The third annual IHSAA Unified Track and Field Championship will take place Saturday at Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex at Indiana University in Bloomington. The opening ceremony is at 12:45 p.m. followed by field events at 1 p.m. and running events beginning at 1:30 p.m. The event is the result of a partnership between the IHSAA and Special Olympics Indiana known as Champions Together. This led to the sanctioning of Unified Track and Field as the 21st IHSAA sport, and the first championship was won by Warsaw Community High School in 2014. Last year’s championship was captured by Lafayette Jefferson High School. The vision of the Champions Together Unified Sports® project is to allow high school students both with and without intellectual disabilities the opportunity to represent their high schools in an IHSAA sanctioned activity that provides a quality experience of sports training and competition. Competitions are judged and scored within heats and flights determined by prior performances. Each heat and flight scores the same number of points and every participant scores points for their team. Based on the philosophy of Unified Sports® there are no individual awards for Unified Track and Field. The only awards given are team awards earned by the contributions of all team members. You can follow Champions Together and Unified Sports® on Twitter (@ChampsTogether), Facebook and Instagram (@ChampionsTogether). This year, more than 70 teams participated in Unified Track with the top two teams from each of the six Unified Track and Field Sectionals advancing to the State Finals. High schools competing in the Unified Track and Field State Championship include Crown Point, Elkhart Central, Fishers, Edgewood, Franklin County, Jeffersonville, Michigan City, Noblesville, Terre Haute North, Perry Meridian, Vincennes Lincoln, and Warsaw. About Champions Together Champions Together was established in December of 2012 as the partnership between the IHSAA and Special Olympics Indiana. The partnership provides an award banner to all member schools that meet minimum requirements in the areas of 1) student-led servant leadership, 2) awareness, respect and inclusion as it relates to all individuals with intellectual disabilities, 3) Unified Sports® and 4) fundraising to promote the vision and programs of Special Olympics Indiana and the Champions Together partnership. Special Olympics International is supporting Champions Together as a model program to activate schools through “Project Unify” which also has the endorsement of the National Federation of High Schools. For more information on Champions Together, contact Lee Lonzo at LLonzo@ihsaa.org.
