2012 BYU INVITATIONAL MEET INFORMATION

2012 marks the 102nd running of the BYU Invitational! In 1911, BYU Athletic Director Eugene Roberts created what has become the BYU Invitational, the longest running and most prestigious track and field invitational in the inter-mountain west. See below for a history of the meet.

Event	1A-2ABoys	1A-2AGirls	3A-5ABoys	3A-5A Girls
100m	13.00	15.13	12.30	13.98
100mH		19.80		17.89
110mH	19.30		17.31
200m	26.40	31.38	24.62	28.62
300mH	48.11	56.56	44.27	51.47
400m	58.29	1:11.15	54.51	1:04.57
800m	2:22.00	3:00.00	2:11.00	2:40.00
1600m	5:16.86	6:29.57	4:55.00	5:52.00
Discus	105-09	73-07	118-02	87-01
Long Jump	17-02	12-07	18-01	14-03
High Jump	5-04	4-02	5-06	4-06
Javelin	128-04	83-04	137-09	90-00
Shot Put	36-01	25-04	40-00	28-00
Pole Vault	8-04	6-00	10-00	6-00

Registration

Accepted Entries/Heat Sheets

Results

Bus Unloading and Parking
Busses must park before unloading in the south of the football stadium just across from the track.

Tentative Seeding Parameters
Entry Limits - Each team can enter athletes into up to 25 events per gender. This means that each gender can only have 25 participations, regardless of how many athletes are involved. The relays and the 3200 are not included in the 25 participations. Each athlete can participate in up to 4 events, including the relays and the combined events. Qualifying marks must come from Utah 2012 state-qualifying meets. Marks can not be from meets outside of Utah.

Field Events - For all field events, all athletes will be seeded into flights by division (large or small). The athletes with the best seed marks will be seeded into the later flights. Each athlete will be given three attempts. The top 9 athletes in the small school division and the top 9 athletes in the large school division will advance to an 18 person final, where they will each be given three additional attempts.

3200 - Timed Finals. All athletes will be pooled together. 60 athletes, 12 from each classification, are accepted into the meet. The top 12 athletes in each classification will be accepted. Each race will be split evenly into two sections of 30 athletes. The fastest athletes will be seeded into the second section.

1600 - Timed Finals. All athletes will be pooled together. Each race will be split evenly into sections of about 18 athletes, with the top 18 athletes, regardless of division, competing in the final section. The final section will be contested during the Golden Hour, with the other sections competing in the morning session.

800 - Timed Finals. All athletes will be pooled together. Each race will be split evenly into sections of about 15-18 athletes, with the top 15 athletes overall competing in the final section, the final having 15 athletes. The final section will be contested during the Golden Hour, with the other sections competing in the morning session.

Girl's Pole Vault - We have received multiple requests to include the Girl's Pole Vault. The event will score and medals will be awarded. We have set a reasonable starting height of 6-0. We will hold the event as long as there are 6 qualified girls in a classification that start the event. That means that the girls must be registered, check-in and start the event. (Do some recruiting!) We don't want to have a few girls arrive and find that the event is short, as that will mean that the event will not be held. If there are less than 6 competitors in one of the classifications and the other classification does have 6, the girls in the incomplete classification will be allowed to participate with the other classification as non-scoring competitors.

Races running Heats/Finals - Athletes will be pooled by division (small and large) and seeded separately by division into heats, using serpentine parameters. The top 9 athletes from each division will advance to the finals. Advancing athletes will be grouped together and seeded into two sections, with the top athletes running in the second section.

Relays - The top 9 relays from each classification will be accepted into the meet. Please enter your alternate relay members in positions 5 and 6. The final section will be contested during the Golden Hour, with the other sections competing in the morning session.

Entry Fees - Entry fees are $5 per athlete. Each team will be responsible to pay for each athlete entered into the meet through their account, regardless of whether the athlete actually does participate. The number of athletes in your roster that are registered into events when registration closes will determine your team entry fees. Please DO NOT bring payment to the meet. It is most efficient for our financial department to send an invoice to your school after the meet. Thanks for your support!

"Golden Hour" - Most event finals will be run during the day on Saturday, with the top sections of the finals being run during the "Golden Hour" from 3:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. Friday during the day and Saturday in the morning will be the time of the majority of the qualifying rounds for the track events. Field events will be scheduled across both days.

Top Athletes Head-to-head - All finals will consist of 1 or 2 sections. In general, 9 athletes from the large schools and 9 athletes from the smaller schools will advance to a final. The top 9 athletes will compete in the 2nd section, regardless of whether they are large or small school athletes. This will allow for the top athletes to compete head-to-head whether they be a large or a small school athlete and will enable the exciting "Golden Hour" on Saturday afternoon of most of the top athletes in the meet. We have medals just the same as last year. We will present medals to the top 3 athletes in each division, regardless of where they place in their respective races, or which race they compete in. Remember that the Golden Hour will generally have two sections of finals. Both sections will be run during the Golden Hour for most races. The only exceptions are some of the relays.

Team Scoring - Team scoring will be the same as always. Large school athletes will be scored against large school athletes, whether they competed in the same section or not. Small school athletes will be scored against small school athletes, whether they competed in the same section or not. Field events will be held over the two days, similar to the past, though following the same format of 9 large and 9 small school athletes advancing to the final.

Team Packet pickup - Packet pickup for teams will be available on Wednesday and Thursday from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 pm. during the Decathlon / Heptathlon, and also on Friday morning. If you would like to pick up your packet before Friday, that will simplify Friday morning. Please DO NOT bring payment to the meet. It is most efficient for our financial department to send an invoice to your school after the meet. Thanks for your support!

