Cape Cod

MIAA Refuses to Let Senior Run Last Race of Her High School Career Over Clerical Error

Rhiannon Vos, an 18-year-old in Harwich, Massachusetts, was supposed to run in a state championship Thursday night, but was barred because of a mistake made by her athletic director months earlier

NBC Universal, Inc.

A clerical error has sidelined a Massachusetts high school senior track star from running in a state championship Thursday night.

For 18-year-old Rhiannon Vos, the race would have been her last representing Monomoy High School in Harwich.

"I went to a district meet last Thursday, ran a qualifying time, and then my athletic director put in the time incorrectly from a few months ago," said Vos.

She and her mother say the school admitted that error to the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. They were hoping an honest mistake would be taken into consideration and that she would get to run at the state championship race in Fitchburg.

State Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-Barnstable, says the school reached out to him Wednesday asking for help with the MIAA in advance of the race, asking for help convincing the organization to look at the facts and make an exception for Vos.

"Yeah, a mistake was made, but let's not make another one," said Xiarhos. "This girl should run. She's an honor student, she's going to run in college, and this is her last run and she earned it."

Xiarhos asked the MIAA why she couldn't run even after the mistake was admitted.

"Now, they're kind of stuck with 'If they make an exception for one, they have to for someone else,'" the representative said.

"If you spend months doing something and you qualify, then you expect to go," Vos said. "I think they should just try and think about the kids a little bit more."

Vos says she hopes this never happens to another kid, and if it does, she feels the MIAA should bend the rules a bit.

The MIAA released a statement to NBC10 Boston on Friday saying that the data submitted by Monomoy High School wasn't accurate.

"They did not submit an updated qualifying time. This school had five days to submit the updated time with the new data. They did not," the statement said.

The athletic organization noted that such rules exist to for fairness to all students participating in events — there were 1,270 in Thursday's state championships.

"These deadlines are in place because of the potential displacement of a track athlete from another school, who was accurately entered into the meet by a school that did not accurately enter their data," the statement read, continuing, "These two parameters (accurate information and deadlines) are strictly enforced to ensure that all MIAA members are treated the same and that the track and field meet directors have adequate time to carefully review each application. This decision is consistent with other decisions made in the past regarding inaccurate submissions and timeline deadlines."

After the MIAA's statement was released on Friday, Vos' track coach said the school did in fact make the MIAA aware of the error within the five-day window.

Contact Us