Braun and Agbaji

Braun and Agbaji, it doesn't roll off the tongue like Ernie and Bernie.  Google the Ernie and Bernie Show, it was quite the thing 45 years ago.  Ernie Grunfeld and Bernard King were two forwards who ruled the SEC for the University of Tennessee.  Unfortunately, the rest of the team stunk.  That's not the case for Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji at he University of Kansas.

Normally I would have written an early season blog about my beloved Jayhawks basketball team.  But this team is puzzling.  They are good, extraordinarily good.  In fact, this is the best, deepest Kansas team since the squad that won it all in 2008.  This team doesn't have the unbelievable depth along the front line that the 2008 Jayhawks possessed but the game has changed and having bigs like Sasha Kaun, Darrel Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Cole Aldrich isn't quite as important.

This Kansas team has Braun and Agbaji, two forwards who can fill it up on any given night.  It's like Brandon Rush rolled into one.  Then you have Remy Martin, a transfer point guard who can shoot lights out, sort of like Mario Chalmers.  Oh, and then there's sophomore guard Dujuan Harris who likes to distribute the ball and play defense, kind of like Russell Robinson.  The mystery man is center David McCormack, who played like a hot mess the first five games of the season but has suddenly settled down.  He's a poor man's Darrel Arthur on offense and a poorer man's Sasha Kaun on defense.

The good thing about McCormack is for the first time in a couple of years Kansas has some front line depth which takes some pressure off of him.  Mitch Lightfoot is turning 30 (just kidding) and will end up playing more games than any player in K.U. history thanks to COVID.  He's a capable back up.  The real sauce will be from two freshmen, the unbelievably athletic K.J. Adams and the silky smooth Zach Clemence.  Adams is going to be a force, but that lies in the future.  Clemence can shoot and has decent hops.  Both can give the Jayhawks minutes if there are foul issues.

The toughest thing about this team is that it is way too deep.  Jalen Wilson was a freshman star.  Now he's struggling to find minutes and with his size and defensive ability, the Jayhawks will need him.  I don't understand Jalen Coleman-Lands or Joseph Yesufu.  These two transfer can be instant offense but Kansas only needed one of them, not both.  I smell some transfers at the semester.

The hidden jewel in this depth of talent is freshman point guard Bobby Pettiford.  He could be the next Frank Mason or Sherron Collins.  He's a human bowling ball who can drive without fear through the lane and he's the kind of physical guard that Bill Self loves.  An injury has temporarily sidelined Pettiford and he will be needed when conference play starts.

Kansas is so deep that it's best freshman recruit, Kyle Cuffe, is redshirting this year.  The Kansas roster of 18 players has 12 players that can start on any team in the Big 12 Conference.  The 2008 team had a similar amount of depth.  So I'm saying that this team is a lock to make it to the Final 4.  The team can stand to lose any one of its five starters save for McCormack and still make a deep tournament run.  It's going to be a fun run to March Madness.

Well, Just WOW!

If anyone had offered me a bet on which team would be bringing home a trophy from the Florida State High School Cross Country Championships I would have said maybe, just maybe the girls of Fort Myers could pull it off.  Injuries to two key runners, Amy Meng and Elizabeth McHugh put an end to those hopes.  The 15th place finish by the girls of Fort Myers is nothing to hang their heads about considering the bad breaks.  And on a personal note, I really feel for Amy.  It's tough to suffer an injury during your senior campaign.  I can relate because a serious illness killed my senior year and it's a tough pill to swallow.

The Green Wave had another card to play.  The boys team caught fire the last two weeks of the season to bring home the second place trophy Class 3A.  Colsen Palmer had the kind of senior season any runner would be grateful for.  He took first at Regions after an awful District meet and finished seventh at the State Championship.  The key to the second place finish for Fort Myers was super frosh Craig Allard, Jr.  He ran a season best to take 37th and raised the bar in terms of expectations for himself and the Green Wave that returns plenty of talent next season.

The best girls team from Southwest Florida hails from Bishop Verot.  Another super freshman, Mackenzie De Lisle, burst upon the scene and helped lead the Vikings to a fifth place finish in Class 2A.  With junior star Julia Reitz and another junior standout Kylie Thomas returning next season for Verot, Coach Jorge Fleitas has a team that could claim a trophy next season.

Fleitas best coaching job may have been with his inexperienced boys squad.  Once junior middle distance standout Cooper Banks gave up cross country for soccer, the Vikings chances of heading to Tallahassee looked slim.  But the boys of Verot pulled it together to finish 19th Class 2A with a squad made up mainly of freshmen.

The other girl's team that deserves a nod is the Wolfpack squad from South Fort Myers.  Coach John Halley did a masterful job in putting together a team that slipped into States behind senior standout Allyson Bratton and junior Sophia Torres. If Torres can continue to improve she could find herself with some serious hardware next year.

The surprise trophy by Fort Myers overshadowed what we expected to be a sensational season for individual athletes from Lee County.  A trio of runners delivered big.  Despite an early season injury scare Estero senior star Kolton Pickard showed his stuff with a strong fourth place finish in the Class 3A Championships.  The track season ahead should be something special for Pickard.

ECS junior Ava Povich was the dominate female runner in Southwest Florida.  She scored her second straight seventh place finish at the Class 1A Championship will improving her time by 14 seconds.  Povich has an excellent chance to break 11 minutes this spring in the 3200.

Another junior also made dramatic strides this fall, Canterbury junior Gabrielle Santucci.  She finished 50th at State as a sophomore and improved all the way to 11th Class 1A.  Santucci is better known as a middle distance ace and her improvement in cross country should pay big dividends this spring on the track.

A final word on the 2021 must include a salute to the boys and girls of SFCA who both qualified for State, Class 1A.  Junior Hayden Tank made tremendous progress from his sophomore year and should a force to reckon with this spring in track in both the 1600 and 3200.  

2022 should be a great one with returnees like Tank, Povich, Santucci, Allard and Torres. 

Championship Season

Three meets to go.  That's the goal for the lucky few teams and individuals as the Florida high school cross country draws to a close.  District meets will be scattered across Southwest Florida beginning on Thursday with Class 3A teams meeting at Estero Park and Class 1A teams running at SFCA.  On Saturday Lehigh will travel to North Port for their District meet while Bishop Verot heads to Englewood for its 2A showdown.

Lehigh has two outstanding runners competing at Class 4A.  Sophomore Gianna Del Pizzo has enjoyed a solid season and should be able to advance through the District and Region meet on to Tallahassee.  The same can be said of Lightning senior distance ace Evan Meyer.  He was forced to miss last week's LCAC meet due to a scheduling conflict with the SAT's which is a big whiff on the part of the athletic leaders of the Lee County School District.  Athletes shouldn't have to make a choice between competition and tests  This would have never happened if it involved football.  Lehigh competes Saturday in North Port.

The girls of Bishop Verot can lay claim to being the top team in Lee County.  Coach Jorge Fleitas has done a great job of building the Viking program.  Verot will compete at Class 2A on Saturday in Englewood and the girls lead by Julia Reitz, Mackenzie De Lisle and Kylie Thomas are on a path to Tallahassee.  If the squad can peak in three weeks they could land a top ten finish at State.  The boys squad is in a tougher spot and will be fortunate to qualify to Region with the hope of moving an individual or two on to State.  Freshman Andrew Marino and Zielke are peaking at the right time.

Hayden Tank of SFCA is the most improved boy in Lee County.  Winning Thursday on his home course at the Class 1A District would mean a major upset as he faces one of the top runners in Florida, Tristan McWilliam from Out of Door Academy.  Tank's SFCA squad should advance to Region and appear in form to go to State.  Charlie Meagher from Canterbury should advance as well.  On the girl's side at the same meet is Lee County's top star Ava Povich.  She has no peers.  She will advance to Tallahassee where she will face the toughest field in the state of Florida.  A top five finish for Povich will be nothing to be ashamed of.  Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci figures to advance to Tallahassee as well.

