MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

 

March 25, 2024

 

In to the Outdoors or stories from the Shirk Center

 

By Michael Newman

 

It was a long weekend inside the Shirk Center for Illinois Top Times. There were many stories that could be told outside of the actual competition. Here are a few of those stories.

 

There were a number of races I wanted to watch on Saturday morning in the 2A Meet. Gavin Genisio, Patrick Hilby, and Becca Heitzig all would race at least once. The runner that I wanted to watch was Dylon Nalley. I’m an old high school runner that learned in the  3200 Meter Run how to race on the track thanks to Mr. Newton. Nalley is a runner that has taken that next step. I knew he would be by himself in winning this race and possibly setting a meet record.

 

I don’t think Nalley ran that race but glided around the track or that is what I thought in the notes I was taking. I wrote down a split and underneath it “TAS” which meant Tough As S---; you know what I mean. When I got home I wrote two minutes on what I saw.

 

It was wonderful. He was a machine. I was happy he was healthy after his track season where he went through injured and sick. He crossed in 8:54.01, a new record. I waited while he did an interview far enough away so I would not hear it. He finished and wanted to get away from the track. I was asking him how he felt and if he had any more races. We found the weight room that was quiet and started to chat. Not really an interview but a chat.

 

I joked with as the video started that he was in the weight room ready to do some more work. Little did I know.

 

We talked about five minutes. Meanwhile, his father Daniel Nalley was searching the hallways for his son. He took a glimpse in the weightroom and there we were. His father ducked in and handed me his phone. A text read: “We need him for the 4x8; someone is sick”. The chat ended, camera turned off, and I thanked him. Dylon looked at the text and took off with his father to check in. Daniel said afterwards that was the only way I could get your attention.

 

It was amazing to see this runner transform from interview mode to getting focused for a race that he had 10 minutes of interviews and no time to cool down. I’ve been in that position but knew I would be doing that double. Here is a runner that had no time to think but just react.

 

I walked back to the finish line where DyeStat photographer Kevin Dorsey was standing. He asked me did I get that interview. I whispered to him what had just happened. His eyes grew larger and smiled.

 

Word spread quickly that Nalley was running in the 4x8. It is funny when news spreads and how things are not actual the facts. One man said, “I was there when he was told.” I thought “No you weren’t. In a post that I saw on Instagram after I got home, an athlete at the meet said again he was there when Nalley was told, and he looked scared. That is when I decided to write this. What was misinterpreted as fright was really a runner getting focused and doing that very quickly.

 

Nalley did not come out with his teammates. He did jog out to the start finish area with a smile on his face hugging his three teammates. I raised my fingers up towards him and replied with two fingers. So, he was running the second leg for Marion. I went to the back of the finish line area and quietly watched this race.

 

I wanted to see how he would react after an 8:54 3200-meter race. It was an experiment in progress when he took the baton. He was hurting through those four laps, but he was keeping his team in the hunt up front. He got the baton in third place. He handed off in second-place.

 

He wanted to know what his split was after he caught his breath. He was told 2:01. He then exclaimed it felt like a workout. Those moments in this meet will help him later on like at Arcadia in two weeks and again when we get to championship racing season.

 

