MONDAY MORNING FINISH LINE

 

May 10, 2021

 

 

By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

 

There are man things that I would like to talk about this morning. There is usually one time a year where I overextend myself. I love doing that. I go to three meets in a span of 24 hours and hope that I can get home before passing out. I missed that last year.

 

My Saturday ends at Palatine. I get there early. I do not do video for the races. I watch from the finish line and feel the emotion, feel the vibe, and feel the electricity from the runners crossing the finish line. It is unlike any other meet that you will go to, even the state meet.

 

It’s the music. It was fans in the stands. It was something that we have not seen in the past year. It was great.

 

Former Palatine Coach Chris Quick is the Dr. Frankenstein to this monster of a distance meet. He brought the idea of Distance Night in Palatine up to me when he was thinking of creating this meet. The first response when he told me was “You’ve got to do this.”

 

Here we are six years later. Every distance runner it seems in the Midwest wants to be at Chic Anderson Stadium to get that chance to run fast. Quick had a 50 -pound bag of events this year that had 100 pounds of personal bests and excitement. I am sure if he had a 100-pound bag next year, 200 pounds of personal bests. You get what I mean.

 

This meet gets better every year. It is about the kids and Chris Quick gets that. It is an experience that kids will be talking about the next couple of weeks, years. The thing is when he maps out the meet months in advance, Chris will find a way to take the next step up the mountain. It seems we are at the top of the mountain now with this meet, but we all know the expectations will take it higher.

 

I love the gun going off for the first race of the meet. I feel sad when the last runner crosses the line to end the night. The memories live on.

 

I can be standing near the finish line and Quick will come running by feeling the emotion of the meet. “Did you just see that!” he says will a large smile on his face.

 

I enjoy the night. I enjoy what Distance Night in Palatine gives to the kids. It was something that we needed in this year.

 

Thanks for your vision Chris. Keep it up.

 

More on Palatine

 

After I published my recap of the meet yesterday, a tweet brought perspective to everything that happened on Saturday night.

 

One of the things that Distance Night in Palatine puts focus on is featuring one race every year of the meet right before the star athletes hit the track to run fast. In fact, the kids that are in the Special Olympics 800 Meter Run are the stars of the night.

 

Meet Director Chris Quick stops the meet and tells why this moment is special. He said in a blog that he wrote a couple of years ago that “It is our opportunity to highlight that running fast might seem most important, but really what we are after is the best that each of us has to give. We are happy to provide a showcase race for our area Special Olympians.”

 

Chris has a brother Chad who has cerebral palsy that has confined him to a wheelchair for most of his life. Chad is probably one of the most knowledge people that I know in the sport. He for sure is the most passionate. He is all over the track in his wheelchair going from sideline to sideline to watch the runners. I’ve been at meets at Moline and watch Chad in action. It is memorable.

 

So, before we saw the start of the Girls 800 Meter Run on this night, we got the joy to watch these Special Olympics run.

 

The gun goes off. The song “Heroes” by David Bowie plays over the sound system. Your mind becomes more active than you these kids run can imagine watching them cross the line.

 

It brought me joy. It brought tears to my eyes. It did not matter who won. They all did. The roar of the crowd as every runner crossed the line was louder than the finish of every race in this meet. They finished. They were hugging each other showing their happiness of being in this place at this moment.

 

Coach Jim Valvano said in his speech at the ESPY Awards in 1993:
“To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time, time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day.”

 

I felt those emotions watching this race. It was a heck of a day.

 

Other memorable moments from DNIP

 

The run by Caroline Schoen of Homewood-Flossmoor knocked my shoes off. I kept telling myself how can this race be memorable? We sometimes remember the races where someone’s race blows up especially in the 3200 Meter Run. The runner goes too hard, and their race explodes in their face. It happened to me in my final high school race in Charleston.

 

Schoen was not the top seed in Section 2 of the Girls 3200 Meter Run on Saturday night. She had a personal best of 11:47.18 before she toed the starting line. The night before in Huntley, she ran 5:15.19 to win the 1600 Meter Run. That should have given us an indication what she could do in this race.

 

She was consistent. 5:29 for the first 1600-meters. 5:32 for the second half of the race. The pace never dropped. Caroline Walker of Rock Bridge MO stayed close to Schoen. The HF sophomore moved in the final kilometer to win by 14 seconds. The big thing was she ran 46 seconds faster than she had ever run before.

 

Her time is currently ranked eighth in Illinois. Was this time a fluke? Nope. There are moments in a runner’s life where you run that one race where the switch flips on and you understand what you can do. Schoen got that on Saturday night.

