By Michael Newman

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Welcome to the 2015 track season! In writing all the previews for the upcoming season, there are so many great storylines that will catch your attention in the next couple of months.

Also, a big thanks to Tim Hasso of Oak Park-River Forest High School who invited me to the ITCCCA Coaches Clinic that took place last Saturday. I have a notebook full of notes of things that I need to research. Too bad half of the things in there are “OFF THE RECORD”. That is my least favorite phrase as some of you already know.

Let’s dive into some of the stories that you might not have heard of in the last couple of weeks.

Track has started (unofficially)

Even though the track season officially starts on Thursday, there have been some Illinois athletes that have started their season off a little earlier than everyone else. There were only a couple of Illinois athletes that ventured down to the Texas A&M High School Classic last Friday and Saturday.

Willow Stuedemann (Seneca HS) started off her season running 7.99 (IL #3) in the 60 Meter Dash. The time is almost two tenths of a second faster than what she ran a year ago. On Friday, she ran 26.10 in the prelims of the 200 Meter Dash. As a sophomore last year, Willow was all-state in the three sprint events (100, 200, 400) at the IHSA State Meet.

Lincoln-Way East’s dynamic duo of Asia Brown and Alex Pierre-Antoine also competed in the meet. Pierre-Antoine ran 9.10 to finish 8^th in the 60 Meter Hurdles. It is currently #24 nationally. Brown ran 58.88 to finish 8^th in the 400 Meter Dash. On Friday evening, she ran 58.36 (IL #2) to qualify for the finals. Both juniors ran in the 200 Meter Dash Prelims Friday Evening. Brown’s time of 25.53 is currently the fastest in the state. Pierre-Antoine was not too far behind as she ran 25.74. Neither athlete qualified for the finals.

There have been some great times put down on the new Rockford Auburn Field House track this season including at Saturday’s Coach O Indoor Invitational by two of Illinois’ top returning sprinters. Brittny Ellis (Warren Township, Gurnee) nipped Antonise Christian (Westside HS, Gary IN) by three hundredths of a second in the 60 Meter Dash. Ellis’ time of 7.71 is currently #11 nationally. Ellis came back in the 400 Meter Dash to again defeat Christian. The 56.85 run by Ellis in that race is currently 7^th fastest in the country.

Kahamari Montgomery (Central HS, Plainfield) swept both the Boys 60 Meter and 200 Meter Dash races. The Mizzou signee ran 6.99 to win the 60 Meter Dash. In a meet in December on the same track, he ran the state’s best time of 6.94. Montgomery came back to win the 200 Meter Dash (22.23) by almost a second.

There were more great performances in this meet. You can review the results here.

Lauren Van Vlierbergen wins the High School Heisman

This did not slip past us but was something that we should mention. Lauren Van Vlierbergen (Jacobs HS, Algonquin) was named the 2014 Wendy’s High School Heisman on December 13. It is a great achievement for the Jacobs senior who committed to the University of Michigan this fall. She finished second in the 3A State meet this fall and will be the defending champion in the 3A 800 Meter Run this season in track. The High School Heisman recognizes the top student athlete by gender in the country based on the qualities of achievement in the classroom, in the field of competition, and within the community. All of these things Lauren is more than qualified for.

Congratulations to Lauren on this achievement!

Summer hotbed of track & field in Illinois

If you are looking for some great track & field action in Illinois after the IHSA State Track & Field Meets, it would be a good idea to camp out at Benedictine University throughout June.

The action will start the week after the IHSA Boys State Meet when the Illinois Track & Cross Country Coaches Association (ITCCCA) will conduct their inaugural 3A team championships on Saturday June 6. Details for the meet have not been released.

The following Saturday (June 13), the Midwest Distance Classic will take place that evening. The Midwest Distance Festival did not take place a year ago due to a conflict with the New Balance Nationals taking place. New meet management led by Skip Stolley has taken over promising what should be a great meet featuring some of the top distance runners in the Midwest.

On June 26, the USATF Illinois Junior Olympics will take a control of the Benedictine University for three days featuring some of the top Illinois athletes. After a day off, some of the nation’s top juniors and seniors will take part in the USATF World Youth Trials on June 30 and July 1. They will be competing for a spot on the United States National Youth Team that will take part in the World Youth Championships in Colombia in July. The USATF Youth Championships will start on July 1 and will go through the end of the weekend on July 5^th.

