What a day!
My 200m runner was so nervous when he was picked up from his house, he walked out with the TV remote control still in his hand!
Out of the 5 athletes who qualified for the meet, I have trained 4 of them all winter so far (using KK’s template). our 4x800 team ran awful overall. 2 runners, brothers, had made a 2 day drive from Miami to Detroit and arrived Thursday evening. They both ran awful. They ran on pace for about 500m and then faded. The other two runners, who stayed home over this mid winter break, ran season PB’s, which I was happy about. They ended up 7th and getting a medal. Had they run near their potential, we’d have placed about 5th. So although they ran poor, it was nice to get on the podium.
Next up was the 200m. My athlete realized he forgot his racing number as his heat was called. He sprinted to his bag and got back just as the starter was calling on your marks! He got the pins on and ran 23.34, 0.05 from a medal! His heat was a dead heat with another runner. He was slightly disappointed since he ran 23.22 a week before. Maybe if the racing number was on, he might have run that again!
In the open 800, one of the brothers, ran another ragged race.
In the 4x400, it was just awful. The brothers ran 58/59s when they have run 52/54 a few weeks ago. That travel just kicked their butt. The other two did fine considering my mistake in putting the brothers first. We were about 100m behind by the third leg.
It was a great experience overall.
In other events, the boys 60m was won in 6.85, announced as the 6th fastest time by HS kid in US this year. The girls 60m was won in 7.71 by an 8th grader! The girls 400 was won in 57 by another 8th grader! The girls 200m was won in 24.43, 4th fastest time in US this year. In the girls 60m Hurdles, Tiffani (Porter) Ofili’s sister beat her high school best 60m indoor time and won.
We start track practice officially march 12. That is when all 50+ kids come out and chaos begins! Hopefully the weather stays warm as it has been upper 30s and into the 50s all winter so far with only 3-4 light snow falls that have melted within a day afterwards.
For some runners, the next meet will be March 30 for our indoor county meet, which will be a 1-2 event meet for those guys and serves as a time trial. The first outdoor meet will be April 21.
Based on the indoor 200m time, I think our school record from last year of 22.3 HT will be broken this year given good conditions. our 4x800 team should be a top 8 team in the state, as they missed top 8 last season by 0.5 and took 10th. The team is back, minus one runner, but the times so far indicate equal potential, if not better.