Meet Entry Process
A. Qualification There will not be a provisional or an
automatic qualifier. We are taking the top performers in each field based off
our field size. For example: In the 60M Dash and 60M Hurdles we are taking the
top 24 athletes on the leader board whose coaches have verified and paid
for meet entry. These will be posted each week on our leader board on the
Illinois Top Times website. The field size is pre-determined and is listed in
the Field Size table under the Indoor Championship tab.
Our goal for this meet is to mirror
as closely as possible the Division 3 National Championship meet.
- Only FAT Times
achieved from January 1st, 2023 through March 20th @ 10:00pm will be accepted
for qualifying mark.
- Performances
from AAU/USATF certified meets during that timeframe will be accepted.
B. Registration Process Registration is going to be through Direct
Athletics.
There are two ways to get your team's results on the Top Times Leaderboards.
1) For meets that use DirectAthletics for online entries, results flow automatically
to the leaderboards when the meet host uploads results to DirectAthletics.com.
Coaches do not need to do anything to add these results to leaderboards and
should not submit results themselves for DirectAthletics meets.
2) For meets that do not use DirectAthletics.com for entries, coaches must
manually submit performances via DirectAthletics.com. To submit performances
manually: Login to your coach account at DirectAthletics.com. Click the
"IL Top Times" tab. Click "Submit New Performances" and
follow instructions. Note: For this year Manually submitted performance will
instantly appear on IL Top Times. ITT staff will go through and verify as
well as delete if necessary.
How to Access Your Team's DirectAthletics.com Account:
If you already have a DirectAthletics account for your team, you should login
at www.directathletics.com
and use your existing account. You will use the same account and roster you use
to submit meet entries via DA.
If you know you have an account but have forgotten your username/password, you
can click the “Login Trouble” link next to the login box.
If you are new to DirectAthletics, go to www.directathletics.com
and click "Sign Up". Even if your school has used DirectAthletics in
the past, use the Sign Up page to create a new account if the previous account
holder has left.
Setting Up Your Roster and Submitting Results:
STEP 1—Set Up Rosters Online
Before you can add performances to the Performance List, you must make sure
that your online roster is complete and up-to-date. If you have used DA before,
your roster may already be partially or fully set up online. However it is
necessary to confirm this before proceeding.
1. Login to your account at www.directathletics.com.
2. Click the TEAM tab. You will see a list of athletes that are already on your
roster. Please review the roster for missing athletes, misspelled names, or
missing school years. NOTE: Your roster is for a single gender—boys OR girls,
not both. To switch to the other gender, you can select the other team (gender)
from the Team dropdown on the blue navigation bar to the right of “Track &
Field”
3. To delete or edit athletes, check the box to the left of each athlete(s) and
then click the red “Delete Selected” link or the dark blue “Edit Selected” link
respectively.
4. To add athletes, click the green “Add Athletes” link.
5. Repeat separately for the other gender as needed. Before proceeding, all
competing athletes should be listed on your roster with the correct school
year.
STEP 2—Adding New Performances
It is the responsibility of each school to manually add top times/marks that
are not already added by a meet director via a meet results upload.
1. Click the “Illinois Top Times” tab. Click the “Add New Performances” link on
the left. Select the event type (track, field, and relay) and click Submit.
2. Fill out the form with the athlete, event, time/mark, date of performance,
and meet name. When you are satisfied with the form, click “Submit”.
3. Your performances will be submitted for review to an Illinois Top Times
administrator. Until they are reviewed, the performances will appear as
“Pending” within your
account and will NOT appear on the Top Times list. When
an administrator approves your submissions you will receive an email and see
the performances on the public
performance list
4. You can repeat steps 1-2 to add additional performances at any time.
5. Do not add performances for meets that used Direct Athletics for online
entries. The meet host should upload results directly from meet management
software (MeetPro, Hy-Tek, etc.) to Direct Athletics.
C. Meet Declaration Process
– THIS IS THE SAME PROCESS AS PREVIOUS YEARS
Declaration will be the week of March 13th - March 20th at 10:00pm.
With this process, there are less changes and fewer possibilities for errors.
At any time during that week you will be able to declare your entries for the
IL Top Times meet via your Direct Athletics account. NOTE: If you
declare, and then afterwards add new performances (or new performances are
uploaded) you MUST go back to the declaration page and declare new
performances. Your athlete will not be automatically declared.
You MUST declare your athletes and relays that you wish to compete at the IL
Top Times meet. Athletes/relays that are not declared will be SCRATCHED
and not considered for the meet.
