BLOOMINGTON – The third-annual IHSAA Unified Track and Field Championship will take place Saturday, June 4 at Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex, Indiana University. The opening ceremony is at 12:45 p.m. followed by field events at 1 p.m. and track beginning at 1:30 p.m.

Warsaw will be one of 12 schools competing in the championships after the Tiger Unified team claimed the championship at the Kokomo Sectional last weekend. Warsaw is seeking its second title in three years, winning the state championship in 2014.

The event is the result of a partnership between the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) and Special Olympics Indiana known as Champions Together. This led to the sanctioning of Unified Track and Field as the 21st IHSAA sport. 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 2016 Unified Track and Field State Championship include: Crown Point (Lake), Elkhart Central (Elkhart County), Fishers (Hamilton), Edgewood High School (Monroe), Franklin County High School (Franklin), Jeffersonville High School (Clark), Michigan City (LaPorte), Noblesville (Hamilton), Terre Haute North Vigo (Vigo), Perry Meridian (Marion), Vincennes Lincoln High School (Knox), and Warsaw High School (Kosciusko County).