The biggest clash of area schools happens Thursday at Estero Park when the slew of Class 3A schools from Lee and Collier County will face off for the handful of spots to advance to Region.  When it comes to individuals, Estero's senior distance star Kolton Pickard looks impossible to beat.  Bernardo Barnhart from Palmetto Ridge and Colsen Palmer from Fort Myers will do their best to chase Pickard down. 

When it comes to a boys time title Fort Myers is finally getting healthy and looks to be in the drivers seat.  Naples will give the Green Wave everything it can handle.  When it comes to other potential qualifiers from that District Dunbar, Cape Coral, Palmetto Ridge and Ida Baker should be in the mix.

The girl's individual race looks to be a bit more muddled.  Naples freshman find Tara Watkins appears to be the favorite but Olivia Olney a junior from Fort Myers showed what smart racing looks like in taking the LCAC crown last Saturday.  And the team title will boil down between Naples and Fort Myers.  Given the injuries that have crippled the Green Wave this season it would appear that Naples would have the upper hand.  Both teams are almost sure bets to advance to Tallahassee.

Pickard's Back

We've hit the midway point of the Florida high school cross country season.  Things haven't unfolded as one would have suspected among the Lee County squads, mainly due to injuries.  That could shake things up, especially on the girl's side.

Estero senior star Kolton Pickard is back.  A freak injury thanks to the stupid a coach and his girl's team deciding to cross the Fort Myers Invitational course in front of the lead pack of boys led to Pickard tweaking his hamstring.  Pickard now has back to back wins at Lely and at the Hoka FlRunners meets to show that his form is just fine.

The surprise of the season on the boy's side is Hayden Tank of SFCA.  He's picked up right where big brother Ethan left off. Tank finished a respectable 5th in Lakeland, just 30 seconds behind Pickard.  With Cooper Banks ditching cross country for soccer, Tank, just a junior, appears to be the top small school harrier in Lee County.

When it comes to which Lee County boy's team will lay claim to the number one spot, standby.  Fort Myers and Dunbar aren't exactly shining right now.  Both teams appear ready to make a run to State but neither has raced particularly well.  Fort Myers made a decent showing at North Port two weeks ago with Dunbar notably in need of a stronger number five runner.  Neither team raced particularly well this weekend at Hoka FlRunners.

The biggest surprise among the Lee County ranks is a diminutive freshman from Bishop Verot.  Mackenzie De Lisle gave up gymnastics to take up running.  She's helped turn the Vikings into the top girl's cross country squad in Lee County.  De Lisle has shown progress week to week and Verot's depth has helped them leap frog past Fort Myers and Estero.

If Fort Myers can be healthy they could top Bishop Verot.  Senior Amy Meng, a top five finisher at State last year, has been dealing with nagging injuries.  One of the Green Wave's other top runners, sophomore Elizabeth McHugh, is on the comeback trail from a stress fracture.  Fort Myers can still make a run to State without two of its top runners as could the Estero girls.

A lot of inter-county bragging rights will be on the line this weekend at the Bishop Verot Invitational on Saturday.  Assuming all of the top runners in Lee County participate, the meet will mark the last time schools both large and small will face off against each other.

Injuries upending the form chart for Southwest Florida high school cross.

We're a third of the way through the march to post-season high school cross countries and injuries are playing a significant roll in two areas. The expectation that Fort Myers High's girl's cross country team will dominate Southwest Florida seems a bit suspect.  Green Wave ace harrier Amy Meng struggled through a summer of  injuries.  Meng is in shape.  Just not the type of shape that conforms to her high standards and that leaves Fort Myers vulnerable.  

Then there are the ongoing calf issues nagging promising sophomore Elizabeth McHugh.  Fort Myers can afford to lose one of these two talented runners but a run to state will be dependent on at least one of these young women getting healthy.  Naples is its usual solid self and Estero is showing signs of life after last seasons disappointments.  Cape Coral and Palmetto Ridge could have a say on who makes to State by seasons end if those squads solidify their number four and five runners.

While Meng is on the comeback ECS junior Ava Povich has ascended to the top of the Southwest Florida cross country scene and it's not even close.  She has the ability to break 18 minutes for 5 kilometers by seasons end. The surprising newcomer of the season is Bishop Verot freshman Mackenzie De Lisle.  A complete novice to the sport, you can see her learning at each meet and growing in confidence claiming her highest finish to date claiming fifth at the Fort Myers Invitational.  If Bishop Verot's four and five show some improvement they certainly lay claim as the best girl's cross country team in Lee County.

The boy's side of things took a nasty tumble Saturday night.  Estero's senior star Kolton Pickard was clipped in a stupid accident when an unknown girl's team led by their ignorant coach tried to cross the narrow course in the middle of the boy's race.  Pickard went down with what appeared to be a nasty hamstring injury.  A minor hamstring issue will take at least two weeks to mend, a major one could take a month or more.

Pickard's misfortune opened the door for Palmetto Ridge junior Bernardo Barnhart to take the win.  Fort Myers #1 Colsen Palmer wasn't far behind in second.  Those three look to be the top trio in Southwest Florida assuming Pickard heals quickly.  The impressive part of Saturday night's race came from Lehigh senior Evan Meyer.  Early in the race he looked out of it but he picked his way through the field to finish fifth behind Southwest Florida's most improved runner, Hayden Tank from SFCA.

The top boys from Dunbar who should figure in the mix have been laying low the last couple of weeks.  The Dunbar team along with Fort Myers and Naples will face off this weekend in North Port.  This race will answer a lot of questions about where things are headed as we make it to qualifying for State in six weeks.

So It Begins

I'm not planning on blogging every week about the high school cross country season but since the News-Press decided that the season opener was only worth a slew of great photos, and yes they were great, I thought I should write something.  Before I dive into what I saw in Buckingham I want to write about Robert Chatham.  You've never heard of him.  He was my first high school cross country coach.

Mr. Chatham passed away over the weekend.  He was a great biology and a great cross country coach in Abilene, Kansas.  I only got to run part of my freshman year for him as our family moved back to Lawrence.  The team was a good one finishing third in the state.  He nurtured my love of the sport by sharing his knowledge and even a book, "The Long Green Line," by legendary York XC Coach Joe Newton.  

Now as to the Dunbar Tiger Jamboree.  The course was short, probably by more than 100 meters.  It was seriously muddy in parts of it.  But for a mid-August morning the weather was fairly forgiving.

The girl's race went according to form.  ECS junior Ava Povich won easily.  The top returning area runner, Fort Myers senior Amy Meng is coming off an injury and finished 7th.  I think Meng will be back to her dominating self by the end of the season but I don't think Povich is going to lose very often this season.  Their rematch at the Fort Myers Invitational in three weeks will be a better test.

The surprise of the meet was a diminutive freshman from Bishop Verot. In her first ever cross country race Mackenzie De Lisle finished tenth.  She's a former gymnast who appears to have loads of upside.  Verot appears ready to give Fort Myers all it can handle for bragging rights in Lee County.

The boys race didn't go according to form.  The pre-meet hype focused on Osceola senior William Stone.  But Fort Myers senior Colsen Palmer wasn't having any of it cruising to an easy victory and leading his Green Wave squad to a team title.  Fort Myers is going to be tough this year but if Dunbar ever finds a fifth runner things could get interesting.

 

Cross County 2021

If you read the Fort Myers News-Press/Naples Daily News preview of the upcoming high school cross country season, you have a pretty good idea of the athletes who should be making an impact this fall.  The News-Press changed my copy a bit because I declared that the King and Queen of Southwest Florida XC are coming back this fall.  That would be Kolton Pickard of Estero and Amy Meng of Fort Myers, both seniors.

