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Men's Race of the Week Every meet someone has a breakthrough race. It just doesn't get publicized. I am here to do justice to the little guys, or not so little as the case may be, who have awesome performances but go overlooked. This section is going to be dedicated to what I feel was the best race of the week for each meet. WEEK 1: 3/28/02 BALDWIN INVITATIONAL It's been said, "If there's a will, there's a way." This cliché is never readily accepted by our faith in human beings. Thus, it was not accepted by me when my fellow teammate Phil Wagner told me he was going to break 11 minutes in the two mile. His personal record was just under 11 and he set that in his peak form last year at the Redbud meet. That was late in the year. This was the first meet. I knew Phil had chopped over a minute and thirty seconds off of his 5000 meter time last cross country season, but I didn't know if it was possible for anyone to PR in their first race of the season. Well, it is possible, and that's why Phil deserves this award. He was gone to Washington D.C. for ten days three weeks before the meet season began. Sure, he got a little running in when he was there, but nothing like you can get when you have a team to train with. He returns from D.C. with the motivation to reach his goal time, and he does it. He needed to break 11 minutes this meet to go to Wichita in two weeks. This was his only chance to do that, and, despite that pressure, he came through marvelously. He ran a 9 second PR when he clocked a 10:47. That's flat out amazing folks. I may be a little bias on the Race of the Week this week because Phil is a distance runner, but believe me, what he did is amazing. Good job Phil. WEEK 2: 4/09/02 & 4/12/02 BAKER RELAYS & KT WOODMAN There were a lot a great performances between these two meets. Races that need to be highlighted are Eric Black's 110 hurdles and open 400 at KT Woodman. Also, Phil Wagner chops another 13 seconds off of his pr by running a 10:34 at KT. Sam Hinton blazed a blistering 5:08 at the Baker Relays in a 4x1600 and Mike Hubbel looked like a veteran running a distance triple of a 4x1600, DMR, and 4x800. Alas, the award goes to the 4x1600 meter relay team for breaking the school record by 33 seconds. The old school record was 19:28 and some change, and we broke this record by running an 18:55.33. Eric ran roughly a 4:45, Johnny 4:52, Glen 4:53, and myself 4:24. There was some change on all of those but that was the gist of it. Great job guys; it has been a pleasure training with you and racing with you. WEEK 3: 4/19/02 & 4/20/02 CARDINAL RELAYS & KU RELAYS This week will look mighty similar to last week but with one change. Take Eric Black off of the the relay and add Hans Broers, and change the 4x1600 to the DMR, and you have the new Distance Medley Relay record team. At KU Relays we took a team that wasn't quite all we could throw at that record and broke it by ten seconds any way. We lowered the record to 10:54.18 from 11:04.81. The breakdown was something close to this: Glen 3:22, Hans 54, Johnny 2:11, and myself 4:25. Great job guys. It's been fun. WEEK 4: 4/22/02 & 4/26/02 SPRING HILL INVITE & GIRARD INVITE Hold your hats folks. We've got someone coming out of the woodwork. Freshman Sam Hinton has been lighting up the scene under all of our noses, and now it is time to recognize his accomplishments. Last week Sam had an 8 second pr in the mile and in the half. He went unnoticed because of the record breaking feat we put together at KU. Well, he can be overlooked no more. This week he blazed his way to a five second pr in the half mile at Spring Hill and then made the 2 hour + trip to Girard to lower it one more second and end up at 2:10. That's phenomenal people. He is running one of the fastest freshman half mile times in the history of Baldwin High. If he wasn't a part of such a loaded team, he would be helping a 4x800 team medal at state. Keep it up Sam, you'll be needed soon. |
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