By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

 

Another year has come and gone. What a great year that we all got to experience in athletics in the state of Illinois. 2013 was a year that was rattled with controversy in the way that the IHSA ran the state track meet in Charleston and then the state cross country meet in Peoria that fall.

 

It was a 180 degree turn this past year. The state meet went smoothly in most cases. Yes, there were a couple of controversial moments at both of the meets. But that is what happens in a big meet. The attitude of both state track meets changed in a big way. It was refreshing to watch the meets in 2014. Hopefully that trend continues in 2015.

 

One of the big things to watch this season is the success factor that the IHSA will implement heading into the 2015-2016 season. It kind of laid back in the news stories last year when they decided not to put it into action last school year. We will see if there are any legal implications that detour that. It will be one of the stories that I will be keeping an eye on.

 

Before we start talking about what will or could take place in 2015, let’s look back at some of the stories that may or may not hit the front page of DyeStat Illinois. Last year at this time, I just concentrated on the cross country season. Instead this year, let’s look back at some of the special moments that happened in track & field / cross country in the 2014 season.

 

Race Moment of the Year

 

I was standing on the floor of O’Brien Stadium for the finals of the 1A Girls State Meet 3200 Meter Run. It was one of the races that I was looking forward to observe. Anna Sophia Keller (St. Anthony HS, Effingham) was turning in some fantastic times in the southern part of the state. Kelsey Hildreth (Byron HS) was quietly turning in some great performances in the northern part of the state. Something had to give.

 

Through 7 laps of the 8 lap race, Keller was pushing the pace with Hildreth staying close. The final lap was one for the ages. Keller took off pulling away putting distance on the Byron runner. In the final 50 meters, it looked like Keller had captured the race. Hildredth never gave up as she continued to push her pace. Keller started to wobble in the final 15 meters eventually falling 10 meters from the finish. Hildreth kept going passing her fallen competitor winning the state championship. Keller got up and finished second. The top two times in the 3200 at the state meet were run in that race.

 

Keller’s competitive spirit showed later in the meet in the 1600 Meter Run when she pulled away from the pack including Hildredth in the last 400 meters to win the race. Still, it was the moment when Keller fell that people were talking about when they left the stadium on that day.

 

Wow Moments

 

Do you like it when you are at a track meet when a runner makes an unbelievable move that the crowd lets out a collective “oooohhhhh”?

 

There were two athletes that stand out in my mind that qualify for this. The first was Cole Henderson (Pekin HS) in the 100 Meter Dash. He always got out to a great start in that race and then would switch it into another gear half way through the race. The other athlete that got my attention was Khamari Montgomery (Central HS, Plainfield). He really caught my eye for the first time at the Joliet West Sectional in the 400 Meter Dash. He was even with the field until the last 100 meters when he just put it into another gear. He ran 47.42 to win that race. More impressively, it was more than a second faster than he ran at his conference meet. He “ooohed” the fans at state winning the 400 Meter Dash with one of the top 20 times in the nation (46.82). Henderson and Montgomery met each other in the 200 Meter Dash at the end of Boys State Meet. It was worth sticking around to watch.

 

Montgomery got off to a great start around the curve leaving Henderson in his dust. Henderson never quit fighting back down the final straight away. The fans were going crazy as the two approached the finish line. It was Montgomery that held on for the win (21.25 – 21.35) it what was one of the most dramatic races of that meet.

 

Henderson has moved on to the University of Illinois. It will be interesting to see him continue his progression to faster times in a collegiate environment. Montgomery has one more year to wow the Illinois prep fans. He signed a letter of intent to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia last November. He started his 2015 track campaign a little early when he ran some fast times at Rockford on December 20. He ran 6.94 (currently #4 nationally) to win the 60 Meter Dash. He came back to run 22.21 (US #3) to win the 200 Meter Dash. It will be interesting to see how fast he can run this spring.

 

Uplifting Moments in Track

 

One of the athletes that I will miss competing on the prep level is Luke Winder formally of Plainfield Central now at North Central College. He obviously took the Pole Vault to a new level. I loved his competitive nature in the event at the same time staying humble about what he was achieving. There have been some athletes that when they did not have a satisfying performance, they really did not want to talk to the media. Last March at the Illinois Top Times Championships, he won the event clearing 15-6. He was looking for something bigger on that day but he was willing to talk. I appreciated that.

 

Another athlete that we will have the joy to watch for the next two years is Ja’Mari Ward (Cahokia HS). He has put in some unbelievable performances in the horizontal jumps considering that he has only had two years of high school competition. The one of many things that I like about Ward is how unselfish he is. At the IHSA State Meet last spring, he was sitting in the tent waiting for an award ceremony. He finished second in the Long Jump and was lost in his own thoughts. I did not know that he had twisted his ankle. He gave all the credit to Kaneland’s Ben Barnes for the win. In his heart you can tell he wanted to get on that runway again. Even with the ankle injury, he helped his team to the 2A team championship by running legs on their winning 400 Meter Relay and a leg on the 2^nd place 800 Meter Relay. There have been times in meets where he has run a leg in the 1600 Meter Relay. I am sure we will see some big things from this junior this spring. When he achieves those, he will be humble about those accomplishments. That’s just who he is.

 

The Year of a freshman

 

One of the most fascinating stories of this past cross country season was the emergence of York freshman Charlie Kern. I had heard so many great things about the young man. When I talked to York assistant coach Jim Hedman, he just smiled about the incoming freshman. I knew he would do great things this cross country season when I saw him run at the end of August at a practice at the York High School track. It was the day before York’s Alumni Meet. It has always been a tradition to run a 1 mile time trial the day before. Kern did not run with the varsity. He ran with the other freshmen. He did have a little help as his dad Charlie paced him.

