MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

 

April 11, 2022

 

Photo: York’s Sean Davies finding out from his coach that he had run a personal best.

 

By Michael Newman [email protected]

 

You just never know what you are going to witness at a track meet regardless of the weather.

 

I always knew growing up running in the northeast section of Illinois that the beginning of April weather was always a hit or a miss. It was more often that it was a miss. You would get lucky to a get meet in the first part of April. My senior year we missed two weeks of meets because of cold, rainy weather. Then on one glorious night, I dropped my personal best for 20 seconds. I enjoyed being on the track again. We did not miss a meet again that season, but we went through some meets where we froze to death.

 

Where to go to on a cold Saturday morning? I could not go to Belleville West where there was a huge 33 team invitational. My job requirements now need me to be at home later on the day. Meets were being cancelled left and right. The numbers were getting low.

 

I woke up Saturday morning and looked at the weather forecast. It would be cold, but manageable. Shooting videos would not work. Just cold enough to be tough to do it. I had planned on just being at a track meet. I kept with my plan.

 

I arrived at York High School just before the start of a triangular meet with Palatine and Payton Prep. I got looks when I got there. York Coach Charlie Kern had sized down the meet because of the weather. It was just a couple of field events, distance events, a 400, and a 4x4. It took only under two hours to complete.

 

“I’m just here to watch a meet and hangout,” I told other coaches. I kept thinking in my mind: “Go to a meet. You never know what you will see.” I knew world records would not be set. What would I see?

 

I saw plenty as I watched from the corner of the backstretch. Two York runners at 10:20 in the 3200. They had never run that fast in their lives. Two more runners under two-minutes in the 800. Payton Prep was hoping two of their runners would drop under 2:03 to qualify for Distance Night in Palatine. They accomplished that.

 

I headed back to the starting line to watch the 1600 Meter Run. The sun was peeking out. It was warming up. Thank goodness this meet was not cancelled.

 

The faster of the two sections resulted in a fast 4:23 win for Ethan Summer of York moving away from the field in the final 600-meters of the race.

 

I really want to look at the next section of that event that took place. Hardly any of these runners will be all-state or be in an article regularly exploiting their achievements. This is a moment that deserves such.

 

Colin Symons of Payton Prep won the second section of this event. He ran 5:02 at a meet on Wednesday. Three days later, he crossed the finish line arms in the air to break five-minutes for the first time (4:59). The first time accomplishing this achievement is always memorable for an athlete. Symons joy of the accomplishment poured out.

 

As Symons crossed the line, Sean Davies of York still had one lap to go in his race. Davies does not fit the typical distance runner profile. You might mistake him as a member of the weight crew for the team in the Shot Put and the Discus.

 

Davies runs the distance races. He has that in his bloodline. His relatives before him all ran at York. All of them ran the distance events. Just like his relatives before him, Davies has the heart, perseverance, and the grit of a distance runner. On days where you could take a step back, Davies chooses the other door and the opportunity to improve. He enjoys doing that.

 

Al Carius: Run for Fun and Personal Bests.

 

He ran a personal best of 8:15.91 at a meet at Leyden last May for the distance.

 

On this Saturday, his teammates realized he was running a great race as they rushed to the backstretch of his final lap to cheer Davies on.

 

I looked at my stopwatch as he passed 200-meters to go entering the final curve. It was 6:50. He had a great race going.

 

Thank goodness that this meet was not cancelled. This is why I was supposed to be here.

 

Davies goal for this season was not to be all-state. His goal was to break eight-minutes. Everyone on the coaching staff thought it would be at a meet towards the end of the year. It was not supposed to happen on a cold April afternoon in Elmhurst.

 

Davies found speed that he did not think he had in the final 100-meters. The small crowd at York sounded like thousands as he approached the finish line.

 

Davies ran 7:33. He did not just slightly go under eight-minutes. He shattered that goal.

 

Teammates hugged him. The after race was befitting of a post meet state meet ceremony honoring an achievement. This was not Peoria or Charleston. It was just Elmhurst.

 

Coach Kern embraced him as Davies beamed with pride. Now Davies had to reset his season goal since he achieved his first goal. Now he has his mind set on breaking seven-minutes. “Let’s just enjoy this moment first,” his coach told him. Davies certainly deserved that.

 

A teammate came up to him and asked if the senior could run in the 4x4. Davies was ready for this race also. Remember, the heart and grit of a distance runner.

 

The team met after the meet was over. The first person that Coach Kern signaled out was Davies who sat to the side of the team group with a smile brighter than the sun that had finally emerged from behind the clouds.

 

I looked at my phone. I had tweeted a funny comment about the meets that were cancelled: SOFT. Maybe it was just a fun jab. Some take it that way. So be it.

 

It turned out to be a nice day to run. Any day is a nice day to run.

 

I do not know if I was foreshadowing what I was to see later but it was something that tugged at me to hit the enter button. Maybe I was too old fashioned. Maybe we were too tough when I ran. Maybe I was becoming the get off the lawn guy.

 

I found one comment amusing. I kept forgetting that there are so many experts on Social media.

 

The tweet said:

 

“Yah let’s let our elite athletes get hurt in sub 40 degree temps just to race in a meaningless April meet. Good advice.”

 

So good advice to the sender, you should have not hit send.

 

It is a coaches prerogative to hold a runner out of a meet. Many coaches do it when the weather for a sprinter, as an example, is too harsh. It was cold and I would have not have run someone who is fined tuned ready to pull a hamstring by overextending. I have seen it happen many times.

 

Let’s talk about a meaningless meet. It is a term that we should no longer use. Two years ago, at this time, the 2020 track season was cancelled. The season started last year towards the end of April with less of an opportunity for every athlete to compete in lower sized meets.

 

We get back to this past week and it hurt seeing meets cancelled the day before it was scheduled. There was no rain in the forecast. It was just cold with light winds. It is the host school’s decision to do this. Maybe it was an athletic director who did not have a grasp of the sport or did not listen to their coach.

 

I understand that.

 

A track meet is an opportunity for the athlete to compete. It is something that we did not get two years ago. Kern tuned up the meet to make less events, but the same opportunities to compete. Why was that not done in the meets that were cancelled? Prospect did that scaling down their relay meet Saturday to five events. I saw other meets that went on.

 

I understand no meets on Friday. It was horrible conditions to be out in. The meets on Saturday were not held in the worst conditions. Perhaps they were held in slightly adverse conditions. We’ve gone through adverse times the past two years and still are experiencing that. Let’s face the adversity then. There were schools that chose that on Saturday.

 

Longtime Oregon Coach Bill Bowerman once said: “There's no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.”

 

We have become soft as a society. What if we had taken that poster’s “advice”? Davies or other high school athletes do not get a chance to challenge themselves in less than great conditions. Sometimes it is not about the superstar athlete and some in this world forget about that.

 

Maybe some of the adults in this world should look at Sean Davies’ examples of toughness and perseverance and use them to better themselves. Adversity has hit us and will challenge us again.

 

Track is a good example of a human challenging to better themselves. Those qualities will follow Davies and other student/athletes like him when they head to their next stage of their lives to make our society the better.

 

Just don’t call what they do meaningless. Don’t call a track meet meaningless. Every track meet you go to has an instance where it makes you a better person when you leave afterwards.

 

I got that reminder again on Saturday.

 

It was such a cool feeling.