I don't see anyone challenging Pickard for supremacy on the boys side this season.  The next two, three, four and five will be a real interesting mix of some pretty solid seniors.  Evan Meyers of Lehigh and Colsen Palmer of Fort Myers seem like the two guys of giving Pickard a real run for his money.  Meyers has took Pickard's scalp once last season.  Then if Dunbar coach Ray Romero peaks his guys like he did last season, Ryan Livingston and Ivan Marin-Padilla will have a say in the matter.

The thing that could hurt Pickard this season is a lack of a supporting cast.  The ranks on the boys side at Estero are painfully thin.  Fortunately for the Wildcats, the girls team is loaded with talent and should make a run at making it to Tallahassee for States.

Speaking of girls, Amy Meng is the consummate cross country runner.  She's not afraid to run big miles.  The question this fall is whether ECS junior standout Ava Povich has packed on enough mileage from her summer in Michigan to close the gap between the Green Wave senior and herself. The battles between Meng and Povich should be epic. 

The strongest team boys or girls on paper should be Fort Myers.  The Green Wave return a stellar top three with Meng, Olivia Olney and Elizabeth McHugh.  The next two, Lily Harris and Rory Pandini are no slouches either and Dinah Ceilley along with Elsa Marcet will give them depth.  And don't get me started on the incoming freshmen.

The cross country talent across Lee County is strong.  The fireworks begin this Saturday with the Dunbar Tiger Jamboree.  Running 5,000 meters in the August heat is insane but that's what makes it interesting, it's like Survivor, you find out who's really smart and fit.

It Can Only Get Better

I had planned on writing something sooner about the real end of the track season for Southwest Florida but I lacked both motivation and desire.  The high school and collegiate post season landed like a thud.  And don't even ask me about the Olympic Trials.  Add the events of this week which was truly awful and well.

We'll start with the good.  Canterbury's Jessica Edwards ended her storied career at the end of May clocking a 2:08.06 at the Golden South series for the win.  Arkansas's Krissy Gear a, Fort Myers High grad, landed another All-American honor placing 5th at the NCAA 1500 and then sticking around Eugene, Oregon for the Olympic Trials.  The wear and tear of a long season was in evident as Gear soaked in the experience of running the 1,500 and Steeple heats while failing to advance at the Trials.  We're predicting fireworks for Gear in 2022 with the World Championships being hosted in Eugene.

Least we forget Sierra and Moriah Oliveira, mere freshmen at the University of Miami, helped lead their 4x400 squad to the NCAA's.  Unfortunately the Hurricanes didn't make it into the finals.  Finally Fort Myers grad Jacob Lemmon scored All-American honors with a fifth place finish in the discus for the University of Virginia.

So there was plenty to write more than two weeks ago when the Trials wrapped up but inspiration was lacking.  Then this week happened.  Dunbar coach Guy Thomas died from COVID.  News quickly followed that Lely coach Mark McGarity had lost his battle with cancer.  I didn't know McGarity.  I just knew that he was a driving force in the Collier County running community.

Coach Thomas I had gotten to know about six years ago.  I had gone to him at a cross country meet offering him help with his kids who didn't have spikes.  I'm pretty sure he thought I was a loon.  It took a couple of years but Coach finally came around and believed me when I said I would do what I could to help his program.  Guy Thomas was a force of nature.  He worked hard to help his community and to help his athletes achieve their best.

This past season may have been his crowning achievement as his boys team finished 3rd and his girls 6th at the Florida State High School Track and Field Championships.  Hurdlers Leonard Mustari and Lucheyona Weaver were the two jewels of the Tiger program.  Both athletes are headed to collegiate spring powerhouse, North Carolina A&T.

Given the weeks events one wouldn't have been surprised if Mustari and Weaver might not put in good performances at this week's AAU national championships.  But both athletes captured their respective events and Mustari added gold in the long jump.  It was a fitting tribute to their great coach.  It was an uplifting way to end the week.  

It's going to be a long month of introspection as we head to the high school cross country season which begins in a mere month.     

Track 2021

The end of the 2021 Florida high school track and field season was marked by the end of an epic career of one of Southwest Florida's greatest runners. Lee County has had an incredible string of  middle distance runners over the last half decade.  Krissy Gear of Fort Myers, Hugh Brittenham of Estero, and Sierra Oliveira of ECS enjoyed fantastic success at the prep level.  Gear's 2017 triple gold performance over 800, 1600 and 3200 meters is the Mount Everest of Lee County success.  Last Friday Jessica Edwards of Canterbury did her best to emulate Gear's feat.  

Edwards made some tough choices given the tight schedule and the tough distance corps from Cambridge Christian.  Justifiably she went team first in choosing the 4x800 relay and 4x1600 relay along with her signature event, the 800, over a tough 1600 field in Class 1A.  Edwards flew through the 4x800 pulling her team from sixth to third with a 2:13 split.  

The 800 followed in the midst of the brutal midday heat.  It was not her finest effort, in fact Jessica Edwards ran one of her worst 800's of the season to win easily 2:16.79.  The race left Edwards spent and throwing up after the finish.  It seemed there wasn't much gas left in the tank as she prepared to anchor the Cougar's 4x400 team.  

Down 40 meters when she received the baton, Edwards showed remarkable composure, easing into the race rather than blasting at away in pursuit of her rivals.  The gap was the same with 300 meters to go as Edwards began her stunning run down the back stretch, closing the gap to 10 meters with 150 to go.  The Florida bound athlete rolled past the two other competitors helping her team win gold with a 55.3 split.  It's easily one of the best relay legs I've ever watched and cemented her place as a Lee County middle distance great.  The hug at the finish from big sister Emily says it all. 

The season was so much more than Edwards.  Ava Povich showed more grit and determination after a disappointing 9th place finish in the 1,600.  The ECS sophomore endured the searing heat to run 11:08.63 in the 3200 to grab third place and record the fastest time by any Lee County girl this season at that distance.  A sub-11 minute performance awaits Povich's junior campaign.

Estero junior Kolton Pickard was undoubtedly disappointed with his fifth place finish in the 1,600.  His time of 4:22.84 fell short of the early season promise that Pickard displayed over 1600 and 3200 meters.  He undoubtedly was the best distance runner among Lee County boys this season.  Sub 4:15 and sub 9:10 has to be the goals for the 2022 season.

While I focus this blog on the distance scene in Lee County I would feel remiss in not mentioning the great season across the board shown by the boys and girls at Dunbar High School.  The Tigers hurdle duo of Leonard Mustari and Lucheyona Weaver are two of the best Lee County hurdlers ever seen and rate among the nation's best at both the sprint hurdles and 300 hurdle events.  It took a state record in the long jump by Curtis Williams to keep Mustari from triple gold.  I would have to think Mustari's 24-9 3/4 jump may be the best the county has ever seen.  Both Mustari and Weaver are headed to national sprint power North Carolina A&T.

Hopefully we'll have one more track blog as many of these super athletes head into the post season.

Three Big Things: Fear and Loathing on the Road to State

Forgive me for I have sinned.  In the previous two blogs I completely failed to mention Lehigh and their distance standout Evan Meyer.  I won't make that mistake again.  Evan is one of 14 individuals who will make the journey to Jacksonville to compete in the Florida High School Track and Field Championships.  Many of those 13 will be part of the 4x800 relay teams competing in the four classes that Florida serves up for the sport.

1.  If you were going to wager money on any of these races the sure bet is Canterbury senior Jessica Edwards in the Class 1A 800.  She clocked a 2:09.13 over the weekend for an easy win.  Her teammate Giana D'Altrui also qualified as did the Cougars' 4x800 team.  Edwards split a 2:12 in the relay along with a 55 in the 4x400.  Another Cougar, Gabrella Santucci clocked a fine 11:58.05 to join ESC sophomore standout Ava Povich in the 3,200.  Povich ran a PR 11:16.26 along with a qualifying time in the mile of 5:19.65.  Both girls will have their hands full against the superb distance squad from Cambridge Christian.