Ali Ince replied to a question at last year’s state meet on her 4x8 race where she got the baton in last but got her teammates all-state medals finishing seventh. She just wanted her teammates to feel what it was like climbing on the podium at a state meet. The same with Nalley. He willed his team to a top eight finish as they finished sixth. All three runners from that team including Nalley earned that trophy. The fever of team has hit Marion especially winning the 2A State Cross Country championship last fall. It all comes down to the quiet leadership that Dylon Nalley exhibits. Indiana University is very luck to have this runner of character.

~~~

One of the things that I always do on a drive to a meet is turn on some music, focus on that and staying within the speed limit and focus on what I want to accomplish on the weekend.

 

I cover the meet myself, so I set standards of who I want to interview and how many interviews I want to do. I usually am doing video at meets so getting a chance to talk one on one with athletes after their event is over is something that I treasure.  I don’t worry about the number of interviews that I do. It’s more the quality of interviews that I do compared to the quantity. I missed a few people that I wanted to chat with over the two days. I’m sorry I can’t talk to everyone at a track meet. Regardless of who I talk to, I always feel bad that I cannot talk to more of you.

 

All I can focus is on what I can control. It is like preparing for a race visualizing what shenanigans could happen.

 

One was Friday night in the 1A Meet where a number of races were called back. Timing officials said that their censors for the gun checked out okay. The size of the shells used were a cause of the delays. Meet management tested guns and shells for about 10 minutes before the start of Saturday’s meets. Only one race was delayed in the two Saturday meets.

 

I like my quiet at a meet feeling the buzz of the excitement on the track. There were moments over the weekend where I was asked questions not associated with what was going on in front of us. Come on! Let me enjoy these moments! I was at a state meet one year standing on the infield watching the 1600 Meter Run taking a notes. I had someone come up to me during the race asking me “Tell me about the runner who is leading.” Argh.

 

 I notice during meets like this one of at state there are some that are cheering on athletes there are racing. If you are expecting me to cheer for you, if I have a media pass on, I just can’t. That is not supposed to happen. I become more a coach that way instead of someone who is trying to tell a story of a meet. The only time I did it was when my daughter was running cross-country. A parent in the middle of a race scolded me that I was supposed to be impartial. I responded “Listen, that’s my daughter at which I was screaming at. SHE wanted me to yell at her during races.” I had to do that. She’s the boss.

 

I remember that conversation and it weighs on me every time I am at a meet. It is a breach of ethics ,so I let my quiet side take over and absorb the moment. I ignore those things but am annoyed when I see others cheering on athletes during an event. If you are in the media, you cover the event. If you want to be a cheerleader or coaching an athlete using a media pass, head to the stands. I can’t be a baby sitter, but I can cheer on in my head and show that in my interviews.

 

~~~

Some of my favorite moments during interviews? Of course, all that I did! But there were moments that stick out in my mind.

 

Becca Heitzig on her preparation before the 800 Meter Run: “I was getting ready for that race and I kind of threw up.” I replied you either kind of or just threw up. There is not an in-between. She laughed and said that was the only time. She went on to win both of her races. We started talking about basketball. Not only am I a running nerd and a stat geek, but I also love my hoops and glad I got a chance to talk to her about the bond she had with that team.

 

David Valkanov of Kaneland  after his win in the 3A 3200 Meter Run – I love his passion. He has come a long way in the last 15 months earning all-state honors last May in the 2A 3200 Meter Run. He is someone we should keep an eye on when we get to May and Charleston.

 

Patrick Hilby doing Patrick Hilby kind of things in his three races on Saturday – One thing that impressed me even more than before is his belief in his team and teammates. Hilby broke the Class 2A state meet record last spring in the 800 Meter Run. His senior season could be about his team’s accomplishments than his own. He will get to achieve individual goals perhaps after state is over. He will have Arcadia and Distance Night in Palatine during the year.

 

In between the misstarts on Friday, I did have some great chats. A memorable one for me was with Elana Rybak of Father McGivney. Like Nalley, she is a superstar runner on her team but does not act like that. I talked to her after her win in this meet her freshman year. I’ll keep that conversation private, but it is one that I think about from time to time when I see a race result of hers. She has matured in life and more so her running. I told her coach after the 1600 that she did not get the record that was announced, she missed it by two hundredth of a second. Rybak was disappointed at first, but then smiled and said, “I’ll just get it next year.” So other media members, if you get a chance to talk to her, cherish that moment. She articulates what is going through her head well.

