USCAA Rules
and Regulations |
|
Updates for 2012:
Unless otherwise noted herein, USATF rules will prevail in all disputed
matters.
Divisions
Team Scoring
Eligibility Standards
Frequency of Participation / Records
Ties and Tie Breakers
Uniforms and Bib Numbers
Protests
Track Events - General
Lane Assignments
Individual Races
Relay Races
4x100m Relay
Three-Lap Sprint Relay
Sub-Master's Sprint Relay
4x200m Relay
Sprint Relay
Senior's Relay
Pyramid Relay
Sub-Master's Distance Relay
Executive Relay
Women's Relay
President's Relay
Master's Relay
Distance Relay
Team Races
Women's 800m Team Race
Men's Mile Team Race
Road Races
Men's 5K
Women's 5K
Men's 10K
Women's 10K
Field Events
Team High Jump
Team Long Jump
Team Shot Put
Team Discus Throw
Decathlon Scoring for Field Events
Division 1:
Companies with 10,000 or
more employees.
Club
Division:
Comprised of official track
club teams. A Club is defined as any group of athletes that
have formed an organization with official bylaws, and which requires its members to pay annual (or other periodic) dues.
Unless otherwise noted herein, the Club Division:
·
follows
the same rules as Division 1,
·
will
compete in events with Division 1 teams,
·
will
be scored separately from all other divisions, and
·
are eligible for all Division 1 events except the
President’s Relay and the Executive Relay.
Division
3:
Companies
with fewer than 10,000 employees.
Individual
Division 3 companies may compete in Division 1.
Division
3 companies may combine with up to four (4) other Division 3 companies to compete in
Division 3 together as one team, provided the combined employee base does not
exceed 10,000. Combined teams are permitted to compete only in Division 3; no
team can combine to compete in Division 1. Combined companies must compete as a
team and pay the appropriate team entry fee.
Corporate or Club teams are not allowed to enter
any "B" teams in any event at the National meet.
The minimum number of athletes to qualify as a “team” is two (2).
Points awarded for each event are shown in the table below.
Relays, Field Events and Road Races:
Division \ Place: |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
All divisions |
40 |
34 |
31 |
28 |
25 |
22 |
19 |
16 |
13 |
10 |
7 |
4 |
1 |
For Division 1, the seventeen (17) highest Event scores will be used to
determine final team standings – along with the appropriate Individual Race
scores.
For Club Division, the fifteen (15) highest Event scores will be used to
determine final team standings – along with the appropriate Individual Race
scores.
For Division 3, the twelve (12) highest Event scores will be used to
determine final team standings– along with the appropriate Individual Race
scores.
Individual Races:
Division \ Place: |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
All divisions |
10 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
For Division 1 and Club Division, the eight (8) highest Individual Race
scores – four (4) highest for Division 3 – will be used to determine final team
standings along with the appropriate Relay, Field Event and Road Race scores.
If a team has multiple places of the same score, and one or more of those
scores will be discarded from their final point total, the last score(s) of the
same value will be the discarded score(s). Scores are sorted by the date and
time of the corresponding event with the oldest event first.
If a team finishes an event in the preliminaries but gets disqualified, they
will receive last place points for that event. If two or more teams are
disqualified from the preliminaries, they will be tied for last place in that
event. (Note: This assumes that they competed with a legal team. If not, the
team receives zero points.)
If a team qualifies for the finals, but then is forced to scratch or is
disqualified from that event's finals, they will be automatically awarded last
place points in the finals for that event. If more than two
teams scratch or are disqualified from the finals, then their position is
determined based on their time from the preliminaries (but they can place no
better than one place behind the slowest team that finishes in the finals).
No additional teams will be added to the finals if one or more team scratches.
If a team is disqualified from the preliminaries but is later re-instated,
it will be added as an additional team to the finals based on its time from the
preliminaries.
Teams must start an event with a legal team to receive the participation
point.
