Pleasant Valley girls track

  • After Iowa State won the Big 12, a Cyclone made a wonderful offer to We Will that now increases our match. Now all gifts up to $400,000 between now and the Final 4 will be matched. Please consider giving at We Will Collective.
    This notice can be dismissed using the upper right corner X button.

tm3308

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2010
8,135
1,530
113
Just saw this today. Pleasant Valley was stripped of the Class 4A girls track title a few days ago due to the participation of an ineligible athlete who was involved in 38 team points at the state meet. The athlete (junior middle distance star Kaley Ciluffo) was discovered to have competed in multiple collegiate invitationals against college athletes, which is illegal for high school athletes in Iowa (she did place first or second in those races, FTR; she's one of the very best middle distance runners in the country). She even allegedly registered at an event under her mother's maiden name, presumably to avoid getting caught.

Urbandale finished second at state and will be retroactively named state champions, and all place-winners in the events Ciluffo competed in will be adjusted accordingly.

Pretty huge deal, and something I've never even heard of being done in Iowa. Definitely feel bad for the girls on the relays she ran on. Several athletes from other schools have expressed similar sentiments and Linn-Mar's Stephanie Jenks, who finished second to Ciluffo in the 800 (Ciluffo ran an all-time best mark in that event at state that will be erased now), said she would have preferred to earn the gold medal rather than get it this way.

Has anyone else ever heard of a situation like this in Iowa? I've known of people who trained with friends after those friends went on to compete collegiately, but never an athlete competing against college athletes in college-sanctioned events. That's just crazy.
 

CyFan61

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2010
14,540
273
83
I heard about this too. I do feel bad for the other runners on the PV team, but not for the girl who broke the rules. She definitely knew what she was doing was wrong. I didn't know this piece of the story:

She even allegedly registered at an event under her mother's maiden name, presumably to avoid getting caught.

But that goes even further to prove that she was trying to break the rules and not get caught. Regardless of what you think about the rule itself, it was selfish of her to jeopardize her team in that way.

With that said, if I found myself in that situation on the PV team, I don't think this would change anything. We won the title, we were recognized for it, we had our celebration. At this point, I would still call myself a state champion and no one would be able to take that away from me. I hope that the rest of the girls on the team have that mindset too because this could be hard on them.
 

ISU42

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2009
3,131
44
48
Our high school associations seem to be *** backwards on rules. Since she is a junior, maybe there were other ways to punish her and not the team?
 
Last edited by a moderator:

benjay

Well-Known Member
Mar 23, 2006
5,141
372
83
Our high school associations seem to be *** backwards on rules. Since she is a junior, maybe there were other ways to punish her and not the team?

I don't see how you let the victories stand when she was ineligible to compete.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

CyFan61

Well-Known Member
Oct 25, 2010
14,540
273
83
Our high school associations seem to be *** backwards on rules. Since she is a junior, maybe there were other ways to punish her and not the team?

I'm pretty sure that she is ineligible for high school competition permanently at this point, so she won't be able to run for any high school team or in a high school event next year too. She was punished as much as possible and it ended up hurting her team because of the choices that she​ made.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Judoka

Well-Known Member
Jun 16, 2010
17,542
2,645
113
Timbuktu
Our high school associations seem to be *** backwards on rules. Since she is a junior, maybe there were other ways to punish her and not the team?

The team only won because of her points. Not taking them away would be unfair to other teams.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Cy Hard

Well-Known Member
Jan 5, 2008
3,291
1,225
113
Polka City
First I thought this thread was going to be stalkerish, but having read the above. She needs to do all she can to graduate asap and move onto college. No senior year now.
 

BoxsterCy

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 14, 2009
43,609
40,118
113
Minnesota
Well, we can't have amateur athletes competing in other amateur events can we? :skeptical:

It does actually get a little complicated. We have had red-shirt runners compete in events but not running "for" ISU. They run "unattached".
 

Iastfan112

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Apr 14, 2006
3,884
1,147
113
My question, why is that against the rules? Seems silly to punish athletes for seeking out better competition. I can understand the not training with college teams part but merely running independently in meets seems like a reasonable thing to be able to do.
 

heitclone

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 21, 2009
15,456
12,569
113
44
Way up there
Well if they just paid high school athletes....:jimlad: But serioiusly, this is such a simple rule to abide by, this girl deserves what she's getting. T
 

DurangoCy

Well-Known Member
Jul 5, 2010
6,372
4,244
113
Durango, CO
My question, why is that against the rules? Seems silly to punish athletes for seeking out better competition. I can understand the not training with college teams part but merely running independently in meets seems like a reasonable thing to be able to do.

