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Baldwin Distance Something Special. Ten years ago Baldwin High School was blessed with a gift. Baldwin High had a history with cross country and track in the veteran coach C.R. Herpich, but little did anyone know Mike Spielman was going to be a Godsend. After being with the cross country program for a decade, he's brought home a little hardware. Did I say a little? I'm sorry, I meant a whole lot. In cross country, he's taken teams to state 9 out of his 10 years on the guys side, bringing home 8 trophies. Five of those trophies were state titles. On the girls side he's taken almost that many to state. 8 out of his 10 years he's taken girls teams and brought home 4 trophies. Those four trophies are the only four you'll find in Baldwin's trophy case for girls cc. But enough about cross country, this is a track website. Four years ago Mike Spielman started to do the same things for Baldwin track that he did with his distance guys and gals in cross country. When he inherited the head coaching job after Hirpich's retirement, he didn't miss a beat. Already he's ended the guys trophy drought and brought home a state title, which is something no Baldwin track team had done. He's got strong squad in the distance crew, now let's get to know them a little bit. Baldwin returns top runners. If you haven't figured it out by now, or you didn't know, my name is Matt Noonan, and I'm making this site. This is going to be a little awkward if I talk about myself in third person, so I'm not going to do it. I'm also going to try to keep this site as informative as possible without bringing my distance runner biases into the picture. I, along with all the distance squad, are great friends with all of the team. I've been going to school and playing ball with Eric Brown, Eric Black, Glen Stansberry, Hans Broers, Hugh Murphy, and a host of others since 5th grade. I'll try to keep the sarcasm to a minimum on this site, but I like to razz the guys sometimes. So bear with me. But now, onto the returning runners. Sometimes I feel like people hear way too much about me in the papers. So I'll keep it short when talking about myself. That, and do you know how weird it is to be typing about yourself in an informative sort of way? It's definitely interesting. Well, I have a number of goals. I would certainly like to repeat in the 1600 and 3200 at state. I would also like to become one of the few to win the triple crown at state. That is, I'd like to take the 800 state title away from my fellow teammate and friend, Eric Black. That's really the gist of my season. I'll try to accomplish some other things along the way, but that's the main goals. Eric Black is going to be a force in the 800. He has more speed than any other half miler in the state in all classes. What that means is that you can pit him against any 800 runner in the state of Kansas, ANY HIGH SCHOOL KID, and he could out kick them in the 800. It's an honor to be able to train with a guy like that. He would like to drop his time under 1:55, which would shave over 2 seconds off of the current school record. I can not reveal any more of his secrets at this time, or I'd have to kill you. Glen Stansberry, coming off a great cross country season (the largest factor in our team state title), is hoping to break 2 minutes in the 800. If he can do this, our Baldwin 4x800 relay team will be frighteningly good. Hans Broers was a major component last year on our 4x800, and we expect him to be so again this year. Hans, with a personal record in the 800 right around 2:06, would like to scare the 2 minute barrier as well. Hans is a strong 800 runner and one of the fastest 400 runners on our team as well. Johnny Strong has a heart of gold. He was the last link on the 2nd place 4x800 state team last year. His pr of just under 2:10 is likely to drop considerably this year. He'll be fighting for a spot on the 4x800 this year as well. Edd Stansberry is a returning distance runner. (that's all you wanted Edd) Philip Wagner is quite possibly the hardest working individual on our entire team. He has the motivation and the talent to really go places. After coming off minor hip surgery, he is hoping to qualify for state in the 3200. At our second meet of the year he is fighting for a spot on the 4x1600 team that has a chance to break the school record of 19:28. Brayton Gladhart is a silent competitor. His older brother Cole is competing for Baker University, and Brayton has the potential to surpass his brother's high school greatness. Brayton was also a member of last year's state championship cross country team. On to the freshman. Zach Towns and Brian Gerstner are two of the most talented freshmen Baldwin has ever seen. Zach moved to second on the all time list last year in the 800 with a 2:11. Brian was striving to become the fourth Baldwin athlete to break 5 minutes in the mile as a junior high student. He fell just short in the regular season but dipped under the mark by a hair outside the regular meets. 2nd place 4x800 returns: Baldwin returns its 2nd place 4x800 meter relay team from last year. The team consists of senior Eric Black, sophomore Johnny Strong, senior Glen Stansberry, and senior Hans Broers. The dogs hope to move up that last spot this year with the help of freshman Zach Towns and sophomore Edd Stansberry in there to mix it up in the workouts. Dueling 800 runners: Eric Black and I became the second pair Baldwin High School athletes to place first and second in the same event in the same year at state track last year in the 800. The first pair to do it was Hugh Murphy and Eric Brown in the javelin a day before. We hope to repeat the feat and set some state meet records along the way. Ogle leads the girls: Erica Ogle is a tiger. But she's not your typical tiger. Sure, she has all of the ferocious attributes that one thinks of when they think about tigers, but that only exists on the track. Off of the track she is a sweetheart. She is one of the nicest individuals you can find, and if she complains, I haven't heard it. She comes back this year to lead to team after the departure of distance runner Megan Noonan. (she smells) Erica has run for two seasons behind Megan, and now she has her second chance to run as the team leader. She's been training like an animal and looks to start off very very strong this year.
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