Regina disqualified from state qualifier

SOLON - Iowa City Regina has been a regular qualifier at the state cross country meet.

But the Regals won't be at Fort Dodge this year. They didn't even make it to the starting line at districts.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and the Iowa High School Athletic Association jointly disqualified Regina from Thursday's Class 1A state-qualifying meet at Solon, citing the Regals, basically, of trespassing.

Other than the host school, teams are not allowed to run on a state-qualifying course from the time the sites are released until race day.

'On Wednesday morning, Regina reported that their teams held a practice on the Solon cross country course on Monday afternoon,” Regina Athletics Director Tim Foley said in a release Thursday. 'This practice was in violation of the state manual for cross country.

'Regina High School appealed the decision to the IHSAA Board of Control and the IGHSAU Board of Directors. Both boards upheld the decisions of the IHSAA's and IGHSAU's administration.”

Regina Coach Chad Swope could not be reached for comment Thursday night, and did not return calls from The Gazette.

IGHSAU executive director Mike Dick said the rule 'is on our website three different places, in the manual. And it's on the power point that every coach is required to watch.

'This is extremely unfortunate for the (Regina) kids. But we felt we had no choice to uphold the rule. For the sake of credibility and accountability, we felt it was appropriate. We felt they should have known the rule and abided by it.”

Swope has been the Regals' head coach since 2005. Under his guidance, the boys' teams won state titles in 2006, 2007 and 2010.

Regina's girls were ranked No. 3 in 1A and were favored to win the Solon regional and contend at state next week. Adriana Kammerer was the third-rated individual girl. She is a senior.

The boys' team was ranked 14th.

Foley said, 'Our coaches take full responsibility for their actions that led to the IHSAA and IGHSAU's decisions. We self-reported the violations and we asked the IHSAA, the IGHSAU and both boards to sanction our coaches with suspensions from state competitions for a calendar year, but allow our student-athletes to still compete.

'We are disappointed that both organizations and boards could not see past the letter of the law in regards to punishing 14 student-athletes for actions by their coaches. We wish the other teams competing tonight and next Saturday the best of luck.”

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com