Combined Events - A Decathlon and Heptathlon will be held on Wednesday and Thursday. The combined events are not sanctioned by the UHSAA as a State Qualifying Meet, so you don't have to reserve one of the state qualifying meets for your athlete. They will be held in the afternoon on Wednesday and Thursday, starting at 3:00 p.m. each day. We have scheduled the start as late as possible with the objective to minimize time away from school and still be completed each day before dark. The top 9 male and 9 female athletes that register from both large and small schools will be invited, for a total of 18 boys and 18 girls. Marks must be submitted by 8:00 a.m., Monday, April 23rd, the same time that registration closes. Marks must be from this season and from a state qualifying meet, if possible. Sprint times must be FAT. Implements must have been certified. Please enter best marks, not marks from a combined event, so that we are all consistent. Once you know the marks, please use the following Decathlon/Heptathlon Scoring website to calculate the point value of each mark. Field event distances must be entered in meters. Marks can be converted using the following Table. Enter the mark for each event in the appropriate box, along with the point value of the mark. Please enter the total score of all of the marks in the overall seed mark for the event.

Double points will be awarded in these events toward the team scores (20, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2). Combined Events count toward the 4 event limit. Marks set in the Combined Events will NOT count toward state qualifying. Sorry.

Qualifying Standards - Each athlete that is accepted into the meet must have met the qualifying standard for each event during this season in a state qualifying meet as certified by the UHSAA. Seed marks will only be pulled from the database of marks submitted to the UHSAA for this season.

Gene Roberts explained (162:16) that as soon as he got “settled” and adjusted to his responsibilities at Brigham Young University, he began to put into effect a dream that he had had when he first attended the Pennsylvania Relay Carnival; this was during the Spring of 1910. To begin a miniature carnival at Brigham Young University, he invited several nearby high schools and also the Provo elementary schools to participate in a few competitive track and field events, which included some relays. This was done during the Spring of 1911 in connection with the annual interclass track and field meet.

Influencing the beginning, growth, and evolution of the athletic pageant was the unique conception among the Mormon youth of both sexes--competition matching skill against endurance; beauty of performance against its kind; and not man against man nor school against school. Sportsmanship and mutual appreciation were and always have been objectives of the meet (87:77).

At the first meet, Roberts recalled (169:24) that the contestants were mainly interclass performers from Brigham Young University, and from three or four schools from Utah county that had been invited to participate. The second year of this event, Heber, from outside the county, was invited, and from that time on the invitations were increased and the number of events were enlarged. As the number of schools increased, it was necessary to divide the squads into “A” and “B” classes. Then the junior colleges, colleges, college freshmen, junior high schools, and finally girls’ events were added to the meet, resulting in the huge program that still continues today. Gene Roberts recalled the start as a humble one, and he attributed the growth of the event, in a large part, to the competing coaches. After each meet, Gene would write letters to every one of the coaches and officials who had taken part in the meet, asking for suggestions to improve the events. He would take these suggestions into consideration, and upgrade the meet accordingly. Each year the officials remained the same, so that much of the burden of the meet was able to be placed on the shoulders of those men who knew exactly what was expected of them without help or advice from the leaders.

Speaking of this aspect of the meet, Reed Swenson (226) stated: The meet was well organized as to the time of the events, the heats in track events, and the qualifying trials for the field events. Coach Roberts’ physical education majors, along with others, would act as officials, judges, recorders, announcers, etc. These experiences assured that every major (physical education) student had the ability to conduct a track meet.

Individual competition was the main thrust of the meet, from its inception. One of the major reasons that all around competition was started was to take the strong athletes away from the regular events, and thereby do away with the chance for anyone trying to select a team champion.

Reiterating the purpose of the meet, Coach Roberts emphasized (87:79) "The great purpose of the meet has been clearly understood by the general public for several years. It was to bring together hundreds of athletically inclined and interested people for mutual stimulation and benefit."

In an atmosphere of athletic pageantry predominating at the carnival, the stress and strain of competition was lessened, and the spirit of crowd reaction and universal participation found full expression. Points were not awarded winners of places. Instead, individual medals, pennants, and trophies were presented to individuals and teams who happened to emerge victorious from the various competitions.

From its small beginning, the meet grew rapidly until it became one of the greatest athletic carnivals in the west; from a few participants to more than three thousand young men and women who competed for medals, trophies, and banners.

A unique feature of this event was the Women’s Posture Parade. Working first with Algie Ballif and later Wilma Jepson, Coach Roberts helped bring this event into the meet. Algie Ballif (8) related the following: Gene wanted a posture parade, and he knew that I was unusually anxious about the posture of the girls. The first posture parade that was held at Brigham Young University was held while I was teaching physical education there with E. L. Roberts. I am almost sure that he got this idea in Germany, while on his mission. At that time they were at their zenith of greatness and power, and doing so much for all classes, for men and women, to keep them physically fit. We had white suits with dark black bloomers. It was a beautiful sight. We would get up early and go up to the track to
practice, and watch the lines. We had very simple formations. This grew into a great event. It brought together girls from all of the major high schools in Utah. They competed with each other. I have had some of my students tell me, that even in their old age, when they were all crouched down, that they remember the influence of my physical education classes and the influence of E. L. Roberts in the posture parades.

Explaining some of the background behind this particular event, Reed Swenson (226) reported: Gene believed that the posture of many women and girls was poor. We were taught how to evaluate the spine for various deformities due to habit. To correct these problems, he added to the Invitational Track Meet, A Posture Parade for high school girls. They would march in groups, and were judged on their posture and formations. As a result of this competition, many of the high schools emphasized posture training in their year-round gym classes. I was teaching at Murray High School from 1929 through 1933, and they had won the merit rating consistently in the Posture Parade, and a tradition of good posture was established.

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