2.  The Class 3A qualifiers from Lee County is a who's who of the best boys and girls in the county.  Estero junior Kolton Pickard easily held off Ida Baker's Jacob Fritz with a 4:22.03 in the 1,600.  This time came a couple of hours after he split 1:55 to qualify the Wildcat squad in the 4x800 along with Dunbar in a race won by Fort Myers High led by a 1:56 split by senior Liam Holston.  The Green Wave was just a half second off the school record.  The Fort Myers and Cape Coral girls qualified their 4x800 teams with Fort Myers junior Amy Meng the only distance qualifier as an individual in the 3,200 clocking a 11:58.23 in the sweltering heat while Dunbar senior Ogler Bartolon also advanced in the boys race running 9:57.2.

3.  Lehigh competes in the state's largest class 4A.  Evan Meyer, a junior, ran 4:26.63 to qualify in the 1,600 where he will face Nease superstar Rheinhardt Harrison.  Meyer also helped his Lightning team qualifying in the 4x800.  In Class 2A, Bishop Verot qualified a pair of 800 runners, sophomores Cooper Banks for the boys and Julia Reitz for the girls.  Verot's boys qualified their 4x800 team but shockingly the girls just missed out on making it to Jacksonville.

Editor's note:  I failed to mention the fact that the Canterbury boys squad qualified in the 4x800 as well.  They did it with sophomore standout Charlie Meagher unknowingly running on a stress fracture.  Here's to a super fast recovery for Charlie.

Three Big Things: Districts Part Two

We had to wait a week to wrap up all of the District competitions in Southwest Florida with the final meet finishing up Friday afternoon.  Goodness knows why the run most of the track and field competitions in Lee County in the middle of the day.  The final meet at Evangelical Christian School produced some sterling performances.

1.  Ethan Tank did his thing.  The SFCA senior pulled off a triple winning the 1,600, 800 and 3,200 in easy fashion.  In fact if I didn't know any better, the 4:53.94, 207.7 and 10:32.51 looked like a glorified workout.  Tank has a shot a making it through Regions in the 1,600 and 3,200 but the 800 would be a surprise.  He did a superb job of pacing his brother Hayden to second place finishes in the 1,600 and 3,200.  Katie Russo has done an excellent job in getting the boys at SFCA to a competitive level.

2.  ECS had one shining star in their distance ace, Ava Povich.  The sophomore powered her way to double wins in the 1,600 and 3,200.  She easily won the first race in 5:23.01 and then ran an amazingly fast 11:18.91 in the heat putting a half lap on runner up rival Katie Beam from FBA.  Povich looks ready to break 11 minutes on a good weather day.

3.  The queen of the meet didn't disappoint.  Canterbury superstar senior Jessica Edwards anchored two relay teams to victory, the 4x800 and 4x400 sandwiching the fastest high school time by a Lee County girl on Lee County soil for the 800 in between.  Edwards ran an evenly paced 2:09.42, the eighth fastest time in the United States so far this year.  Part of me was disappointed in the fact that she skipped the 1,600.  But I certainly understand her decision.  The 1A 1,600 will be stacked this year with two girls already at 4:45 or better.  Running a sub 5 at State for third certainly isn't as appealing as trying to run a super 800.  

The various Region meets are next weekend with State the following weekend in Jacksonville.

Three Big Things: Districts Part One

Lee County high school distance runners battled heat and humidity as they started their journey to the State Championships next month in Jacksonville.  Nobody ran exceptionally fast due to the conditions.  Three different meets featured the public high schools in the county plus Bishop Verot.  The other private high schools in the county compete in their district meets later this week.

1.  We'll start with Bishop Verot's trip up to Sarasota.  Both Verot's boys and girls 4x800 teams won their district titles.  The boys were led by Cooper Banks who also made it to Regions by winning the 800 and taking second in the 400.  Antonio Portes advanced in both the 1,600 and 3,200, taking the win in the later. Among the Viking girls, Julia Reitz scored two wins in the 800 and 1,600 and ran on their 4x800 team.  

2.  Fort Myers showed its distance domination at its District meet held at Cypress Lake High School.  The Green Wave boys dominated taking the 4x800.  Then two Fort Myers boys advanced in the 800 as Liam Holston taking the win and teammate Paul Kolson hot on his heels for second.  Ida Baker's Jacob Fritz used a blistering kick to hold off a trio of Green Wave boys to take the 1,600 win in a season's best 4:31.89 while Dunbar's Oglar Bartolon easily took the 3,200.  Fritz also advanced in the 800.  It should be noted that Fort Myers junior Colsen Palmer advanced to Regions in both the 1,600 and 3,200.

On the girl's side Lucy Castro-Waters of Cape Coral took the 800 and helped her team win the 4x800.  Green Wave senior Anna Fischler ran a PR 5:27.81 to capture the 1,600 and junior teammate Amy Meng 11:50.56 to easily win the 3,200.  Fort Myers also qualified its girl's 4x800 team.

3.  Estero found itself in Naples competing against the Collier County schools.  Kolton Pickard showed why he's the best distance runner in Southwest Florida taking both the 1,600 and 3,200.  Pickard ran just hard enough to win running well off of his season bests.  The Wildcat junior also anchored his 4x800 team to a second place District finish.  Estero 4x800 relay member Isaiah Depina also advanced in the 800 taking second.  The Estero girls didn't fare quite as well with only Madison Hood advancing in the 800 and Sofia Bonini in the 3,200.

Three Big Things: Week Nine

The question that may never been answered is how could the neighboring Collier County School District manage to hold a county wide championship for its high schools while the Lee County School District could not.  It is mind boggling.  A lot of top notch runners, jumpers and throwers from across Lee County were denied an opportunity for a second straight year to claim bragging rights for their schools.

None of this nonsense stopped the small, private schools from getting in one more competition before state qualifying begins.  It was a familiar cast of characters taking gold with one up and coming sibling preparing to take big brothers place as a top flight Lee County distance runner.

1.  Jessica Edwards backed up her first sub five 1,600 with another fine performance against a couple of stellar competitors.  Calvary Christian hosted a meet that saw two of its girls reel off a couple of the fastest times in the state.  Caroline Lehman pushed Mary Ellen Eudaly to a stellar 4:47.77.  Lehman finished less than a second back.

Edwards hung tough for three laps before the two Calvary Christian girls sped away but she managed to crack five again clocking 4:59.7.  The Canterbury senior returned to the track to face off against Eudaly in the 800.  The two produced a crackling race with Edwards clocked a superb 2:10.71, three seconds clear of Eudaly.

2.  SFCA and ECS traveled to Collier County for a meet hosted by FBA.  Ethan Tank does what he usually does against the local small school competition.  He easily won the 1,600 in 4:36.95 before doubling back in a rare 800 race.  He clocked a 2:08.71 and won by more than 50 yards.  Then he got to sit back and watch younger brother Hayden take the 3,200 in 10:14.7.  I suspect Hayden will have his eyes on big brothers school records over the next two years.

3.  The other big race at FBA pitting ECS distance ace Ava Povich against FBA's top runner Katie Beam, who is among the best girls out of Collier County.  The two raced over 1,600 meters with Povich taking Beam by just more than a second in 5:24.58.  Povich and Beam will have their hands full trying to get past Edwards in state qualifying.  Their paths to success will lie in the 3,200 in the coming weeks.

District action starts in three days.  Let the state qualifying begin.

Three Big Things: Week Eight

It was the search for the white whale.  Only in this case Ahab was the great female 800 runner in Lee County history.  It seemed ridiculous that Jessica Edwards would go through her storied career without having broken five minutes for 1,600 minutes.  The Canterbury star was on course last season to break that barrier until Covid intervened.  Then last week, under good conditions against a great field, the 1,600 proved to be this super woman's kryptonite once again.  Then when you least expect it... the white whale surfaced.