 

Get used to this. We are going to see her near the front many more times over the next couple of years.

 

Nicky Edwards-Levin of Chicago University used a term that I love. Nicky was not in the race but found his way to the front to win Section 2 of the Boys 3200 Meter Run.

 

“It was like blood in the water,” Edwards-Levin said describing his emotions after a race. He was the shark and the runners in front of him was his prey. It is a great moment when this happens to you in a race. The thought that goes through your brain is this race is mine. You were only rented this space because I am going to take ownership of the lead.

 

You could see that emotion in his eyes as he started his final 400-meters of the race. Edwards-Levin ran over a 20 second personal best with a 9:23.74. Like Schoen, we will hear more from this runner as he completes his senior season.

 

The next time, maybe the Jaws theme should be played entering the final lap if Edwards-Levin is in that position again.

 

One of the most dangerous runners you can face is the one that has a chip on his shoulder. What is even more dangerous is the runner that has a killer kick to end the race to compliment that chip. Such was true for Taylorville’s Chris Cherry in Section 3 of the 3200 Meter Run Saturday.

 

Cherry was almost perfect during his cross-country season before finishing 24th at the ShaZam Club Nationals in November. He said after the race Saturday he still had business to do.

 

There were close to seven runners were within a second of each other entering the final lap. Cherry was in the middle. His best for 400-meters is in the 51 second range with a best of 1:57 for 800-meters this season.

 

Blood was in the water.

 

“Da-da da-da…”

 

Cherry stormed away from Carbondale’s Alex Partlow in the final stretch crossing the line pointing at the photographers as he ran a personal best of 9:17.56.

 

The state meet will be run in Sections this year. If Cherry had his way, he would run the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. It will be interesting to see what events he chooses to run in Charleston. The memory of what happened last November could drive him to big things.

 

The 3200

 

I cut my teeth in high school running the 2 Mile Run and then the 3200 Meter Run. I was thankful for my Coach Joe Newton for putting me in this race and then talking to me about strategy afterwards. My love for the “Dirty Deuce” in high school or the “Five Grande” in college will never die.

 

It was a cool thing to see the results come in this weekend to see so many great performances happen nation-wide in the 3200 Meter Run.

 

It started with the Henderson Invitational in West Chester PA on Friday night. Five runners ran under nine-minutes for the distance led by Robert Didonato of Germantown Academy who ran a then US #1 8:44.98 for the win. Gary Martin of Archbishop Wood Catholic PA  ran 8:49.96 to finish second.

 

It was just a good omen of things to come on Saturday.

 

Saturday morning at the Texas UIL State 6A race, Brynn Brown of Denton Guyer went through the fist 1600 in 4:51 on her way to the state title in 9:58.77. Sophie Atkinson of Katy Cinco Ranch ran 10:09.21 to finish second with a top 10 national time.

 

We saw at Distance Night in Palatine two runners under nine minutes led by the 8:57.78 win from Drew Rogers of Herscher. Nine runners were under 9:10 in that race. Lauren Pansegrau of Middleton WI ran an US #8 10:13.91 time to win the Girls race. That was after winning the Wisconsin Spring State XC Championship in the morning.

 

At the New Balance Twilight Invitational in Michigan, High School Indoor Mile Record holder Hobbs Kessler of Ann Arbor Skyline ran 8:54.42 for the win leading five runners under nine. The next four runners behind Kessler were all at 8:59. What was even more impressive was that Nathan Mountain of St. Xavier OH ran a SOLO 8:52.15 to win at the Eastern Relays in Louisville.

 

What topped them all was of course at the Arcadia Invitational Saturday night. Mia Barnett of Crescentia Valley ran 10:01.18 to the win in the Girls Invitational race followed by Sophia Nordenholz of Albany CA and a sensational 10:05.91 time.

 

The Boys Invitational race was just fast. 15 runners in the race were all under nine-minutes. This year, only California schools were allowed in the meet. Can you imagine what it would have been like if other states were invited to join in?

 

The top two times in the nation came from this race. Colin Sahlman of Newbury Park ran 8:43.42 for the win with teammate Lex Young right behind at 8:43.71 for second. Newbury Park had four runners under nine in this race. All of them are underclassmen.

 

This could be one of the most memorable weekends that we have seen. We can thank COVID-19 for that with runners having prolonged periods of time to train since we did not have track in 2020.

 

Five of the top 10 times in the nation came from Pennsylvania and California this weekend. 27 new performances under nine minutes happened in that two-day period. More than 45 Boys runners have dipped under nine so far this season with I bet more coming as we get into the heart of the state meet season.