Things to Do in Tally When You're Dead

 Yes, it's been nine months since I've written a blog.  I don't know if it was semi-retirement, a sudden feeling of angst over the another abrupt ending to the Kansas basketball season or just a lack of enthusiasm about the outdoor track season in Southwest Florida.

You see when I last put fingers to keyboard I was complaining about a nine hour high school track meet.  The only meets I attended last spring that didn't run a couple of  lifetimes were league, district, regions, and my second trip to the Florida High School Track and Field Championships.  It was a rather unsatisfying trip to Jacksonville because granddaughter Masha finished one spot off the podium.  Although it was heartening to see Bishop Verot's MacKenzie DeLisle win her first state title.

While out on a ponderously slow run tonight I decided to dust off the blog and write about a rather interesting trip to Tallahassee, a city I've driven past on I-10 on numerous occasions.  I've avoided making the trip because it's a god awful drive from Fort Myers.  It's a six hour torture test with unpredictable traffic tie ups south of Tampa and again as you drive north of Tampa.

An evening arrival to Florida's State Capitol landed the Czarina and I in a terrible Wyndham Garden hotel.  The place hasn't been updated since the Reagan administration and there's nothing like finding blood spots on your pillow cases.  

On a beautiful Friday we took a visit to the state capitol.  It's rather austere building that looms over the old state capitol that looks like a wreck.  Atop the 22nd floor we were afforded a beautiful view of Tallahassee and the campus of Florida State University.  Other than that the only other excitement came when the Czarina decided to stage a re-enactment of January 6th but fortunately, or unfortunately, neither the House or Senate were in session.

We then took the drive out to Apalachee Regional Park, site of the 2024 Florida High School Cross Country Championships and future host of the World Cross Country Championships.  This course is one of the nicest layouts I've ever seen.  While it pails in comparison to the beauty and the challenges offered by the University of Kansas Rim Rock course Apalachee has plenty of parking and offers spectators decent options for viewing the racing.

I was in Tallahassee to cover the meet for the Fort Myers News-Press and to catch my granddaughter Masha's final cross country meet running for Fort Myers High School.

Nothing in Masha's early season meets suggested what was to come.  She showed progress year over year from meet to meet but she didn't score her first victory and first ever league title winning by more than a minute.  After interviewing her for the paper I suggested that she shouldn't discount her chances at winning State.  No one in her division was running out of her minds and by the time she toed the line for Districts, she was ranked 4th in Florida's Class 3A Division.  

Masha repeated her defense of her District title and a week later won her first ever Region championship.  Again she won by 40 seconds.  Even though her winning time wasn't stunning I again reminded her that winning State wasn't out of the question.

So here we are in Tallahassee, rolling out of bed at 5:44 a.m. to catch the 7:20 start of the girl's Class 3A race at the FSHAA Cross Country meet.  The weather was outstanding.  It was 49 degrees with almost no wind.  A thick fog hung over the starting area which was atop a hill about a 500 yards from where I was standing.

The gun sounded and slowly the horde of 200 plus girls emerged from the gloom and started heading toward my position.  I strained to see if I could pick her out of the front pack as it zoomed by me.  Masha is generally loathe to position herself up front early in a race, preferring to carefully pick her way through the field.  But panic ensued as I couldn't spot her.  Next to me I could hear one of the Fort Myers moms shouting go Masha and suddenly I spotted two of her teammates passing by in new uniforms.  The all black singlets were difficult to spot and I later saw their they were wearing shorts that had their names monogramed onto them.

Masha hit the first timing mat at 750 meters in 12th place.  If you would have asked me I would have said that's a good spot to be in to finish in the top five, but not if you want to win.

By the mile she had made up the five second gap on first making her way up to second.  I had refused to run around the course choosing to watch the big screen with its video feed.  I had trouble picking up on exactly what was going on. It turns out what was going on was Masha making a move going up a hill before heading by the finish line on the first of two loops and by the time she passed my spot about 200 yards away from the two mile mark she was five seconds up on second place and looking fresh and unconcerned.  

Masha doesn't have a great kick so I worried that if she slowed too much she would have trouble staying in the top three.  But Masha made a decisive move on the toughest hill that the course had to offer, affectionately known as The Wall.  She had lengthen her lead and she confided later that she was worried about why no one was going with her.

As she crested the last hill and made the final turn 200 meters from the finish she was well clear of the field.  I could see the smile spreading across her face as she ran easily toward the finish showing no signs of stress or concern.  There was no demonstration or histrionics as she hit the finish line, it was simply the biggest smile I had ever seen on her face.  The time, 18:05.5, her fastest cross country ever.