1.  Jessica Edwards ran 4:58.14 at the Private 8 meet on Wednesday putting aside the mystical barrier.  I haven't spoken to her, but my guess under no stress conditions, this tough as nails runner put her mind to it and just did it.  Edwards then stepped up and ran in not one, not two, but three more events.  

Following her break through 1,600 Edwards had about 20 minutes of rest before winning the 400 in 60.29.  Then after about another 30 minutes Edwards coasted to a victory in the 800, 2:24.76.  She was saving not for the 3,200, no she opted to run the 200 about 30 minutes later.  She only managed second in 26.74.  Let it be known that Bishop Verot's Herrara Geraldine put a harpoon in Edwards the crazy quadruple.  Word is puking was involved after the intense 200.

2.  Kolton Pickard scored a nice double at the Panther Invitational.  The Estero junior distance ace anchored his team's 4x800 team to victory and then scored an easy win in the open 800 in 1:57.98.  Pickard will now have to decide whether he will focus on the 1,600/3,200 double along with relay duties or the 1,600/800.  I'm sure Coach Olitsky has a plan in place and my guess is the 3,200 plays better to Pickard's considerable strength.

3. The regular track and field season is all practical purposes, over.  The cut down District championships are next on the calendar in more than a week.  It brings to question why Lee County chose not to hold a county championship for its public schools?  It's a mixed bag with Covid in mind but a handful of Florida counties are holding championships.  Last year's seniors and this year's seniors have missed out on so much.  It seems a shame that some of Lee County's best track and field athletes aren't getting a chance to face off one last time. 

  

 

Three Big Things: Week Seven

This week of racing boiled down to these three big things: 1. Dunbar, 2. Dunbar, 3. Dunbar.  The inaugural Dunbar Tigers Invitational addressed one of my biggest pet peeves with high school track and field.  Coaches Guy Thomas and Ray Romero staged one mile races for high school boys and girls instead of the bastardized 1,600 meters usually run at high school meets.  One of my biggest grievances about the federations that rule high school track is they don't run either the mile or 1,500 meters rather than a distance, 1,600 that is run nowhere else in the world.  

My other grievance is that the silly high school rules forced any of the athletes who entered the mile races to run unattached.  I watched as freaked out athletes were told to pull off their uniform tops and turn them inside out so they don't face the risk of being disqualified for the rest of their outdoor track and field season.  It is an arbitrary and archaic rule that needs to go away.

I was on hand to watch the elite miles and both the boys and girls races lived up to expectations with one surprise.  The weather was decent, a bit warm at 76 with a touch of humidity and a brisk cross wind.  Javier Vento from distance powerhouse Belen Jesuit ran a picture perfect 4:09.26 timing his kick to perfection.  Seeing a boy break 4:10 in a high school only race doesn't happen often.  

Southwest Florida's top entrant, Kolton Pickard from Estero, never looked comfortable.  He had trouble settling into the pack and yo-yo'd around before throwing in the towel, literally walking across the finish line in 4:20.56.  Pickard is in sub 4:15 shape.  Pickard staged a nice comeback doubling back to win the 3,200 in 9:37.2.  He's going to be a major factor at the state meet.

The surprise came in the girl's race that held the promise of Canterbury's Jessica Edwards getting the chance to finally break five minutes over four laps.  600 meters in you could see the look of panic in Edwards eyes as Carly McNatt and Krystal Rodriguez broke the race open.  Rodriguez powered past McNatt to win in 4:57.8.  Meanwhile, a frustrated Edwards finished in 9th in 5:16.65.  

The big local story was Elizabeth Williamson.  The Cape Coral 8th grader ran 5:08.9 to finish fifth.  One area high school is going to get a certified stud next year.

The kicker to this day of distance running (excuse the pun) was a showdown in the girl's 800 between Edwards and Miami based stud Cha'iel Johnson, daughter of NFL great Chad Johnson.  Based on the mile one would think it wouldn't be much of a race.  But Edwards showed why she is the best 800 runner in the state clocking a 2:10.62 to beat Johnson handily.  Given it was her second race of the day and it came during the hottest part of the day, it's an amazing performance.  Sub-five can wait.  

Three Big Things: Week Six

We've hit the midway mark in Florida's high school track and field season.  This week held a lot of promise for some earth shattering races but sometimes things don't fall the way you think they should.  A lot of it had to do with the weather.  It was plenty cool, but the winds didn't cooperate.  In fact the combination of cooler than normal weather and wind made conditions more than miserable for competition, especially at the big meet at Satellite Beach.

1.  The Viking Relays held a lot of promise.  I was hoping for a showdown between in the girl's 1,600 between Ava Povich and Jessica Edwards.  Instead, Edwards opted for relay stints and Bishop Verot's Julia Reitz stepped up to make it a battle of sophomores when she toed the line against Povich.  Reitz came out on top over the ECS distance ace winning in 5:23.65, just a couple of ticks faster than Povich.  

2.  Canterbury's Jessica Edwards is putting in a monster season.  She started last Friday off by anchoring her team to a win in the 4x800 in a respectable 9:52.85, the fastest time so far this season in Southwest Florida.  Edwards blasted a 2:11.35 split.  The senior backed it up with a 5:21.62 1,600 carry in helping her team win the Distance Medley Relay.

3.  Satellite Beach was host to Rheinhardt Harrison's much hyped attempt at breaking 4 minutes in the mile.  Estero junior Kolton Pickard found himself in that race eying four laps in under 4:15.  The weather was miserable and Harrison paced himself to a 4:06 while Pickard battled the conditions to finish third in 4:27.52.  It was a rough trip to the east coast for Lee County distance runners although Fort Myers High Paul Kolson managed a respectable 1:59.79 800 and another Fort Myers senior Anna Fischler ran a 1,600 PR in 5:29.71.  

Another big mile is on tap Saturday afternoon at the Dunbar Invitational.  It will be interesting to see who decides to show up for a traditional mile rather than the 1,600.  Plus the weather will play a role.  If the cool temperatures stick around look for some fast times.

Three Big Things: Week Five

Southwest Florida's track and field season is going full bore and the great weather in mid-March offered athletes a chance to deliver some stellar performances.  As the temperatures begin to heat up the opportunities to run fast will be fewer and farther between and with no big meet showdowns at Florida State and Florida local competition will have to do.

1.  Estero junior Kolton Pickard is beginning to look like he can be mentioned in the same breath as Wildcat legends Erick Montoya and Hugh Brittenham.  After anchoring Estero's 4x800 team to victory at the South Fort Myers Invitational, Pickard rolled to a 9:29.9 3,200 as the sunset on a breezy Friday evening.  The time puts him a good 20 seconds up on the next fastest Lee County boy.  Given the path that Pickard is on he could become one of the few runners to break 9:15 and 4:15 in Lee County history.

2.  Ethan Tank took down another school record at North Port.  This time Tank rolled to a 4:33.11 1,600 in placing a respectable third.  The SFCA senior now owns both the 1,600 and 3,200 records for the Kings.  If he keeps progressing through the season a podium spot in one of these two events isn't out of the question at State.

3.  Jessica Edwards will grow tired of me writing about her close but no cigar running when it comes to her efforts to break 5 minutes over 1,600.  The Canterbury senior was pushed at the North Port meet but her victory only netted her a 5:03.88.  More impressive is Edwards doubled back with a 2:12.8 over 800.  Based on her 800 Edwards is capable of running well under 4:55, but I'm pretty sure she's tired of hearing about it.

As an aside so far four Lee County boys have broken 10 minutes for 3,200 meters.  Besides Pickard and Tank, Dunbar's Ogler Bartolon joined Fort Myers junior Colsen Palmer in the sub 10 club.

The Twins

I'm old and I forget stuff.  I have been shamefully woeful in tracking the freshman indoor track season of the greatest dynamic duo ever produced by Evangelical Christian School in Fort Myers.  Of course I speak of the Oliveira twins, Moriah and Sierra.  The 400 and 800 meter specialists respectfully signed with the University of Miami.  The U is a pretty stout track and field power.  While not at the level of Florida and Florida State. Miami produces great track and field athletes.

