random tidbits.

Hytek Delimited File Upload Template – I Format

I often use delimited data for entries into hytek. They give you the information, but then don’t really do a good job of laying out the data format in a way that you can simply copy into a spread sheet or data base program. Here is a try for the I record type:
I ALWAYS;LAST NAME;FIRST NAME;INITIAL;GENDER M/F;BIRTH DATE MM/DD/YYYY;TEAM CODE 4CHAR/UNA;TEAM NAME OR UNA;AGE;SCHOOL YEAR;ADDRESS LINE 1;ADDR 2;CITY;STATE;ZIP;COUNTRY;CITIZEN COUNTRY;HOME PHONE;OFFICE PHONE;FAX #;SHIRT SIZE S, M, L, XL;REGISTRATION #;COMPETITOR #;E-MAIL

How to Get Cross County Times Downloaded in Hy-Tec 2.0C

We upgraded because the older version won’t run on Windows Vista. It has some nice features like supposedly downloads of track timing which should come in handy. Still our primary purpose is to download times for cross country meets and score them with the Sprint 8 TimeTech Timers. So we go to our first meet the other day of the season and … well we don’t succeed in downloading much if anything …

So we figure something must be wrong, but what? Well I’ll try to figure out.

I ran a test and here is my findings:
1. you need to first be in run, then cc/rr screen.
2. You set up the interface (in our case timetech sprint eight timer)
3. You open the com port (don’t ask me, but it is 1 in our case)
4. You click on download and then start download
5. Here is where it was weird! I click on 2 transmit in the timer (you have to first run through a couple of screens after turning it on and you get to 1 time – 2 transmit – 3 reprint)
6. If you sit and wait is says waiting to transmit forever … but I find you have to again click on either the start download text or the little black down arrow which is also start download.

It seems to work.

Hy-Tek Track: Setting the default printer

This is always hard to find when you want it. Printer preference:
From main screen click on set-up/report preferences/printer tab/select printer for reports/ok.
Done and you are now using the proper printer. It always seems to want to go to the printer back at the office instead of the different printer you happened to bring to the meet. This saves the annoyance of changing it every time.

Advancing Runners

We often create heats from known entrants. The only way I have found to enter the athletes into the heats in my meets is to go to the athlete menu, find each athlete, drop down and check off the event they are competing in and then add their entry time. Because I have all eight athletes for a given heat and their entry time in front of me it would be much easier to enter them from the run menu. However, the run menu will allow you to enter athletes down the left column and finish times down the right column, but it won’t allow you to add entry times.

The work around for this I have found is to create a dummy meet. In the dummy meet enter the atletes in each heat in the left column (competitor number column) and then enter their entry time for the current meet as a finish time in the Finals Time column. The on the main menu choose file, export, advancers. Select the events you have entered people under and choose 8 if you have 8 lanes for the number of advancers. The essentially advances all athletes you just entered.

Create that report and you have essentially created a list of entry times by using the finish time column. Then open your real meet, import the advancers and you have them entered. The file name will be something cryptic for the advancers file (I find the inability to name files and control easily the directory into which they are placed one of the most frustrating parts of this great software). I then seed the event and I have what I wanted.

Work around to show dual meet points

Hy-Tek Meet Manager – Track and Field

Issue:
I run double duals as follows regularly:
1. Team A vs Team B
2. Team C vs Team D

They will not show places of the duals in the results even though those are being calculated by the program.

Further Detail:
I want results that will show me the team scores. If under setup/entry-scoring preferences/2 or 3 plus double dual tab/click red button/select the matchups for boys and girls that you want (in this case A vs B and C vs D), then Hy-Tek will calculate the two dual meet scores for me in the following two ways:
a. in the run menu, the team scores cumulative shows correctly as each event is completed; and
b. under results, scores, you get correct team scores.

Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t give any type of a break out of who got points in what. The coaches just have to trust your results and it makes it hard to find errors. Even if you print out results, they don’t show the proper (or any for that matter) points or places in the dual meet.

At the start of this workaround I have all events completed with athletes entered and finish times/distances recored.

Work-around to give results with team scores reflected:
What I did to correct it with the helpful suggestions of Charlie at Hy-Tek support is the following:

1. From main screen
a. setup from menu
b. meet setup from dropdown menu
c. tick radio button for 2 team dual meet
d. click ok button

2. From the main screen
a. schools from menu
b. select school c and click edit school
c. use drop down to change status to exibition
d. click ok
e. repeat steps b-d for school d
EFFECT: to make only A and B normal and thus eligible for scoring
d. click close

3. From the main screen
a. run from the menu
b. click on re-score in top menu (note this options was disabled for us in 2 or 3 plus double duals mode)
c. confirm you wish to re-score
d. click on reports (top menu)
e. click on results
f. select all button
g. choose single or double (no points show on triple)
h. choose team points
i. choose results by heats
j. choose event order
h. if you want to suppress the exibition athletes (i.e. make them go away from this particular set of results) you can enter a number in the top how many box that is greater than your maximum participants you wish to show (in my case I used 35 as I want to show results deep into the field, but you may prefer to use the number of places awarded or places plus one). NOTE: this will also suppress disqualifed athletes/teams as they too do not have a ranking, and it is ranking that is used to determine this.
i. click on create report … and it works!

After you complete this you will need to reset this as a double dual meet and then do file/purge/reset scores. That will not remove the results, but will remove the scores. Thanks Charlie for pointing this out to me!

Thought regarding how not to mess up the real file:
You could if you wished, before doing this take your base meet file and save a copy of it as say a_b_dual, and save another copy as c_d_dual. Then when you make these changes you wouldn’t be messing with the actual meet file. Downside is that if you find an error, you would need to make the change in all three files. So be sure you won’t make changes.

Thought on how to get better results:
Because of my format a vs b and c vs d (as opposed to double or triple duals which might be a vs b, a vs c and b vs c) I enter the kids in the heats one dual at a time. That way all results show places correctly in the heats anyway. I suppose I could just do two meets and flip flop back and fourth, but that would be less efficient on the front end.

Question:
It suddenly occurs to me that I could just save a copy of the meet, literally delete teams c and d en-mass and would that do the same thing. Repeat with original saved as copy again and delete a and b. The two copies would literally be duals then? Would that solve the DQ issue. Can I delete a team after results are entered? This just might give me a second work around. I’ll have to try that next time.

Answer:
Yes this works! I simply create two separate meets after the common entry of the data in a combined meet. To delete the teams, I click on schools from the main menu, select the school(s) I want to delete, one at a time, and remove them. It takes them out of the mix. I then go to run menu, select rescore, confirm I wish to rescore the meet and do the results. I needed to remove the “top how many” number to show all athletes, including DQ’s. Splendid — if still an extra click work around. But, caution, make sure you are working on a copy!!! I shall not be responsible when you mistakenly delete teams AND ALL THEIR ENTRIES from your results :-)