There were hugs and tears from mom Natasha while dad Vlad looked rather stoic and Masha came over for a post race hug.  She then spotted her teammates that had just finished and there were more tears and hugs.  It seemed as though the girls from Fort Myers High cared more about her winning than Masha cared.  

Then I wrangled her for a post-race interview for the paper.  I have teased her mercilessly about her awful answers to my questions in past post-race sessions but this time with that massive grin still attached to her face she gave the best interview of her life.

The rest of the meet was anything but uneventful.  After all two of Masha's rivals were running in the 2A section of the meet.  MacKenzie DeLisle was one of the pre-meet favorites and Jazlyn Forbes couldn't be counted out.  When it was over you could see that MacKenzie just didn't have it.  She ran to a respectable fifth place finish while Forbes had finally tagged her rival grabbing the number four spot.  Masha has never beaten MacKenzie while she's managed to take down Forbes a couple of times.  Her winning time was more than 15 seconds faster than either rival.

The icing to this championship cake came when the senior laden squad from Bishop Verot claimed the boys Class 2A title.  It was the school's first ever cross country title.  The Vikings managed to put three boys in the top ten and even more remarkable, third and fifth place finishers, Andrew Marino, Jr. and Zach Zeilke had been battling various illnesses over the last two weeks.

And that brings us back to another first.  Fort Myers High has long been a Florida cross country power.  The school has produced a bevy of outstanding distance runners, most recently Krissy Gear who was a many time All American at Arkansas and won the 2023 national title in the steeplechase.  But Masha accomplished something that hadn't happened in more than a decade.  Masha became the first female harrier from Fort Myers High to claim an individual title. none that came before her could claim.  Masha became the first female harrier from Fort Myers High since the great Emily Edwards took the top spot in 2013.

Houston, We Have A Problem

Somewhere high school track and field went off the reservation.  Follow me here to the reality that an invitational track meet with a large field and heats can run five to six hours.  That's understandable.  

Now this old man yelling get off my front porch ran in large high school invitationals that would take three to four hours.  That's before our nation pulled its collective head out of its posterior and started inviting girls.  But even then I can remember going to a league meet in the late 70's that took three hours.

Last weekend I attended a large invitational meet that took nine hours.  Let me repeat that, nine hours.  That's insane and it's stupid.  And it's all about the money.  I don't blame the schools trying to monetize a big meet.  But greed is going to kill it with this kind of a mind sucking event.

We don't need 17 heats of the boys and girls 200.  A large invitational meet should be for VARSITY runners.  Not just every high school kid who wants to run.  It's not fan friendly and yes, fans do attend even if they don't have a kid out there in spikes.

Yes, we need junior varsity meets.  We had three a year when I was in high school.  That's it.  Running a varsity meet was a privilege.   But those JV athletes don't need to be at big meets.  Hold a few tri's or quad's and maybe one big JV invitational.

If you want to invite 20 to 25 schools to run your meet, either limit the entries or as World Athletics has figured out, limit the events.  No one school should have eight athletes in a single event which I saw last weekend. That's ridiculous.

Meets need to be kept to a manageable five hours for the sake of the kids and the sake of the parents and just as importantly, the sake of the officials.

Florida has a long enough season and more than enough meets to make this work.  It just takes a lot of communication and cooperation between the coaches and the state federation that rules the sport.  

Some athletes who make it all the way through the state series end of running  more than 12 meets not counting the new indoor season that's been added.  Ten meets is plenty for a season.  I challenge the coaches and administrators to figure this out.  But I'm a realist, the money from all those schools is too attractive to show some discipline and hold five hour meets.

Championship Weekend

It's late in the year for Florida high school cross country but the State Championships will finally arrive this Friday and Saturday.  All State honors await as many as a half dozen or more Lee County harriers.

Ladies first.  It's been a remarkable season for the girls of Lee County.  Three have broken 18 minutes for 5000 meters which is quite an achievement.  Lehigh's Gianna Del Pizzo and Bishop Verot's Mackenzie De Lisle are sure bets for top ten finishes.  Both have outside chances of actually winning individual titles in Class 4A and 2A respectively.  The third sub 18 runner, Ansley Kelly of Riverdale, suffered a season ending injury.

Two other girls that should claim All State honors are Jaslyn Forbes from Oasis in Class 2A and Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers in 3A.  Forbes has staked her claim as the up and coming distance star among the area ranks.  The sophomore has made the kind of improvement any coach would like to see from their freshman year.  Dorofeev could go from a 47th place finish as a sophomore to a top ten placing as a junior.

Team wise Bishop Verot, led by De Lisle, has staked its claim as the top girls program in Lee County for the second year in a row.  A top ten finish appears to be a sure thing in Class 2A while Fort Myers is hoping to crack the top ten as well in Class 3A.  Cape Coral's girls which claimed the county championship would need a bunch of PR's to slide into the top ten in Class 3A.