I am opiniated about what I think these two sensational runners could accomplish.  I felt that both needed to move up in distance, Moriah to the 800 and Sierra to the 1500.  I think they did a heck of a job of proving my opinion wrong.

Miami had a shortened indoor schedule but the twins were front and center in their meager schedule leading up the ACC Indoor Track and Field Championships were they shined.  We'll start with Sierra were she dropped a major PR bomb in the 800 running 2:07.81 to qualify into the finals.  Meanwhile Moriah was doing her thing in the 400 prelims running 54.52 to qualify for Saturday's finals when both girls would run.  And boy did they.

Moriah was up at the track three weeks ago in Clemson smashing her PR running 54.08 to place second in the ACC.  A great accomplishment for a freshman in a conference full of super sprinters.  Sierra followed a short time later in the 800 where 2:08.36 to score points with a respectable 8th place finish.

The fireworks came at the end of the meet when the twins led the Hurricanes to the ACC title in the 4x400 meter relay.  Both girls ran splits in the 53's and Moriah earlier in the season split a sub 53 in a relay.  The Hurricanes finished second in the race for the team title thanks to the 19 points scored by the twins.

The Oliveira Twins have made an amazing transformation from a small school track and field program into a NCAA Division I powerhouse without skipping a beat.  I suspect they are future All Americans in the making.

Krissy's Big Weekend

More than a year ago Krissy Gear's running career was at a cross roads.  Out of high school, the Fort Myers grad had taken a scholarship to run for Furman, a second tier distance power in South Carolina.  Her decision led to a couple a spot on the U.S. junior national team her freshman year after winning junior nationals in the steeple.  She ran in two NCAA outdoor championships and despite an injury plagued junior year ran on Furman's NCAA championship qualifying cross country team in the fall of 2019.

The follow is my opinion.  I don't know what was going on at Furman with her coach but I thought that Gear's career was being mishandled.  Gear had shown great promise in the 800 and mile indoors.  Yet every outdoor season she was forced to focus on the steeple.  I was disappointed that she was never given any serious consideration to try her hand in the 1500.

Gear is a marvelous athlete.  She was a state caliber pole vaulter in high school.  I suspect Furman's coaches believed that her athleticism made her the perfect candidate to steeple.  I could be wrong in interpreting the situation but even Colorado steeple sensation Jenny Barringer was given the opportunity by the coach's at Colorado gave her opportunities to run flat races.  Barringer has gone on to the greatest middle distance runner in American history.

I'm not saying Krissy is Jenny Barringer.  But I suspect Krissy was frustrated at Furman's reluctance to let her run more outdoor 800 and 1500 races.  That and other personal reasons led Gear to transfer to Arkansas at the end of the 2019 cross country season.

You could immediately see the change in atmosphere was just what Krissy Gear needed.  She was poised to run her first indoor NCAA championship last winter when Covid brought her season to an end.  The wait was on.

The wait paid off this weekend Fayetteville where a very busy Gear helped her Razorback team win a national title.  Krissy ran three races.  Her weekend start with the mile Friday night where Gear ran a masterful 4:40.92 to win her heat and move into Saturday's final.  ESPN showcased Gear cheering on her teammates who ran the next prelim trying to join her in the finals.  Her love and passion for her teammates was brimming over.

 About an hour later she was back on the track for the finals of the Distance Medley Relay.  Gear with a race in her legs was given the baton for the final leg neck and neck with Brigham Young's Courtney Wayment who was running on fresh legs.  A half mile out, Wayment made a major surge gapping Gear by 15 meters.  You could tell Gear was gaging her effort making sure that the group of team trailing her in third didn't cut into her sizeable margin over that pack.

With a lap to go it Wayment had stretched her lead to 40 meters while Gear held her form and keeping her position and nailing down a second place finish for the Razorbacks.  Gear could now call herself an All American.  Wayment would follow up Friday's run by winning the 3000 Saturday night.

Saturday night also brought Gear back to the world class facilities in Fayetteville where she would face Colorado's Sage Hurta. The Buffalo senior had not run in the Distance Medley so she had one less race in her legs.  By the half it was clear the race would be between Gear and Hurta with the Colorado ace slowly pulling away over the last three laps to a personal best in 4:30.58 to win and Gear taking second in her second best time ever in the mile clocking 4:32.37.

The Razorbacks wrapped up the national title by scoring a boat load of points in the 3000 and Gear was track side to celebrate with her teammates.  You could tell the team championship meant more to Krissy than anything.  Plus, Krissy is now a two-time All American at a national distance, track and field power.  Not bad for an overlooked and under recruited track legend from Fort Myers High.

Three Big Things: Week Four

Just when you thought it would be a relatively quiet weekend of high school distance running all heck breaks loose.  The usual suspects were on hand playing beat the clock along with some new names.  It was a pretty awesome week.

1.  Ava Povich, come on down.  The ECS sophomore standout scored a sparkling double at the CSN meet in Naples on Saturday.  First Povich tangled with the top dog in the girl's 1,600, Canterbury's Jessica Edwards.  For Jess it was another close but no cigar performance running 5:01.4 in her endless quest to break five minutes.  Povich ran a fine 5:18.19 to place second.

The sparkling run from Povich came in the 3,200.  Povich ran the fastest time so far this spring by a Lee County girl crushing an 11:18.54 to win. It's seems almost certain Povich should run under 11 minutes by the end of the season.  

And in case you were wondering, Jess Edwards doubled back in the 800 running a fine 2:17.18.  That's a powerful double so early in the season.

2.  Estero junior Kolton Pickard ran a stunning 1,600 Friday night at the Edison Relays.  On an awful track Pickard clocked 4:18.66.  Put him in spikes on a good track and that's worth sub 4:15 easy.  Just add icing to the cake Pickard doubled back on Saturday in Naples to anchor Estero's Distance Medley Relay.  Word is he ran around 4:23.  We don't have word on any other splits he might have recorded or if he ran in the 4x800 or 4x1600.

3.  Ethan Tank took down his school record in the 3,200.  Running 9:46.97, the SFCA senior now has the fastest 3,200 of the season in Lee County.  If Tank stays healthy low 9:30's should be in his future.

Finally, a shoutout to Fort Myers senior Anna Fischler who ran a big PR in the 3,200 at the Purrish Meet in North Fort Myers on Thursday.  Fischler's 11:54.74 puts her behind teammate Amy Meng and Povich as the fastest girls in the 3,200, although Edwards ran easily under 11:30 last spring in her lone 3,200.

Three Big Things: Week Three

Same song, different verse as we rolled through week three of outdoor track and field in Southwest Florida.  Doubles were the name of the game with one that we see as more than a bit quirky.  We'll start with the Friday night action.

1. The Viking Elite Classic turned into a distance fest for the boys from Fort Myers. Senior Liam Holston took an easy win in the 1600 in 4:33.38 before blasting a huge personal best in the 800 clocking 1:58.91 for his second victory of the night.  The night was capped by Green Wave junior Colsen Palmer taking the 3200 with his first trip under 10 minutes.

Scanning the results I spied something unusual.  Canterbury senior Jessica Edwards opted to run just the 200.  She took second in 25.84.  I wondered what was going on and the answer to my question would come two days later.

2.  Estero's Kolton Pickard is making a statement early as the man to beat in the 1,600.  On Saturday the Wildcat junior won in the fastest time of the season in 4:20.67 in Naples.  Pickard doubled back to win the 3200 in 9:53.03, also the fastest Lee County time so far this season.  The icing to the cake was a 1:58 split for Estero's 4x800 which clocked an 8:12.  We await the fireworks when Pickard and Holston face off over 1600.

