Track meets are always a lot of fun, plenty of things happening, lots of people to talk with, lots of athletes trying their best but, like yesterday at the Eastern Connecticut Conference Championships, no one really seems to know what the score is.
You always hope for the best and expect the worst in these big events as a six hour marathon can grow, as it did on Saturday, to nine hours easily. This time it was a glitch in the scoring system that had things backed up, especially on the track, almost two hours.
The glitch had the timing company, early on in the meet, trying to time things manually. At the same time, results were coming in from other events and nothing was being entered into the computer right away.
At that point, it becomes a guessing game for coaches, reporters and fans alike.
"Who's ahead" was often the question.
"I don't know", often the answer.
The teams eventually guessed correctly as to where they stood and in the end, NFA would reign again in the boys and East Lyme would capture the girls championship. Unfortunately, it was also after 7 p.m. and most of the athletes were already gone. Some schools, like Ledyard, trying to get people home as it was also prom night.