Teams may sign up for additional events on race day but must sign up before
the first heat of that event is run; such a team will be assigned to whichever
heat is needed to achieve balanced heats; if heats are balanced the team will
be put in heat one in the next available lane.
All team members must fall into one of the following five (5) eligibility
categories:
1. Employees:
Must have been employed continuously by the
corporation forty-five days prior to the start of the National meet.
They must be working 20 hours or more per week (for each of the six plus
weeks leading up to the Nationals), and be on the corporation's payroll and
have taxes withheld by the corporation. An
athlete who is an employee of a corporate team competing at the Corporate Cup
Relays National Championship is not eligible to participate as a member of a
Club team.
2. Contractors:
Must be under contract with the corporation
six months prior to the start of the National meet. Must
be working 30 hours or more per week, for that corporation, for the
entire six months. Eligible contractors comprise independent
contractors; outsourced former employees who continue to perform the same work
for the corporation, and staff who have long-term service commitments with the
corporation, who take direction from corporate employees, and who work to
fulfill corporate business objectives, even if they are paid through payroll or
temporary staffing agencies. Employees of outside consulting firms who are
assigned to client corporations on task assignments are not eligible to compete
for those client corporations (example: Andersen Consulting employees on assignment
to Hughes may not compete for Hughes). Contractors are not eligible to compete
as alumni.
3. Retirees:
Must be pension eligible, former employees, with five or more
years of service to the corporation and whose age plus years of service equals fifty-five
years or more. Years of service accumulated with a business divested, sold or
spun off from the parent corporation may be included in the calculation.
Retirees must not be in the full time employment of another USCAA competing
corporation. Retirees may not run in either the Executive Relay or President's
Relay events, even if they still reside on the Board of Directors for that
company. There is no limit on the number of retirees who may compete for a
corporation.
4. Alumni/Spouses:
Up to five ex-employees who have previously competed
for a team in at least one USCAA National Track & Field Championship
are eligible to compete for that team, provided they are not employed by another
competing USCAA team. They may not run in either the Executive Relay or
President's Relay events. No more than two ex-employees can come from a
single company. Ex-employees who participated in Nationals exclusively as
summer interns or as contractors are not eligible to compete under the alumni
provision. Teams may substitute up to three spouses/significant others
of participating team members for alumni under this provision.
5. Pool Runners (eligible in
Division 3 only):
There is a precedence set to allow a limited number of
unattached runners to compete at the USCAA Track Championships. Such “pool runners” (or a team
captain/representative in their place) must contact the USCAA Board prior to
the date of the Championships – preferably two weeks or more – for
consideration of placement on a particular team. The Board will designate a subcommittee that will
make an attempt to place each pool runner with a team in need of any particular
aspect unique to that pool runner such as gender, age, distance/event
specialty, etc. Pool runners are a
separate distinction from Alumni/Spouses as described above.
Corporate Mergers/Splits:
If a corporate merger takes legal effect within the ninety days prior to a
National championship, a participating company may enter the event under its
pre-merger Division status. If a new corporate entity spins off from a larger
corporation, athletes who have competed for the parent corporation at previous
National Championships are eligible to compete with that corporation for up to
six months after the effective date of the corporate split. This provision
shall not apply if the new corporate entity enters a team in the subject event.
Athletes participating under this "corporate split" provision may not
run in the Executive or President's Relay events.
Joint Ventures:
Employees who are dedicated to joint venture partnerships with another
company or companies, but who are paid and receive benefits through their
original employer, may compete only for their own employer. A company's joint
venture partners are not eligible to compete on each other's teams so long as
joint venture employees continue to be paid and receive benefits through their
original employers. For example: Zebra Corp. and Kimodo
Inc. form a joint venture; employees dedicated to this effort continue to be
paid by Zebra and Kimodo, and are thus eligible to
compete only for their company's respective team. If Kimodo
does not field a team, its employees are not eligible to compete for Zebra. If
a joint venture partnership becomes a corporate entity itself, and joint
venture employees are paid and receive benefits through this new entity,
employees may not compete for their original employers but may form a new team
representing the new corporate entity, drawing on all employees of said
corporation. For example: Zebra and Kimodo's joint
venture becomes its own company, Striped Lizzie, and now has former Zebra and Kimodo employees on its payroll and benefits. Striped
Lizzie employees may not compete for Zebra or Kimodo,
except as otherwise provided under the alumni rule provisions.
