VIC Track and Field Championships
Virginia Episcopal School, Lynchburg
May 8, 2010
It was a blustery but otherwise nice day for the Virginia Independent Conference Track and Field Championship at Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg.
Ninth-seeded Lozie Goolsby surprised the high jumpers by clearing 5 feet and claiming a fourth-place finish, which is impressive for somebody so young. He just began high jumping a couple of weeks ago. If there was an award for best young athlete, he would have won it, hands down.
Colin Turnnidge, beset by illness and injury during much of the season, ran a tactically intelligent race and finished fifth in the 3200 meter run. It’s particularly important in endurance sports to compete within yourself for the early stages to avoid “blowing up” before the final lap. I reminded Colin that “it doesn’t really matter who is in the lead or ahead of you at the 1600 meter point; just try to maintain contact… run smart.” A key reward of coaching is watching athletes not only become fitter, but also taking a more sophisticated, insightful, and savvy approach to their sport, and that only comes with experience and reflection.
Glen Franklin provided plenty of (positive) drama during the day, beginning with the long jump. Franklin and rival Demetri Knowles of Liberty Christian traded the lead back and forth over the first few jumps, and it all came down to one last chance on their fourth and final attempt. Knowles, jumping just seconds before Franklin, proceeded to launch himself to a lifetime best of 22 feet, 8 inches, beating his personal record by two feet, which is almost unheard of. Glen had already notched a jump of 21 feet, 6 inches prior to his final attempt. I told him to not over-think the approach and just “do what you do” in practice, and that’s exactly what he did, landing a personal best of 22 feet, 5.5 inches–a foot better than he’d ever jumped–for second place. To be honest I think Glen was a little disappointed, perhaps, but that was tempered with the knowledge that he had a terrific performance and earned the silver medal. It’s always tough to come within a couple inches of winning and not quite pull it off, while there is some comfort in knowing you did your best.
In the 100 meter dash, Bevan Morrison-Rodgers and Uriel Lloyd posted seasonal best times of 12.4 and 12.6, respectively. Uriel was unable to practice most of the season, so his result was about as good as could have been expected. Bevan is only an 8th grader with great potential for future success in both the 100 and 200. He’s also good for comic relief when needed during track meets.
Spending the week leading up to the meet refining his take-off from the starting block, Franklin found an extra half-second and finished second overall in 11.24. It’s amazing how seemingly minor tweaks to technique can have major impacts in race results.
The 4 x 100 relay team of Gary Nelson, Morrison-Rodgers, Lloyd, and Franklin, which struggled with baton exchanges during the season, much to the frustration of Coach McManus and myself, (and it’s not because we didn’t spend boatloads of time working on it!), benefited from a dropped baton by Liberty Christian and ended up third with the bronze medal. Franklin turned a shaky baton exchange into a blistering 10.8 final 100 meters to secure the medal.
Gary Nelson was impressive finishing sixth in a strong field in the 200 meter dash. Along with Krsna Shukla in the 800, and Min Ho Cho in the 400, there were few people I’ve coached that had a more consistent work ethic. These three just always seemed to be at practice every day, on time, and without a million and one excuses. And the effort was usually there, too. That’s all you ask for as a coach.
Thankfully, Travis Knapp joined the track team following the conclusion of baseball season, and provided a tremendous boost to us with a third place in the difficult and rather precarious event known as the 300-meter hurdles. (Try that event some time and let me know what you think. There are few ways to seriously hurt yourself in track, other than getting hit with a flying baton, or missing the pole vault pad.)
Even though our track and field team was low on raw numbers of athletes, we were pleased as coaches to see the team not only improve over the slightly more than two months of the track season, but also have their best days in the final and most important meet of the season, the VIC championships.
On a somewhat peripheral note, it was a pleasure to work with Coach McManus. I usually had a lot of ideas for training and so forth—not necessarily good ideas but a lot of them. Grant more often than not would either, 1) improve upon my original thoughts; or 2) come up with a completely different and better approach. Along with the athletes, he gets the bulk of the credit for our successes.
For those that have kept on reading to this point, thank you!
Mike Anson