You get used to running against other athletes that can actually push you to your limits. Let's just say running at the (insert small town here) invitational against three girls who went out for track so they'd look better in their prom dress is a little different venue. If the girl that got second had to that all spring vs. going to college level meets they came into start with drastically different racing experience.

Not saying it would've matter in this case, but it's a big deal for HS kids that only get a few dozen races each spring.
 

BoxsterCy

Moderator
Staff member
Sep 14, 2009
43,609
40,118
113
Minnesota
Here's a little bit better coverage on this with some detail and less of the innuendo about what names she used to run under. Interesting is that the gal she beat in the Drake Relays is ineligible for cross-country this fall because she "knowingly faced collegiate athletes last fall." If the rules for running clubs applied to AAU basketball there would be no high school basketball at all.

http://qctimes.com/sports/high-scho...cle_e97cca18-e7e5-5e05-89e5-c052f0762761.html
 

heitclone

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 21, 2009
15,456
12,569
113
44
Way up there
My question, why is that against the rules? Seems silly to punish athletes for seeking out better competition. I can understand the not training with college teams part but merely running independently in meets seems like a reasonable thing to be able to do.

Maybe its changed since my day...but you used to be able to compete in other events and maintain your elibility as long as it that sport wasn't in season. For instance, high school kids can play in the summer basketball leagues, hoop it up etc bc that sport isn't in season. We actually had an issue with this when I was in school regarding "Air It Out" the flag football cousin of hoop it up, it was in the fall, so you couldn't compete in that and be on your schools football team as well. Year round club sports can also impact this.
 

heitclone

Well-Known Member
SuperFanatic
SuperFanatic T2
Jun 21, 2009
15,456
12,569
113
44
Way up there
Here's a little bit better coverage on this with some detail and less of the innuendo about what names she used to run under. Interesting is that the gal she beat in the Drake Relays is ineligible for cross-country this fall because she "knowingly faced collegiate athletes last fall." If the rules for running clubs applied to AAU basketball there would be no high school basketball at all.

http://qctimes.com/sports/high-scho...cle_e97cca18-e7e5-5e05-89e5-c052f0762761.html

AAU ball is against other high school players, in the offseason, its 2 different deals.
 

WooBadger18

Well-Known Member
Sep 5, 2012
13,687
11,523
113
On Wisconsin
I didn't know the part about using her mom's maiden name. I didn't have any sympathy for her before, and especially don't now. One of the register articles I had seen said the last time this had happened in track (it might have been all sports but I can't remember) was in 1958 or 1957 when the Ames boy's team was disqualified.
 

SoapyCy

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2012
20,023
9,760
113
grundy center
To play DA here, how does running in an optional race make her have any leg-up on the competition in HS? She didn't take a performance-enhancing drug. She didn't wear special illegal shoes. All she did was run around a course with other people in another amuteur event.
 

ISU42

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2009
3,131
44
48
To play DA here, how does running in an optional race make her have any leg-up on the competition in HS? She didn't take a performance-enhancing drug. She didn't wear special illegal shoes. All she did was run around a course with other people in another amuteur event.

Reading other poster's insights and another story the state association had to follow the rules.

I don't like that the rule is in place to begin with. She knew the rules and was trying to skirt them, but in the grand scheme of things it doesn't feel like cheating for a runner to run in events to make herself better.
 

IcSyU

Well-Known Member
Nov 27, 2007
27,736
5,922
113
Rochester, MN
To play DA here, how does running in an optional race make her have any leg-up on the competition in HS? She didn't take a performance-enhancing drug. She didn't wear special illegal shoes. All she did was run around a course with other people in another amuteur event.
There are eligibility rules with the number of contests you can partake in. I'm guessing she broke those rules as well. Otherwise I don't personally see a huge deal with it.
 

SoapyCy

Well-Known Member
Oct 10, 2012
20,023
9,760
113
grundy center
The rule says you can not train with any collegiate level program. So if my sister is an ISU track star and we run together in the summer am I now in violation of the rules?