Contrary to belief

I was a little stunned when I read a statement in Milesplit Illinois by new Thornwood Girls Track Coach Damani Shakoor in which he said that he did take an advantage of an opportunity when the old coach retired. I knew that Roy White left the school last August to become an assistant coach at Lincoln-Way Central. I knew that Brian Evans was no longer the cross country or track coach at the school. Neither of the two “retired”.

It warmed my heart when I walked out of the auditorium at Oak Park-River Forest High School during the ITCCCA Coaches clinic and I saw Evans standing in a group including North Central College Coach Frank Gramarosso and Al Carius. Evans was wearing a Lincoln-Way East top.

Evans was named as the new Girls Head track & field coach at Lincoln-Way East High School. Though he did not want to talk about him leaving Thornwood, he did say that he appreciated the opportunity in his new position.

“We are excited that Brian will be coaching track with us at L-W East. His high school resume is tremendous and his energy for the sport is second to none,” said Lincoln-Way East Athletic Director Mark Vander Kooi. “He has a talented group of assistant coaches to work with and his leadership will help solidify our program.  I look forward to seeing him develop the program in all aspects and all events.”

Well respected and established assistant coaches Angelo Brown, Dwayne Pierre-Antoine, and Rob Junkroski all return to give Evans a solid foundation to work from.

It does hurt when a door closes on you. There are reasons why one door closes and another opens up. The door opening up for Evans at Lincoln-Way East could be a blessing for him.

And finally…

I was stopped a number of times at the Coaches Clinic Saturday asking if I was rested and ready to go for the upcoming season. I am rested but the month after cross country ended has been a complete blur. Every Saturday during that period I have been at Speech Tournaments watching my daughter preform and compete.

There are some similarities that I can see in the Speech competitions and meets that I attend. The competition is there. The sportsmanship is prevalent throughout the tournaments that I have been at. That is where the similarities end. There is track / cross country where there is a true definition of who wins and who loses. It is the opposite for speech.

How a winner is determined in Speech tournaments can be compared with Gymnastics, Diving, and Synchronized Swimming. It comes down to a judge determining who the best in the competition is. It comes down to personal bias.

I was given the opportunity to judge in a couple of competitions. I was given a handbook telling us how each event was supposed to be graded on. Do not get me wrong, the kids that compete in Speech are unbelievably talented. In one of the events that I was judging, the performance of a female participant almost brought me to tears. That is how it affected me. It is a formal event. Kids dress in their Sunday bests and give it their all. It makes me mad that it comes down to a person’s opinion to determine the winner.

In a round that I was judging, a fellow judge was giving me her opinion on some of the participants. It was the exact opposite of how I had judged the participants in which I based my opinions on the guidelines. Her judging was based on feeling, opinion, and not through some of the things we were to watch for. The judges are not professionals. All are volunteers. Some are college kids that come back to their school to offer their assistance. It is not like track & field where you must be certified to officiate the meet. Yes, I have seen some bias in track competitions where perhaps a team passed a baton out of the zone yet the official “did not see it”. The bias in Speech is much worse.

I watched a final in which my daughter was in. It was in a category that I had judged before so I did have some expertise in it. I went through the round and judged it objectively. When I saw the results later on, I was flabbergasted. A participant that I did not think had a great performance had won. I had watched the judge to see how they reacted during the round. Each performance is supposed to be under a time limit. I had timed the “winner” a minute over. There is supposed to be a penalty. The judge had no watch or timer on their phone. It came down to the personal opinion of that judge instead of the facts.

My daughter thought she did great but was bummed by the results. How could she be judged that low? I am sure there were other parents that had to go through the same discussion. I could tell by the expression of the kids’ faces as they accepted their award and left the award area.

Give me a sport where a winner is determined by who crosses the finish line first, that throws their implement the farthest, or jumps higher or further than anyone else. There is no argument most in the time in track and field or cross country. Athletes may stand on the podium disappointed, but they know they did not do what they wanted to achieve because on that day someone was just better than them.

That is simply not the case in personally judged competitions like Speech. And that’s a shame.