Changes were made a year ago to the 2016 Greene County High School track & field schedule to give athletes more recovery and preparation time from the end of the regular season to the date of the State Qualifying Meet. Among the changes was moving the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference meet up to the week before state qualifying instead of the same week. In the past the Rams had the HOIAC meet on a Monday and state qualifying was just three days later on that Thursday.

The Rams had the conference meet two days ago and the final regular season meet for Greene County is today at North Polk in Alleman. The changes give the Rams a full week from the end of the regular season to the date of the Class 3A State Qualifying Meet in Winterset on May 12.

The earlier conference meet seemed to suit the Greene County athletes as they entered the coed HOIAC meet on May 3 favored to win three girls’ titles and one for boys. When all was said and done, the Rams won eight conference events, four for girls and four for boys. Time will tell what effect, if any, the week off from competition from today until May 12 will have.