The 2006 Eye Opener is using chip timing, race directors recently announced.
The event, held at Milliken Plant in Spartanburg, is slated for Sept. 9.
"We will have people in the back of the chute taking the chips from the runners before they leave the finish area," said co-race director Eric Cummings about the finish line area. "There is no charge for the high school teams, we are doing this through sponsors. Coaches will pick up their chips and numbers as in the past. The runners will tie the chips on their shoes, and we recommend they unlace their shoes one eyehole and insert the chip on the laces there before relacing and tieing their shoes."
Cummings, former coach at Spartanburg Methodist College, will start his first season as cross country coach at Riverside High School in Greer this fall.
"The SMC job was part time and it was hard to stay on with our third son coming this fall," said Cummings on joining the Riverside program. "I missed the classroom and Riverside has a tradition in cross country and should be a great chance to build another program. I will never say I will not go back to a college, but it would have to be what is best for my family."
Prior to coaching at Spartanburg Methodist Cummings coached at Byrnes High School.
According to Cummings, himself, Jack Todd (SCSDB), Mike Baird (Milliken Plant), and Jimmy Stephens (USC-Upstate) "talked about going to chips after last year's race."
"One of the main reasons was that we want this race to be known as one of the top races in the state and region," said Cummings. "We also saw the numbers that we anticipated and the need for additional volunteers. In the past, we have used almost 90-100 volunteers in the finish area for the meet (using a four-chute system). With chip timing we anticipate using only 30 (with 24 being used to remove chips and move the pack). We will extend the finish chute area farther back, but will use one-third of workers."
"The chips will allow for instant results and in the college race will allow us to have the race scored five different ways (Overall, Division I, College-[DII, DIII, NAIA], JUCO, CVAC-will be included in the College Division also)."
Race Management Systems is supplying timing at the meet.