In all age-restricted events, a participant's age is determined as of December
31 of the current year.
If a participant in a particular event does not meet the event's eligibility
standards, the team will be disqualified from that event.
For all Divisions, each athlete may compete in a maximum of 4 prelims and/or
a maximum of 4 finals, not to exceed a total of 6 events overall. Each field event
will count as ½ event against an athlete's tally.
If an athlete is a member of an event team that either DNFs or is
disqualified in either prelims or finals, ALL athletes on that team will be
charged for that event toward the event participation ceiling of 4 finals and 2
prelims (3 prelims for Division 3).
An individual may not run more than one leg in an event.
Event records must be set in a race for that Division. That is, if a
Division 3 team opts to compete as a Division 1 team, that team can only set Division
1 records. If they bring in a performance that would have set a Division 3
record had they been competing in that Division, that record will not count. However, if the Meet Director decides to run the two
Divisions together for a particular event, then each team's records will count
in the Division for which the team is running.
At the discretion of the Meet Director, exhibition teams may compete as long
as they do not impact the other teams in the finals (4 x 100 Relay only).
Overall team score ties will be broken using the following sequence of
tie-breakers:
Track event ties:
If there is a tie in a Team Relay (most events), then the Fully Automatic Times
(FAT) will be used (with totals to the hundredths, then thousandths if needed)
to break the tie. If there is no FAT, then the official hand times will be
added (truncated, no rounding, to the tenths) to break the tie. If a tie still
exists, then the place remains a tie.
If there is a tie in a Team Race (Women’s 800m Team Race, Men’s Mile Team
Race), for the team's total time, then the FAT times will be used (with totals
to the hundredths, then thousandths if needed) to break the tie. If there is no
FAT, then the official times will be added (truncated, no rounding, to the
tenths) to break the tie. If a tie still exists, then the winning team will be
determined by the fastest individual runner in that event.
If there is a tie in an individual race, when timed to the hundredths, then
the FAT to the thousandths will be used to break the tie.
If there is no FAT, then the place remains a tie.
Each tied team or athlete will receive the points for the tied place. For
example, if two teams tied for third place in a Division 1 event, they will
each receive third place points. In such a case, the next place receives fifth
place points.
Road race ties:
Road race ties will be broken in the following manner:
Field event ties:
Field event team ties will be broken by using the highest individual point
score for a single field event among the scoring team members.
Each team should strive to have all participants wear matching jerseys/singlets and shorts with the company name prominently
displayed on the front of the singlets.
The bib/race number, if used, must be attached to the front of the singlet,
especially during road races, and must be entirely visible.
Each individual, for the Road Races, will be assigned a specific race
number. Each runner must compete with his/her designated race number or be
subject to disqualification.
If and when a discrepancy is ever found in either individual performances,
event races or overall team scores, due to data entry errors or incorrect
information given by teams, the official scorer is required to make any such
adjustments, updating or revising event and/or team standings in the meet as
appropriate, within fourteen days after the results are considered
final.
Team Captains have 30 minutes to file a protest after results have
been posted. For road races, Team Captains have 30 minutes to file
corrections with the head scorer after initial results are posted, with an
additional 30 minutes to review revised results postings before the
results become final.
Any protest involving USCAA rules will be handled by the Protest Committee.
