Gateway Virtual Track Series

Team winners for the final week of the series, the Missouri Championships, the unofficial Missouri State Championships, will take home a piece of hardware. Spread the word to your neighbors, friends, teammates, friends, but most importantly your athletes. We owe it to them, all MSHSAA track and field athletes, to still have the chance to compete for the state of Missouri team title. They've trained, worked hard, kept at the grind, stayed focused, never missed any practices, always gave it their all, always went the extra mile, and put in the preparation for this moment for years. We are truly sorry we all lost the 2020 season, but this is our way of saying thank you for all that you've done for the sport of track & field. Help us give you all one last chance to show off how hard you've worked. Now lace up, get out there, and show us what you've got. Hope to see you virtually out at the track.

The GVTS is a four week competition featuring four 1-week long virtual track meets. Each week the GVTS will have a different twist to scoring giving your team athletes new and unique ways to compete. Upon signing up, athletes will select their team and select up to 3 events to compete in per meet. MSHSAA has made it clear no athletes will be eligible to compete under their high school names due to school still being in session. However they have approved athletes to compete under their hometown and school mascot (Example: Rockwood Summit = Fenton Falcons). Our registration platform has every high school in Missouri's hometown and mascot preloaded to ensure your athletes select the correct team to compete under. This will ensure your team can all compete "together" against other high school teams across the state. Additionally, it is worth noting that MSHSAA does not allow coaches to be in contact with their athletes until school is out.

Athletes will have all week to run their events and submit their competition times according to our submission rules. Due to insurance and MSHSAA mandates, we will only be offering running events including the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m and 3200m. We would have loved to include the hurdles, throws and jumps, but for most of those athletes access to proper equipment and safety was a major concern. Big River will receive, organize and score submitted times all week and will post final meet results on the GVTS website Monday morning following each week's worth of competition. 

We have decided to double the points of a traditional track meet to give more kids and teams a chance to score points in the competition. Meet scoring will follow this point breakdown: 20 - 18 - 16 - 14 - 12 - 11 - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1.

Safety is our number one priority and we will ask for your help to stress this to your athletes. Athletes are expected to compete ALONE. They must complete their marks without teammates and without competitors. Athletes must follow all local, state, and government social distancing rules, along with those set forth by the CDC. When out running and competing athletes must make sure to always keep at least 6 feet between themselves and all other people. We expect the athletes to follow all school district policies regarding track and facility usage. If their high school track is closed, IT IS CLOSED. The GVTS has a zero tolerance policy for any athletes that violate any of these policies. Any violation will result in an immediate disqualification from both the meet and the rest of the series. 

Athletes will complete their marks and submit their times to Big River via twitter, @BigRiverRacing with the hashtag #GatewayVirtualTrackSeries included. All results submissions must include a photo or video proof of the performance. Simply include these in the same post on Twitter with the performance results. Any results submission that does not include a photo or video validating the performance will not be included in the official meet results. We recommended that the photos and videos are to be recorded by someone living under the same roof. You can race as many times as you’d like for each meet and event respectively, but you are only allowed one results submission per. If you sign up for multiple events, be sure to include your distance corresponding to your performance submission. Be sure to check your privacy settings on Twitter, the setting 'Protect your Tweets' needs to be unchecked for us to see your post.

We're excited to give your athletes and teams a chance to compete against others from across the state in fun and different ways. Our meet schedule will include the following competitions: 

Week 1: Gateway Varsity, JV, and Freshmen Invitational

• Competition Dates: May 4th through May 10th.
• Registration will close Saturday May 9th at 11:59 PM. All results must be submitted by Sunday May 10th by 11:59 PM. Final results will be uploaded and published online Monday May 11th by noon.
• There will be three divisions of scoring, Varsity, JV, and Freshmen. You are only allowed to compete in one, but you may choose which you prefer. The Freshmen division is only open to current high school freshmen.

Week 2: East vs West Dual

• Competition Dates: May 11th through May 17th.
• Registration will close Saturday May 16th at 11:59 PM. All results must be submitted by Sunday May 17th by 11:59 PM. Final results will be uploaded and published online Monday May 18th by noon.
• Anyone who lives east of U.S. Highway 63 in Missouri will be on team East, and anyone living west of U.S. Highway 63 will be on team West. Please be sure to select the appropriate one during registration.
• There will be both Varsity and JV divisions. You can choose which you prefer, but you are only allowed to compete in one.
• The map below shows the split down U.S. Highway 63 to designate Team East (red) vs Team West (blue).
• Keep in mind that some cities are split by U.S. Highway 63 and you may be scoring against your own cross-town teammates!

Week 3: Graduation Class Clash

• Competition Dates: May 18th through May 24th.
• Registration will close Saturday May 23rd at 11:59 PM. All results must be submitted by Sunday May 24th by 11:59 PM. Final results will be uploaded and published online Monday May 25th by noon.
• Week 3 pits the four graduation classes against each other, the greatest clash of our time is about to commence. Who will be the top Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors in the land?
• Seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen will all be scored regardless of hometown team and scored against each other.
• This meet is dedicated to all Seniors who will not get to complete their last season of high school track and field.
• We salute you Seniors!
   

Week 4: Missouri Championships

• The unofficial state championships of Missouri!
• Competition Dates: May 25th through May 31st.
• Registration will close Saturday May 30th at 11:59 PM. All results must be submitted by Sunday May 31st by 11:59 PM. Final results will be uploaded and published online Monday June 1st by noon.
• Only two athletes from each team will be able to score per event.
• Compete within your classes, 1 - 5, who will come out on top?
• Team plaques will be awarded to the first place teams in all classes.

We want to be transparent at this time when finances might not be stable for all. Here are the people/companies that will directly benefit from your athletes/teams joining this meet.

1. Athletes who compete (Gives a little health/motivation boost to get to compete)
2. Big River Race Management - Local Small Business
3. Regal Midwest - Local Small Business
4. All-Star Trophy - Local Small Business

All of these groups have been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and this meet will certainly help them through this time of great need and uncertainty.