catastrophic results breakdown at the Cape Atlantic League meet on Tuesday at Egg Harbor Township High School.
Robert Wagner, athletic director at Atlantic County Institute of Technology in Mays Landing, took responsibility for hiring a timing company that was not equipped to work a major championship meet.
Results of the girls race weren’t available until more than 24 hours after the race and boys results have still not been distributed nearly 48 hours after the race.
“First, as president of the Cape Atlantic League, I take full responsibility for the failings of the race, more specifically, the finish and results collection,” Wagner wrote. “I want to apologize for this failure, and I am sorry that this negatively affected your children/athletes who raced yesterday. Everyone’s frustration with the outcome of the event yesterday is well deserved and understood. This event was not representative of the league, and moving forward, it will be corrected.
“Second, this was in no way a reflection on EHT’s staff; they did their best to help rectify the situation given the time they had to make it right. They did all they could. I appreciate the efforts of the CAL cross-country coaches, Chair Jason Kessler, and the officials, who stepped in to help with collecting finish information from the competitors for both races to make the best of this situation on the day of the race. Awards were handed out but not in a manner consistent with our other events. Due to the lack of full results, many teams left prior to the awards ceremony.
“I have been in touch with the timing company, and results for the girls should post this evening (Wednesday). The boys are being worked on now, and the timing company is still gathering information from coaches so that the results can be completed. The FinishLynx system that the company uses has collected the times for each runner that finished. The company is now cross-referencing the names provided by the coaches with their finish line pictures. The finish picture also has the official time of finish, so they can put the name together with the placing and time to finalize the results.
“Please let me know if there are any other concerns.”
