For years, the critics of track and field have called it a dying sport.

In one day, the sport proved it was as alive and kicking as Chuck Norris.

On Thursday, the University Interscholastic League abandoned its state semifinal plans in the wake of the swine flu-related suspension of all high school sports in Texas. Instead, the UIL will stick with the normal postseason progression of regional meets feeding into the state meet, with dates pushed back to accomodate the statewide postponement of events until May 11.

Regionals will begin May 12. The state meet is set for June 4-5 in Austin.

Watching the proceedings of the last two days, it was as if Texas high school track legends Johnny "Lam" Jones or Roy Martin were back in spikes, the way the track community came from behind to move spectacularly to a win.

The original plan set forth Wednesday by the UIL was to have athletes with the top four times from district track meets advance to an expanded state meet. Adding a semifinal round to the state meet, officials planned to cut the field in half in running events.

It was an inherently unfair way to select state competitors.

For instance: Defending Class 3A pole vault champion Wren Bonner of Whitney cleared 11 feet, 6 inches at the state meet last season to win the gold. At her District 7-3A meet this year, she stopped vaulting at 9-6 because she had the event won, but 9-6 wouldn't have been good enough to qualify for state under the UIL's plan announced Wednesday.

Now Bonner will be able to compete at regionals for a state berth.

She wasn't the only athlete who would've been shut out of the state meet under the UIL's first plan.

One of the state's top sprinters, Killeen Ellison's Prezel Hardy, would not have made it to Austin simply because the 100 meters at the District 12-5A meet was run into the wind at A&M Consolidated's Tigerland Stadium.

Class A runs an area round of meets that feeds into regionals. It's the only classification that does it that way. Area, not district times, would have been used to fill the state field under the UIL's state semifinal plan, and it would've cost Normangee.

Undoubtedly trying to strengthen its numbers for a run at a team regional and perhaps state title, the Normangee boys ran to qualify at the area meet, not to win or post season-best times. For instance, Jordan Mullinnix had run what would have been a state-qualifying time of 10.92 seconds in the 100 at district. His easing-up area time of 11.43 was out of the money.

So why did the UIL consider dropping regional meets in the first place?

It likely was operating on the theory that it could not change the date of its state track meet at the University of Texas' Mike A. Myers Stadium. If that had been the case, the UIL's original plan, however seriously flawed, might have been all that it could offer.

The plan upset athletes, coaches, parents and fans, a knowledgeable group that can pack as many as 20,000 into Myers Stadium for a single state session.

They got what they wanted Thursday, for the state meet will pit the athletes who earned their way to Austin.

And the UIL staff completed a huge undertaking to make it happen, for the group had to rebuild the network of regional track meets while getting UT to reschedule the big state meet.

The UIL's new executive director and former athletics director, Dr. Charles Breithaupt, said he received calls in support of the original decision as well as calls for bringing back regional meets. Those original-decision calls may still be in Breithaupt's cell phone log, but there were clearly enough that pushed the decision the other way.

For most schools, this year's track and field state gold medals will be handed out after school has dismissed. That's new but acceptable. Softball and baseball teams, which still have their own understandable gripes under the altered plans, finish late every year.

Some have debated for years whether track's qualifying system is fair. One bad start, one poor day, and you're out. That question should be answered now. It is challenging. It is demanding. It is downright scary, but it's also fair.

It may be even hotter in early June than in mid-May, when straw hats, sunglasses and SPF-70 sun block are already in vogue. But this year, if you love track, you need to be there. Many of you already have made the 2009 UIL Track & Field Championships an experience not to be missed.

David Campbell's e-mail address is david.campbell@theeeagle.com.