Scorecard

Tom Frederick of the NFSHSA defends the selection of the 1,600 and 3,200 partly on the ground that they more closely approximate the mile and two-mile runs that they replace. He also notes that tracks built these days tend to be 400-meter courses, which means that 1,600 and 3,200 races would come out even, exactly four and eight laps. Arguing that, as the organization running the country's largest track and field program, the NFSHSA is under "no obligation" to adopt anybody's distances but its own, Frederick says, "The 1,500 is left over from the days when European tracks were 500 meters long. We think the 1,600 and 3,200 make better sense."

Think again. Regardless of its origin, the 1,500 is contested in Olympic, international and collegiate meets, and in other meets in virtually all countries. Races of 1,600 and 3,200 meters will oblige high school runners to learn pace and tactics not appropriate for any other competition. They will also deny runners a basis for comparison with performances of competitors of the same age in the rest of the world, or even with U.S. high-schoolers who have gone before them. The NFSHSA's action flies in the face of the reason for switching to the metric system in the first place.

"10"

Greg Louganis is diving's answer to Bo Derek. At the U.S. indoor championships last weekend in Milwaukee, Louganis, a University of Miami sophomore considered by some to be potentially the best diver ever, was awarded perfect scores of 10 by seven of the nine judges on one of his dives (a reverse 1� somersault layout) in the three-meter springboard competition, which he won going away. Louganis also received six 10s on another dive (a forward 3� somersault pike) and had four more 10s sprinkled among his scores during his 11-dive three-meter program. What's more, he was awarded eight 10s while easily winning the one-meter. In the tower competition Louganis blew three dives and placed third behind Bruce Kimball and Randy Able-man but not before adding eight more 10s, seven of them on a back dive pike. That gave Louganis, all told, an astonishing 33 10s in Milwaukee.

What all this means is that the 20-year-old Louganis, who had been collecting 10s with some regularity in previous meets, may have only one scoring feat left to strive for: getting all 10s on a dive from an entire panel of judges. This has been achieved only once, by Mike Finneran, for a back 1� somersault 2� twist off the tower at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Trials. The scoring on Finneran's unquestionably superb dive has been a source of discord, the sport's purists arguing that while there may be such things as a perfect martini and a perfect bore, a perfect dive is simply not attainable. Good as any performance might be, they say, it's always possible to do better. As a result, 10s have been exceedingly rare in diving.

Or at least they were until some U.S. judges began consciously raising "average" scores at big meets partly in hopes of enhancing the reputation of American diving. As a result, where a solid dive once received a 6� or 7, it now may merit an 8 or 8�. Because, to some extent, dives must be judged not on an absolute scale but relative to other performances in the same meet, above-average scores had to be raised accordingly. Then along came a superstar like Louganis—and 10s. This prompts some observers to ask fretfully, "What if somebody even better than Louganis comes along? How do we score him?"

Columbia Coach Jim Stillson, chairman of the U.S. diving judges' committee, replies, "I'm not sure what the answer is. The alternative to giving Greg 10s is to knock down everybody else's score, and there are some people who would prefer doing that." But Stillson implies that the problem is merely academic. Notwithstanding Louganis' loss last week in the tower, Stillson says, "Right now Greg Louganis is head and shoulders above everybody else in the sport."

ADVANCED ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

In a spin-off from a familiar line of ethnic jokes, The Miami Herald told this one involving athletes at the University of New Mexico (although any number of other schools might have served as well):

Q. How many Lobos does it take to change a light bulb?