Team captains should submit their protests on an official Protest Form, and
return this form to the Announcers' table, after which the Protest Committee
will be called to order. Protest Forms will not be considered if received more
than 30 minutes after posting of the results is announced. When submitting a
Protest Form, a $25 deposit (check made payable to the USCAA) must be submitted
concurrently. If the protest is upheld, the $25 will be returned. If the
protest is denied, the $25 will be forfeited to the USCAA. Protests regarding
track infractions must have a USCAA Nationals event meet official as a witness
in order to be reviewed by the Protest Committee.
Use of video stream may only be used to determine order of finish for road
races and track events. Only meet officials' video stream may be used, and only
for the express purpose of determining finishing order.
Preliminaries:
In Division 1 and Club Division
(combined), if thirteen or more teams are entered, twelve teams advance to the
finals. In Division 3, eight teams advance to the finals. (See the table below
for team advancement.)
Division: |
Number of Heats: |
From Each
Heat: |
Plus Next... |
3 |
2 |
Top 1 |
6 fastest |
3 |
3 |
Top 1 |
5 fastest |
1 |
2 |
Top 2 |
8 fastest |
1 |
3 |
Top 2 |
6 fastest |
1 |
4 |
Top 1 |
8 fastest |
1 |
5 |
Top 1 |
7 fastest |
In Division 1 and Club Division, for events that open with a
200-meter (220 yard) leg, a two-section final will be run. The six fastest
qualifying teams from the preliminaries will run in the second section of the
final and the six slowest teams will run in the first section. Final placing
will be determined by times run in both sections of the final. However, if
fewer than twelve teams qualify for the finals, the team distribution is as
follows:
There should never be fewer than four teams in the slower
heat.
Division 3:
Where prelims are held, teams
wishing to advance to the finals must run the prelims. If fewer than 8 Div. 3
teams are entered 21 days prior to Nationals, no prelims will be held.
Heat and lane assignments for preliminary events will be based on random draw,
as follows:
Prelims - two
heats - staggered |
|
Prelims - three
heats - staggered |
|||||
Lane: |
Heat 1: |
Heat 2: |
Lane: |
Heat 1: |
Heat 2: |
Heat 3: |
|
1 |
11 |
12 |
1 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
|
2 |
7 |
8 |
2 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
|
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
5 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
|
6 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
15 |
14 |
13 |
|
7 |
14 |
13 |
7 |
21 |
20 |
19 |
|
8 |
15 |
16 |
8 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
Prelims - four
heats - staggered |
||||
Lane: |
Heat 1: |
Heat 2: |
Heat 3: |
Heat 4: |
1 |
21 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
2 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
5 |
12 |
11 |
10 |
9 |
6 |
20 |
19 |
18 |
17 |
7 |
28 |
27 |
26 |
25 |
8 |
29 |
30 |
31 |
32 |
Prelims - two
heats - waterfall |
|
Prelims - three
heats - waterfall |
|||||
Lane: |
Heat 1: |
Heat 2: |
Lane: |
Heat 1: |
Heat 2: |
Heat 3: |
|
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
2 |
3 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
|
3 |
6 |
5 |
3 |
9 |
8 |
7 |
|
4 |
7 |
8 |
4 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
|
5 |
10 |
9 |
5 |
15 |
14 |
13 |
|
6 |
11 |
12 |
6 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
|
7 |
14 |
13 |
7 |
21 |
20 |
19 |
|
8 |
15 |
16 |
8 |
22 |
23 |
24 |
Lane Assignments, Finals
For the finals, lane assignments will be based on the time run in the
preliminaries.
If Preliminaries are not run, Finals lane assignments will be selected by
random. If a need arises for a second heat in the same age group due to a large
team turnout, heats will be selected by random. Every effort will be made to
keep all runners in a division in the same heat.
Each team is allowed only one athlete per event, per age group. Individual
events for all Divisions are:
200m Men 18+
200m Men 50+
200m Men 60+
400m Men 30+
400m Men 40+
200m Women 18+
200m Women 40+
200m Women 50+
400m Women 30+
400m Women 40+
All Individual events will use standard lane assignments (see above).
