Yes, it's distant but the home stands aren't that tall. Maybe 20 rows at most to the top.
I highly doubt those banners could have any boundary effect influence on the mics in this situation, unless the mics were right in front of them. The X-Q has an elevated treble response which may be what you're hearing, but that's exactly why they work at distance.
If you look closely through the gap between the banners, you'll see the fence that borders the front of the stands. That's probably the best placement option, as it's about 10 feet off the ground. Then there's another chest-high fence on field level that borders the track, about 10-12 feet closer than the stands. For competitions, I will be using one of those two closer placements, depending on the access I can get at each stadium.
The crowd noise is awful, I know. There was a really belligerent section of about 50-60 students from the visiting team's school that would not calm down, and they actually were ejected near the end of our show.
I also recorded the visiting band who played pregame before most of those asshats got there. Maybe if I can find a couple good excerpts I'll post those as well.
I'm curious to hear thoughts on the placement itself, if it's possible to ignore the crowd.