By David Monti
(c) 2011 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Used with permission.

INTEGRATED HIGH SCHOOL INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS REPRESENTS BIG BREAKTHROUGH: This year will be the first in recent memory that the United States will have an integrated indoor athletics championships for high school athletes, the New Balance Indoor Nationals set for March 11-13 at the Armory.  Two separate and competing meets, the National Scholastic Meet in New York and the Nike High School Indoor Championships in Boston, previously divided the nation's best prep athletes into two camps, sometimes bitterly.  "The stars were in alignment," explained Paul Limmer, the director of special events for the National Scholastic Sports Foundation, as to how the two meets finally merged.  He largely credited Josh Rower, running marketing manager at New Balance, for making the merger happen.  "The Nike contract had to run out (in Boston)," Limmer continued.  "Josh Rowe had to get the means to fund the event."  Limmer pointed out that doing business in New York was more expensive than in Boston, but that the meet had set aside funds to assist athletes with travel and hotel expenses.  "We did spend considerable sums of money getting here," Limmer concluded.  "Finances should not be the reason that they (athletes) don't get here."