3.  The Jessica Edwards double mystery was answered on Sunday.  The national class 800 specialist had made the trip to Virginia Beach to face some national class competition at the Adidas Indoor Nationals.  Edwards put her nose into it but came up short in placing third running her fastest time of the season in 2:11.59.  Put her outdoors on a regular size track and she's under 2:10.

While we usually just keep tabs on the distance kids in Lee County a couple of Dunbar hurdlers claimed national titles at the Adidas meet.  Leonard Mustari and Lucheyona Weaver took the national titles.  Mustari also claimed the national championship in the long jump with a leap of more than 24 feet.  That's some pretty salty stuff.

Three Big Things: Week Two

The outdoor high school track and field season blasted off this weekend with teams from Lee County traveling all over South Florida to participate in meets.  The Covid restrictions limits the number of teams at any given competition which makes finding meets a real problem for coaches.

1.  The finding a meet issue sent Lee County's best middle distance runner to Miami to compete in the Louis Bing Invitational.  Canterbury's Jessica Edwards faced some stiff competition from one of the nation's up and coming 800 runners Cha'iel Johnson, a sophomore and daughter of football great Chad Johnson.  Edwards had to run a semi-final on Friday which she won under control at just under 2:17.

Johnson and Edwards lined up with a strong wind facing them in the backstretch.  Johnson shot to the lead and Edwards closed easily into the face of the wind, catching Johnson as they headed into the homestretch of the first lap.  They went through in about 64 seconds with Edwards grabbing the lead before heading down the back stretch..

Johnson wasn't ready to give up and made a second move into the face of the wind retaking the wind but she lacked to strength to hold off a hard charging Edwards who pulled away in the last 50 meters running 2:12.99.  It was a big win and a big scalp for Edwards.

2.  Kolton Pickard looks like he's ready for all comers in Lee County.  The Estero junior clocked a 4:04.45 in the 1,500 at the Ida Baker Invitational.  Pickard won by about 15 seconds over Lehigh's Evan Meyer.  His time when converted to the 1,600 puts him a good ten seconds ahead of Fort Myers senior Liam Holston who managed to run a 4:31 at IMG on Saturday.

3.  SFCA senior Ethan Tank rolled to an easy win at Ida Baker in the 3,000.  Tank committed this week to Flagler University.  Tank's time of 9:19.41 under windy conditions is worth a sub 10 minute clocking over the 3,200.  Hopefully we will have an opportunity at some point during the season to see Tank, Pickard, Holston, Meyer, Dunbar's Oglar Bartolon and Fort Myers Paul Kolson show down in a 3,200 meter.  It would make for some hot racing.

Three Big Things: Week One

Track and field is back in Southwest Florida.  Covid restrictions is limiting the number of teams at area meets.  Last year I tried to give blog followers five takeaways from each week but given the numbers we're going to keep it short and sweet.  So as we head into the 2021 season I will break down Three Big Things in an effort to stay on top of the Lee County distance scene.

Thing 1:  I can't wait to see Fort Myers senior Amy Meng tangle with Canterbury senior Jessica Edwards over 3,200 meters.  It's a dream race that may never happen given the way the schedule lines up this season.  Meng opened with an un-pressed 11:48.46 to win the Dunbar opener while Edwards was occupying herself with the shorter distances running a screaming 56.38 in the 400.  Meng also ran a leg on Fort Myers' winning 4x800 team while Edwards ran a respectable third in the 200.  Not bad for one of the nation's best over 800 meters.

Thing 2:  A new distance running force maybe emerging from Ben Pignatone's Lehigh distance crew.  Freshman Gianna Del Pizzo scored double victories in the 800 and 1,600 running 2:32.93 and 5:45.31.  Del Pizzo won both races by sizeable margins.

Thing 3:  It appears Fort Myers senior Liam Holston is on the comeback.  Holston enjoyed a ho-hum cross country season.  He showed a sparkling kick at Dunbar to win the 1,600 4:34.49.  This sets the table for some epic battles with Estero's Kolton Pickard and Lehigh's Evan Meyer who finished second to Holston on Saturday.

My Marathon Journeys: Olympiad Marathon 1994

The 1992 Drake Relays Marathon marked the beginning of a long, downhill slide that I still don't understand to this day.  It's perplexing as I look back on my training logs through 1992.  I ran 11 races through the end of October. 

I had short stints of lackluster training but it was consistent enough that by the end of October I was well over 2,000 miles on the year and ran a decent 17:21 5K despite suffering from nagging calf issues through much of the late summer.  A ten mile run on in mid-November with former Kansas State distance runner Phil Byrne in Des Moines was my last run of the year.  I didn't run again until March 1, 1993.  

That period marked the end of any hope I had of ever being a reasonably decent runner.  I look at the three and a half months of blank pages of my training log and know that my life a complete mess. Little did I know that a year late life would be a complete shit show, but I digress.

I went down a personal rabbit hole that I couldn't pull myself out of.  I had been named acting general manager of the television station where I was working in Topeka, Kansas as news director.  I was hoping that I would get the bump to GM.  Looking back I wasn't ready.

When the owner made the new hire, a fine gentleman by the name of Gary Sotir, I just withdrew into myself.  I can't say enough good things about Gary.  It wasn't until I had left the station in August of 1994 that I realized what a great guy he was.  Gary just wanted to get to know me and understand me and I think it only added to my personal confusion.  I was too immature and too messed up to see that he had my best interests at heart.

1994 was marked by the great flood of the Missouri and Mississippi Valley.  The Topeka area fell victim to the storms that ravaged the Midwest.  I did some of my finest work as a journalist.  But during it all I began planning my exit from KSNT and landed a job at WPSD as news director in Paducah, Kentucky.

The change of scenery didn't help.  I hardly ran but I did bring a fresh injection of energy into a stale news operation that needed some leadership that had experience from outside the market.  I ran my sole race of the year in October, a 10K, in a wheezy 44:07.  

Sometime shortly after that race one of my best friends, Steve Riley, a legendary Masters runner in Kansas asked me to go to the 1994 Boston Marathon with him.  I hadn't run anything longer than seven miles at that point and I didn't have a qualifier.  Steve was persistent, bless him and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

I had two months to prepare for the Olympiad Marathon in St. Louis on February 27th.  Suddenly in late November I actually started doing some long runs.  I got less than a half dozen long runs under my belt during this period and suffered through a nasty bought of the flu in early January.

I was 12 pounds heavier than my last marathon when I toed the line in St. Louis on a 13 degree day.  It was brutally cold, but fortunately there was very little wind.  My October 10K converted to a 3:22 marathon.  I had to break 3:15 to qualify for Boston.  Despite everything, I knew I could do it.

Steve promised to stay with me for the first half even though he was in shape to run under 2:50.  Unbeknownst to me this was one of the hilliest courses in the United States.  It was the course that was run at the 1904 Olympics.  The first half went along easily enough as we passed the half in 1:33:50.  

Steve took off because he wanted to break 3 hours (which he did) and I was on my own.  I went through 15 miles in 6:42 and then a series of major hills began to take their told.  I held on for dear life clicking off my last four miles at about 8:20 pace squeezing out a 3:13:33 and slipping under the BQ that I needed.

I drove back to Paducah self satisfied.  The next morning I woke up sick as a dog.  I walked into the newsroom looking like death, my sinuses completely plugged up.  My boss sent me across the street to his doctor, who fortunately was a fellow runner.  He had a good laugh and gave me a shot that blew out my sinuses.  I went home and spent the rest of the day in bed and was back at work the following day.

My first Boston Marathon was seven weeks away.

My Marathon Journeys: The Drake Relays 1992

Running took a back seat after the 1990 St. George Marathon.  First, I cleaned up on my act.  I decided it was time to be an adult.  Parts of my life that I didn't like I had excised.  People trying to help me felt working on myself and not focusing on running as an escape needed to be part of the plan.

I was in a good place by the spring of 1991.  I was enjoying my job and some six months after St. George I was doing some light training.  Then an opportunity came along that made me do some soul searching.

