By Michael Newman

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Hey gang! Not much to talk about. There are plenty of stories that I think we will save to next week when we are in our bridge from indoors to outdoors. Speaking of outdoors, I have the strange feeling that my gloves and hats will be coming into use this April.

The one meet that I am looking for is the Belleville West Outdoor Invitational on April 12^th. It should be nice and pleasant down by the St. Louis area. Last year I was considered the kiss of death when it came to conditions the day of the meet. Kevin Rafferty, Waubonsie Valley Boys Track Coach, would always have the saying that if “Newman is at the meet, you can expect some bad weather!”

I do get lucky every once in a while. Hopefully, the luck will change for good this spring.

With that being said, let’s look at a few things that might have slipped past the public eye in the past week.

The count…

When I was covering the MSL Indoor Invitational last Saturday, I received a text from David Behm, the head track coach at St. Thomas More High School in Champaign. “Anna Sophia Keller just ran 11:18 for 3200,” he told me. I received another text 10 seconds later from Behm. “The problem was, she ran one lap too many!”

Keller was competing at the Class A Invitational at Mahomet-Seymour’s 165 meter per lap track. I could see how that would happen. When I saw the results, the next runner was about two and a half minutes behind her. She must have lapped the field more than once!

Luckily, the meet was FAT timed. The timers had captured her image coming around that extra lap. Her time of 10:55 is the fastest Girls 1A time in the state by 13 seconds ahead of Adrienne Brauer (PORTA HS, Petersburg).

We can’t wait to see what she can accomplish outdoors on a 400 meter track!

Injury update

Two little injuries to look at concerning a couple of top Illinois athletes.

Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia HS) injured his quad at the New Balance National Meet on March 16. According to his coach Leroy Milsap, Ward is recovering beautifully. He is entered at this weekend’s Illinois Top Times Meet. They are waiting on a doctor’s clearance to compete. They are hoping they get that in the next 24 hours.

Madeline Perez (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn) was noticeably absent from the results from last weekend’s West Suburban Silver Meet at Proviso West. She had some soreness in her legs according to her coach Paul Haas. “Her doctor recommended that she take some time off so that she is healthy for the outdoor season,” Haas said. “In the big picture, resting her was the prudent move.”

We hope both athletes have a full recovery so that we see them in Charleston this May.

Funnies

I thought that I had heard every story about my former high school Joe Newton. This one threw me off guard but I got a great laugh from it. Palatine Coach Steve Currins heard this gem from Hall of Fame Coach Bruce Ritter:

“It was the end of a Girls Cross Country race and a girl had collapsed near the finish line. Unfortunately, the finish area were this occurred was in the way of the starting line. Mr. Newton yelled out – Let’s go! My boys are warmed up. Just put some cones around her and let’s go!”

I can picture that happening. I am sure some parents took it the wrong way. But any York runner can understand this. Yes, I am still chuckling as I am writing this.

This weekend

Most of the focus will be on the Illinois Top Times Meet this Friday and Saturday at the Shirk Center on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. There are a couple of meets that you should keep an eye on as well.

Batavia will be having an open meet on their 200 meter track this Friday night. Downers Grove North could be going after one more fast time in the 4 x 800 Meter Relay. Proviso East will hold their Pirate Classic at the Proviso West Field House. There should be some great performances in that meet as well.

Outdoor action will start to kick into high steam Saturday at the Winston Brown track at Edwardsville High School. The Southwestern Illinois Relays will take place featuring some of the Metro St. Louis area’s top teams east of the Mississippi. Rock Island will travel down to the meet. We could see some great relay times from Rock Island’s talented sprint squad.

And finally…

Two days this past week were spent covering meets at North Central College. I spent my college years at what was back then a middle sized town west of Chicago called Naperville. 30 years have flown by quickly. The one thing that I missed while I lived in Ohio was coming back on this campus. The visits to Chicago were always time restrained with so many things to do in a short period of time. Nine years in Ohio caused me to miss many things. It makes me appreciate when I go back to cover a meet. I get to see Al Carius. It’s always good to see Al and former NCC alumni that maybe there on that day.

I remember the good times that I had at that school. I can see my ghost rushing down the hill to Merner Field House to get ready for a workout. I see my ghost in the middle of the football field at the end of May at midnight watching runners “sprint” around the track in what was a ritual that we started. (North Central alumni: you know what I am talking about). I have memories as I drive through the heart of the campus to get to the Res-Rec Center. I always drive through the campus hoping to stir up many other memories.

You learn some of your most life molding moments when you are in college. They are the moments that you think you can never recover from but you discover life does move on. If you can’t learn from those trying times, then you get an F for the course so to speak.

I did not run my junior year of college. I had decided that I was going to switch my major from Accounting to a double major in Journalism and Political Science. I was taking an overload of classes. I needed to focus on my studies that year. I did run with the team, but hardly raced. In November of that year, I knew I was in good shape and should have been with the team at nationals in my mind. However, I made that choice to study.

On the day of nationals in New York, I went on a run (Al’s Pizza Course). I would do a pickup at the time the gun went off for that national’s race. I did the pickup finishing by throwing up all over Ogden Avenue. I finished my run at my dorm. I had decided at that point in my mind that my goal the next year was to be running in that national race.

My summer training was excellent. I think I ran too much. The first few meets of the new season were disastrous for me. In my mind, I had the faith that I would be where I needed to be when the moment was upon me.

By the middle of the season, I made it into the top seven. I was the fifth man at our conference meet. The day before sectionals, I did not feel great. I did not tell anyone. I was not going to use it as an excuse. The day of the regional meet, I had no energy. I had thrown up my breakfast in the morning. I got to the mile of the race zapped. What a day to run the worst race of my life. I was crushed.

It was my dream. It was my focus for that last year. I knew when I got to practice on that Monday that I would be replaced in the lineup for the national race. I would not complain. I would support my team. I would go, but as an alternate. I had another chance the next year since I had extra eligibility. I came back for my fifth year in the fall. My focus was more on finishing up school and working on a political campaign. So that dream of running at nationals has remained a dream.

I had put all of my effort that season for that one purpose. I thought that I was a failure. The one thing that it taught me was to take stock in what I did that year and find the positive in it. The one thing that I realized is that some things are not meant to happen. You may have your thoughts that you do the right things, things will work out. It some cases, it will not. I bounced back that track season just missing qualifying for nationals in the 5000 Meters by three seconds. I had no regrets. I had done the right things to get that close. The dream remained just that, a dream.

I guess what I am trying to say to all of the high school athletes out there is you have your dreams of what you want to achieve. So what happens if you do not win or achieve the goal that you have on a note on your bedroom wall? If you do it the right way and not take any shortcuts, you are not a failure, it was just not meant to be. You will always be able to find one positive thing in something that you think is a disaster.

I’ve gone down a couple of rocky roads since those college days. But when I think that I have failed in something, I look back at those lessons of back then and realized that those trials just made me a little stronger. I think you will find the same thing too. It would be great if everyone could win. It would be great if you worked for something and it became true. That does happen. Don't get me wrong.

Sometimes dreams are dreams. It is the road that we take to get to those dreams that makes us a better person through our “failures”.

The past weekend at North Central College reminded me of that.