Sixth Berg/Seeger Classic Completes the Mission

The original 6th Berg/Seeger Classic was to be scheduled on April 12-13. It was called off due to wintery weather conditions. Then it was rescheduled for May 11 and the Deaf Schools track & field teams were happy it got another chance.

The Sixth Annual Berg/Seeger Track & Field Classic for Deaf Prep Schools across America was held at Bruce Smith Stadium in Faribault, Minnesota on May 11, 2013. It was hosted by Minnesota State Academy School for the Deaf (MSAD).

Bruce Smith Stadium has 2 alternately colored 9-lanes with Mondo surface. Mondo track is the world’s leader in running track performance. This was the same competition surface used for the 2009 Summer Deaflympics in Taipei. Athletes had the fantastic opportunity to run on this world class surface.

The weather was sunny and had northwestern gusty winds which topped between 20 to 35mph.

MSAD came away as both the Boys’ and Girls’ Team Overall Champions.

MSAD boys’ team scored 191 points, a comfortable victory over second place Wisconsin School for the Deaf (WSD) with 100 points and Indiana School for the Deaf (ISD) who came in third with 78 points.

The girls’ championship was in similar fashion as MSAD scored 238 points; second place goes to WSD who finished with 120 points; ISD with a score of 88 for third place.

At the Berg/Seeger Classic, a total of 94 athletes from 9 schools competed. Over the weekend, 1 meet record was broken in the boys’ 4x200m relay. The old record was set by Model Secondary School for the Deaf with a time of 1:38.69 on April 18, 2009 in Austin, Texas. The new record was eclipsed by MSAD with a time of 1:37.66.

The Ruth T. Seeger award recipients for girls were:
Shellane McKitty, SR from New York-Fanwood in White Plains was named best Track Athlete
Tabitha Anderson, JR from MSAD was named Best Field Athlete
Simone James, JR from Indiana received Best All Around Athlete honors

The Thomas O. Berg award recipients for boys were:
Taylor Pierce, SO from MSAD for best Track Athlete
Shaun Novella, SR from MSAD was named Best Field Athlete
Malcolm Harris, SR from Oregon received Best All Around Athlete honors

For more information from the 6th Berg/Seeger Classic, you can click on this link below, which will download a PDF document for Summary/Photos, School List, Roster, Results, Records and more.
2013 Berg/Seeger Classic Results

For the Top 10 Performances list of each event from Berg/Seeger in the 6-year history of the meet, click below.
Top 10 Performances

For next year’s 7th Berg/Seeger Classic, Kentucky School for the Deaf won the rights to host the event. This will take place on April 11-12, 2014, at Danville High School which is closeby the host’s campus. At the time of the writing, 9 schools have already expressed interest in participating.