At this year's Southwest Track & Field Banquet, freshman Jamie Cheever received a captain's award for beating the odds-- senior Meredith Johnson, who gave her the award, explained that Jamie had successfully gotten her name onto THE RUNNERS PAGE, which most girls do not. The award reflects a view that THE RUNNERS PAGE is tilted toward male news and has some bias toward female athletes. THE RUNNERS PAGE's webmaster Erik DeLapp, in response to this apparent assumption or accusation, stated, "I deny that THE RUNNERS PAGE is biased toward gender. All unofficial results are usually posted from memory-- and quite often, it is very hard for one or two guys to remember girls times-- yes, 4000 times are unusual for those who do not run them, and there are so many times in Track that is is close to impossible to remember them." So why doesn't this make things lean one way? "Because I have personally told the girls, more than once, that I would be more than happy to post more women's results on the page if someone, anyone, would provide me with them-- but not once has anyone handed me results saying 'this is for your page.' There is really only so much I can remember." So why is only Jamie's name on the page? We asked. "First, there are some girls results, as much as I can remember or write down-- Callie Pastarr was mentioned as being an extremely talented athlete-- one of the four super talents of Southwest in the past few years. To say that Jamie is one of the first girls to be on the page is totally false, but to say that we do not lean toward the faster runners is also false. Runners that are state class are more noticeable, their times are easier to remember, and they make for more interesting news and stories." So what can be done to help stop this problem, if the page is drowned in an overwhelming amount of results and no one helps, and then people later accuse the page of being biased?
   Says Erik DeLapp, "I ask for the readers help-- there is a contact page. You see me at Southwest. My phone number and email address are not big secrets. Please help me with keeping track of meet results and I will post them, otherwise I will only post what I see and remember. I've said it before, and now I've said it again. It is very frustrating to do all the results practically alone, with occasional help from other boys, and then be criticized for only remembering men's times."
 

  Also, in light of all the recent events, THE RUNNERS PAGE is pondering the creation of a readers response section, where readers can write articles that express their own opinions, help us keep track of results, and inform us if anything posted is "offensive" in their eyes, to make life easier for everyone. Let's make freedom of speech a respectable ally.