 

I told Chuck Keller, Isabella’s, and Anna Sophia’s dad, after the race was over how much I am going to talk to Isabella for the next three years. He just smiled and thanked me. I don’t get a chance to talk to everyone across the state, but I take advantage of the moment when I see them. It is tough interviewing a freshman runner. I did not have a problem with Anna Sophia when she was a freshman. The same holds true with Isabella. Both knew or know how to express their thoughts and I do appreciate that. It’s not them but their parents that have taught them to be great young ladies.

 

I did not get the chance to talk to Tuscola’s runners last fall. You all know what a connoisseur I am of pack running during the cross country season. It is even more impressive on a track when Will Foltz, Josiah Horin, and Jackson Barrett controlled the 1600 Meter Run pace and finishing 1-2-3 with Hortin taking the win with his lethal finishing kick. He wanted to win, as did Foltz and Barrett in that race. What is even better is healthy competition that  the three runners display. I am sure their hard workouts are ones to relish. This spring may turn out the same way for this Tuscola team as it did during the fall.

 

I tried to be careful with the runners that were doubling over the two days to talk to them only once. Hilby and his teammates talked three times. I told them after I’ll talk to you after a race, etc to be more convenient for them. I went to the check in area to start to look for runners. There stood Becca Heitzig. “This is where we chatted last year,” Heitzig said. I walked down the basketball court and saw Gavin Genisio waiting for me. Genisio is one of those guys I am waiting to see where he goes in running over the next couple of months along with his teammate Gabriel McLain.

 

I really wanted to talk to Liv Phillips of Naperville Central. She has been running 3200/1600 doubles for her past three meets. Here is someone who has learned from her past races. She is running personal bests right now and we are only finishing the indoor season. Big things are waiting for her in her final outdoor season.

 

It is the moments that you don’t expect and are mentally not prepared for before the meet starts and hits you in the face as you watch a race. Such was the case in the Girls 3A 3200 Meter Run. Liv Phillips was doing her thing up front, but it was good to see what I saw in the pack. There are times that I have watched Shania and Rianna Tandon race where one of the twin sisters would drop off the pace. The two were working off each other throughout he race. Both ran personal bests as Shania finished second and Rianna finished fourth. I had to talk to them. All I could think is which of these two twins are which. I’ll eventually learn their tell of who who is. During the interview, Rianna mentioned that they were using self-visualization as part of their training.

 

I smiled. I became a better runner through a book Psycho-Cybernetics written by Maxwell Maltz. I had run a horrible race. Mr. Newton had me read it over the weekend and then had a discussion about it. I learned how to visualize a race two days before it happened. When I went into battle, things that happened during the race were things I had felt before. It was not a foreign experience; it was something that I experienced. It changed how I ran allowing me to take the next step up. Hearing and seeing them exhibit this during the race and talking about it afterwards showed me what great futures the two Tandons have.

 

I came out from interviewing Annika Swan and thought I was done with my interviews for my meet. I waited for Annika to finish her cool-down and then had the moment to talk to her. It is always worth waiting for someone to talk about their race and learn a little more. Swan is one of those runners I would wait for.

 

I came back onto the track, and  I saw Katelyn Lehnen of Chatham-Glenwood running 54.81 to help her team finish. Mike Garber, her coach, gave me his permission to chat with her.

 

It took a while for her to recover. I wanted to get on the road to get back home before I fell asleep. There were occasions where I would wait for Katelynne Hart or Jon Davis to finish their cooldowns. Then they would talk. Those interviews always turned to be great chats. It was a great interview with Lehnen talking about her time on the basketball team (of course) and then running. Patience leads to good things.

 

~~~

There were shenanigans in this meet, but you will have to wait to see me or talk to me and maybe I will share. I think the one thing to treasure are the track moments or more importantly cross-country moments that you run into at meets. People will ask why am I laughing? The least I can do is smile and keep walking. I like that.

 

Let’s get ready for the outdoor season, plenty of non-cancelled meets, plenty of results to upload, and chances to laugh with not telling passers by what the reason is for that.