An athlete may run in multiple age groups for different individual races.
For example, if a 50+ male decides to run in the 200m Men 18+ age group race,
he may then come back and compete in the 400m Men 30+ age group race. Athletes
may compete in their assigned age group or a younger age group. An athlete may
not compete in an older age group
Relays With An Opening
100-meter (or 110-yd) Leg:
|
Four runners, two females and two male, with one man and
one woman 40 years or older, each running 100m in the following order: 40+
woman, open woman, 40+ man, open man. |
Relays With An Opening
200-meter (or 220-yd) Leg:
|
Four runners, with at least one woman, running in order: 200m,
200m, 400m, 400m. |
|
|
Four runners, all 30 years of age or older, with at least
one woman AND two runners 35 or older (in addition to the one woman), running
in order: 200m, 200m, 400m, 800m. Note: A
typical team makeup is 2x35 year old men, 1x30 year old man and 1x30 year old
woman. The woman, if 35, cannot count as both a 35 year old AND a woman. |
|
Four runners, with a runner 40 years of age or older
running the first leg, a runner 50 or older running the second leg, a woman
running the third leg, and a man running the fourth leg (this order of
competitors is fixed and must not be changed), running in order: 200m,
200m, 200m, 200m. |
|
Participants in the President's Relay must be at the
officer level of their company or their direct reports, and must be primarily
and significantly responsible for shaping and directing business objectives,
direction, and strategy, with accountability for delivering results. |
|
Three runners, all from the same company, each at the
level of manager of managers (or the equivalent) or above, and all 30 or
older, running in order: 200m, 400m, 800m. Run as a single-section
final. |
|
Six runners, with at least two women (one 30 years of age
or older) AND one runner 40 years of age or older (in addition to the minimum
two women), running in order: 200m, 200m, 400m, 400m, 200m, 200m. |
Relays With An Opening
400-meter (or 440-yd) Leg:
|
Div 1 and Club Division - Five runners, all 50 years of
age or older, with at least one woman and one runner 60 years of age or older
running the opening leg, running in order: 200m (60+), 400m, 200m, 600m,
400m. |
|
Five runners, with at least two women, running in order: 400m,
800m, 1200m, 800m, 400m. |
Relays With An Opening
800-meter (or 880-yd) Leg:
|
Four runners, all 30 years of age or older, with at least
one woman AND two runners 35 years or older (in addition to the minimum one
woman), running in order: 800m, 400m, 1200m, 1600m. |
|
Four runners, each at the level of manager of managers (or
the equivalent) or above and all 30 years of age or older, with at least one
woman running either an 800m or 1600m leg, running in order: 800m, 400m,
800m, 1600m. |
|
Three female runners, one 40 years or older, whose
combined ages total 90 years or more, running in order: 800m, 400m, 400m. |
|
Five runners, all 40 years of age or older, with at least
one woman AND one runner 50 years or older (in addition to the minimum one
woman), running in order: 800m, 400m, 800m, 200m, 200m. |
Relays With An Opening
1600-meter (or Mile) Leg:
|
|
Five runners, with at least one woman AND one master (40
years of age or older), in addition to the one woman, running in order: 1600m
(woman), 800m, 1600m (master), 1600m, 3200m. |
In the following track events, each team will have two runners on the track at
the same time.
All of these races use the waterfall start, at the Meet Director's discretion.
Runners may break for the inside lane when there is adequate room.
|
Two female runners, each running 800m, with the summed
time of both runners determining place. |
|
Two male runners, each running one mile, with the summed
time of both runners determining place. |
Age Groups For Road Races:
Division 1 and Club Division: under 25, 25-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, 45-49,
50-54, 55-59, 60-64, 65-69, 70 and over. Also wheelchair
and/or spouses (exhibition only).