- You may declare
only verifiable times/marks on the Illinois Top Times performance list.
- Declaring
entries is not a guarantee of acceptance into the meet. We will
select the top 12 declared entries in each event, unless noted. We
will select the top 22 declared entries for the 200M, the top 24 declared
entries for the 400M, and the top 16 declared entries for the 4 x 200M
relay. We will select the top 15 declared entries in 1600M and 3200M
runs, and the top 24 declared entries in the 60m Dash and 60m
Hurdles. This list will be posted by March 21st at
8pm.
- If you do not
see your athlete's top performance when declaring, you must first add it
to the IL Top Times performance list and then return to the meet declaration/entry
page.
(See other instructions on how to add performances to the
list)
- You may update
your declarations as often as you wish during the week of March 13th until
the entry deadline of March 20th at 10:00pm. After this
deadline your declarations are FINAL.
- During that week
there will be a new Declared Leadership Board. It will be above the
current Leadership board on the Illinois Top Times website. (www.illinoistoptimes.com) Coaches,
Athletes and Parents can visually see who has been declared.
- To declare your
athletes/relays:
1) Log in to your coach account at www.directathletics.com
2) Under Upcoming Meets, you will
see the Illinois Top Times meet listed with a green "Register" link
next to it. Click "Register".
3) The system will present the top
time/mark for each event, based on the IL Top Times performance list. You
must declare or scratch all performances and click Submit.
4) Repeat for other gender as needed
IMPORTANT REMINDERS about DECLARATION—PLEASE READ
--After submitting declarations, you must print and email yourself entry
confirmation--this is your official receipt
--All DECLARED performances will be listed publicly at http://www.illinoistoptimes.com.
If your performances are not listed publicly as declared, they will NOT be
considered for acceptance into the meet
--If new performances are added to the IL Top Times list AFTER you’ve already
declared, you must return to the declaration page to declare/scratch the new
performance.
--All performances that are not declared will be considered SCRATCHED as of the
declaration deadline.
D. Illinois Top
Times Championship Meet Entry Verification The athletes who qualify for each event
will be posted on our website on Tuesday, March 21st at 8pm. Those
postings are final. Illinois Top Times Uses Direct Athletics, and only
results submitted to DirectAthletics.com appear on Top Times Leaderboards
E. Payment
Process
All teams will be required to pay for athletes to participate in the
meet. Once again we are offering payment through PayPal. PayPal is
PCI DSS compliant for credit card processing. We are trying to discourage
payment on the day of the meet to keep registration efficient and timely.
Payment on the day of the meet will result in an increase in the fee. From the time you are able to declare athletes until 5pm on March 23rd,
2023, you will be able to pay online. If you are confident that your
athlete will qualify, we encourage you to pay early. If you are unsure
about qualification, you can pay upon posting of the verifications on March 21st.
Because our window is so small, we have made it possible to pay using a school
credit card or a personal credit card and get a receipt for
reimbursement. Please pay using PayPal, if at all possible.
If you are unable to pay online you can send a check. Checks need to be made
out to Illinois Top Times. Checks must be postmarked by March 22nd and
received by March 23rd at noon. Checks can be sent to Illinois Top Times,
c/o Randy Anderson, P.O. Box 638, Clinton, IL 61727. If we don't
receive payment by March 23rd at noon you must pay on site, and the late
fee will apply*. Illinois Top Times reserves the right to refuse
alternative payment methods if insufficient cause is shown to require such a
payment. No refunds will be given from Illinois Top Times. *Please
photocopy your check and bring the copy with you, and the late fee will not be
assessed.
The payment site will be located at http://www.illinoistoptimes.com/paypal-payment,
You will be given a field to choose your school, and you must choose a school
so that we know which school has paid when you submit payment. Options
will be available so a school can choose to make one payment for both boys and
girls teams together or separately. Coaches must not assume that the
coach or AD paid for both teams. We will keep a running track record of
teams who have paid posted on the payment website so coaches know if their
team's participation has been paid for or not. If there are any questions
or problems using PayPal, please contact info@illinoistoptimes.com or call 309-838-8039. As always, we recommend you keep a copy of your receipt and
bring it to the meet with you as proof of payment verification. We are
trying to streamline this process and appreciate your efforts to be proactive
by making sure your athletes are confirmed and the payment is made by the
deadline.
After the 23rd, we will be working onsite and will not be able
to take phone calls or receive email. Please prepare, ask questions
now.