 

The younger Kern ran an even pace running 69’s for the first three laps. The two Kerns motored around the final lap with father crossing the line in 4:29 and son following one second behind. It was one of those times I wish I had videotaped that moment. My mouth dropped when JR crossed the line. I was standing next to Hedman. He was smiling. Mr. Newton was sitting at the finish line. His smile reached from ear to ear.

 

Coach Kern ran up to me afterwards and told me: “You cannot talk about this publically.” I agreed.

 

Two minutes later he approached me again.

 

“Did you happen to tape it?” I shook my head no. It was amazing what his son had done. It was even more amazing that a 45 year old man was able to pace his son. Even though he did not have that on tape, he will have that memory to treasure.

 

I left the track and headed just a mile down the road to Elmhurst’s Eldridge Park to watch North Central College run in the Elmhurst College Invitational. Joliet Central Coach Doug Cherry approached me. We talked for a minute before Doug asked me “Did you hear what young Charlie Kern ran today in the mile?”

 

I told him that I was there. “Where did you here that from,” I asked him.

 

He told me that he heard it from Charlie’s dad. Doug and Charlie are friends. A minute later I saw Charlie on the course. I had to smile.

 

More than a state championship

 

Yorkville went through a tough week leading up to their dual state championship wins on November 8. On November 3, Joyce Ortega Zeinstra, mother of Junior Varsity runner Brendan Zeinstra, passed away. It made what is usually a busy week a little bit busier for the Yorkville community.

 

“I think everything that happened this week put this state meet in perspective,” Yorkville Coach Chris Muth said after learning that the Boys team had won the state championship. “It just showed us that this race was just another race. It showed us that there are more important things than running like family and friends.”

 

And finally…

 

I was trying to put my finger on what was the one thing that was the most memorable for me. I took me a while to come up with something. I cannot tell you how many meets that I went to in the last calendar year. My honest answer for you would be “a lot”.

 

There was one series of days that stands out for me. On May 22, I attended the Joliet West Sectional. I stayed up until 2 in the morning uploading video of the meet and updating TFX. The next morning I was up at 7 AM. I turned on my computer at 9 AM to follow the webcast of the 2A Girls State Meet prelims followed by 3A. I left for the 3A Lake Park Boys Sectionals. That was an emotional meet. In my mind, I knew what kind of weekend it was going to be. I was mentally prepared for that. I knew I had to be asleep by 1:30 AM and up three hours later so that I could be on the road for Charleston and the Girls State Finals. Like I said, I knew I had to be mentally prepared. The message was not passed down to the rest of my body.

 

I thought I had set my alarm that Saturday morning. I woke up and saw it was light. I looked at my phone.

 

6:09!!!

 

My first thought was an expletive. I dove in the shower, got dressed and was on the road by 6:30. Was I behind schedule? Definitely.

 

It usually takes me three hours to get to Charleston. I did it in near 2:28 (unofficially). For the record, I pulled into the stadium at 9:05. The drive gave me a chance to unfrazzle myself and set a game plan for the day. It turned out to be a good day and a great meet. The one great thing was when I set up my computer in the press box at EIU. Right behind me was the umbrella that I had left there a year before. What was lost was found. I got home and went to bed at 2 AM.

 

Yes, it was a grueling weekend. But just as I had learned in my running career, your mind can overcome anything that you physically don’t think that you can accomplish.

 

I have the belief that 2015 will be another great track & cross country year in Illinois. I met with Skip Stolley, Ben Draper, and the staff in August about taking over the running of the Midwest Distance Festival. Under the new name of the new name of the Midwest Distance Classic, the meet will be on again at Benedictine University in Lisle this June. I am looking forward to covering that meet.

 

I am also happy to announce that DyeStat Illinois, with the help of Runnerspace.com, has the exclusive rights of doing the live 2 day webcast of the Illinois Top Times Championships at the end of March. I can’t wait for that meet. One of my goals last year was giving all of you more video coverage of meets throughout the state. With the live webcast, we are looking to do bigger and better things this next year. There are other great things that will be coming your way this upcoming year. When we get closer, I will announce them.

 

There are many people to thank for this past season. Thank you to Ross Krempley and everyone from RunnerSpace.com for keeping DyeStat running. Thank you to DyeStat National editor Doug Binder for his support for the Illinois site and his great work on the national site. Thank you to the staff on TFX that helps getting all the results up nationally. You make my job a little bit easier.

 

Thank you to Eric Hofmann for your contributions this past year. You should see more of Eric with coverage of events this upcoming year. Thank you to Tom Kaberna of Lake Park High School for your blog and educating all of us on the art of the horizontal jumps. I am looking forward to learning more in 2015. Any coaches that would like to contribute this year, my e-mail is [email protected]. I would love to hear your ideas.

 

Finally, thank you to all of the coaches in Illinois for helping out when I have questions and sending results to us. This is your site. You have made it a success. Thank you also to all the parents and runners that have stopped me at meets. I love talking to all of you. You give me the drive to take this site to the next level.

 

It will be busy in 2015. My daughter is running track this year. Which means I will be at more meets than I was before. I have been told that I need to slow down. Oops! I guess slowdown is not in my vocabulary.

 

Blessings. I hope all of you have a special 2015.

 

Thanks for your support.