Division 3: under 30, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70 and over. Also wheelchair
and/or spouses (exhibition only).
|
Unlimited number of male runners, each running 5K, using
cross-country style scoring in five-year age groups (ten-year age groups in
Division 3), with the summed score of the five best finishers (three best in
Division 3) in any combination of age groups determining place. |
|
Unlimited number of female runners, each running 5K, using
cross-country style scoring in five-year age groups (ten-year age groups in
Division 3), with the summed score of the four best finishers (three best in
Division 3) in any combination of age groups determining place. |
Men's 10K Team Road
Race (Division 1 and Club Division only): |
|
Unlimited number of male runners, each running 10K, using
cross-country style scoring in five-year age groups, with the summed score of
the five best finishers in any combination of age groups determining place. |
Women's 10K Team
Road Race (Division 1 and Club Division only): |
|
Unlimited number of female runners, each running 10K,
using cross-country style scoring in five-year age groups, with the summed
score of the four best finishers in any combination of age groups determining
place. |
|
Up to three athletes per team, each competing in the high
jump, using decathlon-type scoring on an age and gender-adjusted scale, with
the summed score of the two best athletes determining a team's score. The
team with the highest score wins. |
|
Up to three athletes per team, each competing in the long
jump, using decathlon-type scoring on an age and gender-adjusted scale, with
the summed score of the two best athletes determining a team's score. The
team with the highest score wins. |
|
Up to three athletes per
team, each throwing the adjusted Shot weight for age and gender (shown in the
table below), using decathlon-type scoring on an age and gender-adjusted
scale, with the summed score of the two best athletes determining a team's
score. The team with the highest score wins.
|
|
Up to three athletes per
team, each throwing the adjusted Discus weight for age and gender (shown in
the table below), using decathlon-type scoring on an age and gender-adjusted scale,
with the summed score of the two best athletes determining a team's score.
The team with the highest score wins.
|
Decathlon Scoring: |
To score the field events, take
the distance or height and convert to inches. Divide this mark by the record
(in inches) shown in the table below, multiply the results by 1000, and truncate any fraction remaining. The result is the
decathlon point score.
In other words:
(your mark in inches) / (inches for you in chart) * 1000 = (your score, after
truncating any fraction)
Use the online Field Events Calculator to calculate this score easily: www.uscaa.org/goodies/fieldCalc.html
The web page may also be saved to your computer to use when not connected to
the internet (eg. at a meet). Save this web page
periodically for any updates.
Shot Put:
Age Group: |
Thru 29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
75-79 |
80+ |
Male: |
867" |
798.5" |
728" |
659" |
591.5" |
654" |
620" |
664" |
580" |
539" |
497.75" |
483" |
Female: |
752" |
711" |
670" |
629" |
588" |
547" |
542" |
465" |
424" |
321" |
293" |
270.25" |
Discus:
Age Group: |
Thru 29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
75-79 |
80+ |
Male: |
2736" |
2733" |
2595" |
2464" |
2318" |
2432" |
2280" |
2442" |
2224" |
1818" |
1538" |
1460" |
Female: |
2598" |
2595" |
2439" |
2295" |
2147" |
1983" |
1816" |
1655" |
1502" |
887.5" |
713" |
585" |
High Jump:
Age Group: |
Thru 29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
75-79 |
80+ |
Male: |
92" |
88" |
83" |
78" |
74" |
69" |
65" |
60" |
56" |
54" |
52" |
48.25" |
Female: |
79" |
75" |
70" |
66" |
62" |
57" |
53" |
48" |
44" |
42.75" |
41.25" |
35.5" |
Long Jump:
Age Group: |
Thru 29 |
30-34 |
35-39 |
40-44 |
45-49 |
50-54 |
55-59 |
60-64 |
65-69 |
70-74 |
75-79 |
80+ |
Male: |
350" |
330" |
311" |
291" |
272" |
252" |
233" |
213" |
194" |
182" |
170.25" |
144.5" |
Female: |
276" |
257" |
238" |
219" |
201" |
182" |
163" |
144" |
125" |
123.5" |
122" |
109.5" |