ITCCCA 5K Postal XC Championships

ILLINOIS (WAND) - The Illinois Track & Cross Country Coaches Association (ITCCCA) announced it has IHSA approval to hold a virtual track and field event this October. 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a lot of changes to fall sports, but the IHSA recently announced schools can have fall contact days from Sept. 7 to Oct. 31. This allows coaches to conduct full scrimmages for sports deemed at low risk for COVID-19, including track and field. 

Time trials will be held from  Thursday, Oct. 29 to Saturday, Oct. 31 in the inaugural ITCCCA 5K Postal XC Championships. Coaches will be able to enter schools into the event through Athletic.Net, and results will be posted there no later than 9 a.m. on Sept. 2, 2020. 

Since this event is happening during the fall contact days, there can't be competitions with other schools. As a result, there will be no awards, but athletes will be able to see their results online. 

“I could see where having your team run a 5k on a track without any other teams present followed by posting their performances on Athletic.net to see how they would have stacked up against other teams who did the same thing wouldn’t necessarily constitute a contest," said Kraig Garber, executive assistant direct for XC for the IHSA, in an email with ITCCCA President Mark Anderson. "However, I feel that issuing awards takes it to the next level.”

The event will include a Varsity Division and Junior Varsity Division, with three classes (Class 1A, Class 2A, Class 3A) making up each division. 

Click here for more information about this event. Meet guidelines and rules can be found here.Â