A personal goal of mine was to be the director of a television news operation by the time I was 35 years old.  That opportunity came along unexpectedly in June and much to my surprise, my boss who had lured me back to Kansas City just two years before, was supportive of my quest.

I took a job in Topeka, Kansas... just an hour down the road and started to shape up a small staff of 20 or so people working for a boss who threw nickels around like manhole covers.  I loved what I was doing because everyday brought with it a different challenge, whether it was people, equipment or shaping the kind of journalism we would practice.

My running began to take slowly take shape.  My very first boss in television news talked me into running the Lake Atwood 10 mile in late July and I skipped along at a leisurely 6:40 pace.  It didn't hurt that it was 45 degrees in August, unheard of summer weather in Western Kansas.  The race told me the wheels were still there.

Training came along slowly in the fall and starting in 1992 I tackled the difficult January classic, Topeka to Auburn Half Marathon in just a shade under 1:31.  Now the time was not great, but the race is nothing but non-stop hills after four miles, a real grind.   It planted a seed that running a spring marathon might be possible.  I was averaging 50 to 60 miles a week on a steady basis.

I followed that up with a 38:10 10K in Manhattan on St. Patrick's Day and by early April I ran a difficult 20K in 1:20.  A final 10K the third week in 36:58 let me know I was in shape to run a sub-three hour marathon.

The target race was Drake Relays Marathon on Saturday April 23rd.  I had no idea what the topography of the course offered.  If I had I probably would have waited to run Grandma's in June.  The course was a real bear.

Saturday morning was a cold one with temperatures just below freezing as snowflakes greeted us in Drake Stadium.  As we headed off the track and out on the roads I felt easy at a couple of ticks over 6:30 pace through five miles.  Then two major hills hit and it dawned on me that this section would be two loops and not a lot of fun.

I hit the half feeling strong in 1:26:10 and clipped those tough hills and settled back into 6:30 pace.  After 18 miles in 6:19 I began to tire.  Mile 20 was in 7:03 and I knew I just had to hang on.  Fortunately the last four miles were gradual downhill and I stopped the bleeding averaging 6:45 pace over the last five miles.

I was in no man's land over the last five miles.  I could see a lone figure catching me two miles from the finish.  I was in a dilemma.  Do I dare push the pace and risk a complete blow up or just hope he'll run out of gas as I ran steady.  Slowly but surely he slid by me with a mile to go.  I just lacked the heart to fight him over the last mile.

I hit the finish in 2:53:59. I had finished 13th overall.  But the man that I let by with a mile to go took third place in my age group taking the last of the awards.  I was incredibly angry with myself.

I was 36 years old and I suffered a mental meltdown after the work that I had put in for this race.  This marked a turning point.  I was done with the marathon, or so I thought.  I was working 50 hours a week and training my ass off.

I  had poured myself into work and the night before the race a work crisis popped that I had to handle over the phone that proved to be a major mental distraction.    Trying to run a television newsroom and trying to be a semi-serious runner is a tough balance.

A large part of me wishes I had kept the self-discipline that running brought as a focal point in my life.  But I had to learn some more hard lessons over the next two years before I finally reached the place where moderation in all things became true words to live by.  And in turn, I wasn't done running marathons, just done worrying about chasing times.

My Marathon Journeys: St. George 1990

A goal is a tenuous journey.  I had career goals.  I had running goals.  I unfortunately didn't have any life goals.  1990 was a journey in which I completed my main running goal of breaking 2:40 at St. George but realized that if I didn't start having some life goals, my professional life and personal life were going to not go the way I wanted.

By the beginning of 1990 I was tired of living in Phoenix, Arizona.  The unrelenting heat and unending brown of the desert was more than I could handle.  I didn't like my job.  It had been promised to be one thing and it became something entirely different without the pay to justify the workload I had been handed and with a boss who ridiculed me in front of my peers.

My old boss in Kansas City wanted me back.  So with some phone diplomacy and some back channel manipulation my Phoenix boss reluctantly agreed to let me go back to Kansas City.  He was reluctant because despite everything I was producing the number one 10 p.m. newscast and thus making a lot of money for the station.

I turned in my resignation on March 19, 1990.  I was training and racing during the first part of 1990 but the results were less than satisfying.  The week after my resignation with a lot of professional pressure off I ran 107 miles.  I hadn't run that many miles in a week since my junior year in high school.  I was thinking ahead to October and St. George.

I ran my next to last race in Phoenix that same week.  The South Mountain YMCA Half Marathon told me that I could run a sub 2:40 marathon.  I ran 1:22:38.  It wasn't anywhere near my personal best but I did it on tired legs and never felt truly stressed in doing it.  

Two weeks later I was back in Kansas City running 21 miles almost every Sunday with my old buddies.  I kept the mileage steady at 60 to 70 miles a week until I raced myself into a nasty cold in mid-May.  It forced me to curtail my training as I headed toward a major early June race.

I ran the Hospital Hill Half Marathon on June 3 hoping to break 1:20 on one of the toughest courses in the nation.  I couldn't take advantage of the downhills and ran 1:20:41.   I finished, took two deep breaths and instantly realized I could run the course again right then and there at the same effort.  The power of the long runs was kicking in.

The last push of serious training didn't begin until the end of August with an 82 mile week.  It was followed with a 94 mile week and a 108 mile week.  That third week culminated in a 26 mile long run in under three hours.

Two weeks later, one week out from the 1990 St. George Marathon, I ran an 8K PR 27:42 and drove to a local high school cross country meet where I won a two mile race about two hours after the 8K.  I was ready to go after St. George.  

The morning of the race the weather was crisp and cold.  The field was made up of more than 2,500 runners.  I was there with my old buddy from Phoenix, Craig Davidson.  I was ready to conquer the race and hoping to serve up a surprise for Craig.

To Craig Davidson, to whom I owe so much

The gun went off and so did Craig.  He shot away from me as I cautiously pattered through the first mile in 6:16.  I wanted to save myself for the big uphill at mile seven.  I hit seven miles in 42:35 and made the one mile climb in a little overly aggressive 6:27.  I paid a price over the next four miles as I recovered rolling through those miles at 6:25 pace.  

I went through the half marathon in 1:21:17 and I was waiting for the first big downhill.  I clocked mile 15 in 5:40 and followed that up with a 5:33.  It was during that 5:33 mile that I rolled by Craig with a wry smile on my face.  I had never beat him.  Craig had a 2:28 marathon to his credit.  He gave me an appreciative grin as I ran by him.  Something tells me he wasn't surprised by my fitness.

Mile 21 was my last fast mile in 5:35.  I was carefully checking myself.  I didn't want to crash and burn as I cruised those final downhill miles.  I knew I had a chance to crack 2:39 as I clocked my 24th mile in 5:58 but I was beginning to feel the effort.  I deliberately backed off running 6:10 miles over the last two.

I hit the finish line in 2:39:24.  It was a personal best by nine minutes.  I was exhausted, coughing up all manner of crud.  I had even managed to score an age group award, something that came as an unexpected bonus to the PR.

It never occurred to me at that point that I needed to set a new running goal.  I was 34 years old.  I didn't think I had the desire to work hard enough to break 2:35.

I was satisfied.  My time placed me in the top 50 and I won an age group award.  I did wonder if I had run more miles in June and July if I could have run a couple of minutes faster.  But what I did got me to where I wanted to be.  

A lot of people will criticize the St. George course because it is so downhill.  But those runners never take into account the difficult hills from mile seven to mile 13 or the pounding your quads take running downhill.  Training for that race by running up and down South Mountain when I lived in Phoenix resulted in surgery to both my achilles in my 25 years later.

Three weeks later on almost no training I ran a 35:25 10K on a super hilly course where marathon legend Dick Beardsley kicked me down for 55th place.  Unfortunately my motivation to continue training was gone.  It would remain buried for nearly a year as I dealt with trying to set my personal life in order and capture a seemingly impossible professional goal.