"This is strictly a timing issue and a chip malfunction," UIL spokeswoman Kim Rogers said. "It was one runner out of 1,100. It happened to affect the championship." The chip timing device that is used in many mass cross country races is one of the most accurate forms of counting places and for their to be a mistake is very uncommon according to many.
The Kingwood girls were initially awarded the medals at the State Meet and the Southlake Carroll girls were awarded two days later with the gold medals....the rightful owners.
After the University Scholastics League jury of appeals overturned the official results, they agreed there was a scoring error. Although the Southlake Carroll Coach was worried during the process, he stated, " The actual event that took place that was questioable to Coach Onrasek was when he knew his 5th runner placed better than 58th place. After petition was filed, which the Kingwood coach knew nothing about till reading it on the internet and then confirming by calling the coach herself."The girls are, of course, sad and I'm sad, but the right thing was done," Burleson said. "Coach Ondrasek was fighting for his girls. I would have done
the same thing."
One lesson that was learned that was the most important: always double check. Also, just because something is timed from a "computer chip" does not mean that it is always accurate, there will always be room for a mistake. High School cross country all over the United States is known for big upsets and letdowns, but one thing for sure, girls OR boys....it's who has the most glory.
4 comments:
To me this just illustrates how technology - even though it's makes our lives easier - can often be "human."
I think it's great that the coach was bound and determined to make sure his girls got the glory they deserved.
I can not believe this. I mean, you would think with chips as time measuring devices there would be no mistakes at all. This is proves that wrong though. I am glad they got everything figured out though and the teams got the places they deserved. Its unfortunate something like this had to happen but mistakes do occur in big meets like this sometimes.
I too have run into technologies with personalities that have seemed quite human over the years.
I remember in class when Dr. Edge said that a blog should be less formal that "journalism" and I agree with this; However, I think that maybe you should proof read your passage before you post it because I had a little trouble following it.
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