On the boy's side JoJo Koraya, a senior from Fort Myers, will look to add another honor to his Region championship. Koraya took fourth last year at State but the three runners in front of him were also juniors.  Plus he'll have to take down one of the greatest distance runners in Florida high school history, Patrick Koon from Leon, if he hopes to take gold.

Fort Myers junior Craig Allard, Jr. should join Koraya on the medal stand.  Unfortunately, the Green Wave lack the depth that saw them take second at State the last two years.  A top five finish would be nothing to sneeze at for Yancey Palmer's squad.

The best team in the county is again, from Bishop Verot.  Coach Tyler Stowell has gotten his boys to buy into his program and the results have been amazing.  The Vikings lost two standout seniors from a squad that finished fifth last year.  Verot could duplicate that finish in Class 2A.  Andrew Marino leads the Vikings and he should run himself into a spot on the podium.  Teammate Zach Zielke will hope to join him.

Other teams qualifying out of Lee County are both the boys and girls from SFCA, the boys from Cape Coral and the girls from North Fort Myers.

The Quarter

Lee County high school cross country has rolled through a quarter of the season and the surprise thus far are there are no major surprises.   

Girls are ruling the scene this fall.  A quartet of girls stand out far above the roster of runners.  MacKenzie De Lisle of Bishop Verot and Riverdale's Ansley Kelly are at the tip top of Southwest Florida cross country and are among the best girls in the entire state.

De Lisle has joined a handful of girls who have broken 18 minutes for a cross country 5K in county history.  It wouldn't be surprising to see Kelly joins De Lisle in that select group before seasons end.

Gianna Del Pizzo of Lehigh and Jazlyn Forbes of Oasis are both having strong starts to their seasons as well.  This weekend's meet at North Port will be the first time when these four runners will face off, assuming they all run in the elite division.

As for the best girls team in the county, Bishop Verot remains the gold standard for the second year in a row.  Coach Tyler Stowell has put together a team that could be a real powerhouse in another year.

Fort Myers remains the team to beat on the boys side.  Troy Britton has stepped in as a solid third man for a team that boasts two of the top runners in the area, Jojo Koraya and Junior Allard.  But for the Green Wave to climb the podium again at State senior Keaton Roberts needs to step it up.

We were remiss in not mention SFCA's boys in our last blog.  The Kings are a tough squad despite the loss of Hayden Tank.  Jack Gifford leads a squad that could make another run to State.

The same can be said about the boy's team at Bishop Verot. Juniors Andrew Marino and Zach Zielke lead a Viking squad that should find itself in Tallassee for State.

XC 2023

The 2023 high school cross country season is at hand.  Looking at the Lee County line up of high school athletes a handful of runners appear ready to dominate while only a couple teams appear ready to dominate.  This could be a season of surprises.

On the boys side the boys from Fort Myers should continue to lay claim as the top squad in the county.  After back to back second place finishes at State in Class 3A and a solid group of returning runners there seems little doubt about the Green Wave.  

Jojo Koraya leads Fort Myers.  The senior will have help from classmate Craig Allard, Jr. who spent much of his summer training at altitude in Colorado.  Another strong competitor for the Green Wave squad will be senior Keaton Roberts.

A couple of other juniors, Olmar Bartolon from Dunbar and Andrew Marino from Bishop Verot should be at the top of a lot of meet finishes along with Cape Coral senior Jake Jacoby.  The question is who has put in the miles over the summer and who will surprise us with a stellar season.  Somebody always rises to the occasion unexpectedly.

On the girls side there's junior Mackenzie De Lisle from Bishop Verot and a lot of hopefuls.  De Lisle inherits the crown from ECS star Ava Povich who has graduated and headed to Florida State. De Lisle has a legitimate shot at taking the Class 2A cross country crown.  De Lisle should get some help at Verot from incoming freshman Gianna Gyurich.  

Gianna Del Pizzo returns for her senior year at Lehigh after scoring All State honors last season.  Del Pizzo showed that she was more than just a middle distance runner last spring dropping her 3200 meter best.  She'll be looking for a top ten finish in Class 4A as will Riverdale senior Ansley Kelly.  Kelly came out of nowhere last spring to stake a claim as one of the best 1600/3200 runners in the county.  She was a sub 11 performer over 3200 meters along with De Lisle.

The top returning sophomore is Class 2A All State cross country runner Jazlyn Forbes.  The Oasis standout tacked on an outstanding track season last spring to go along with her cross country success.

Two juniors to watch out for are Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers and Avery Sommers from Estero.  Dorofeev has shown steady progress over the past two seasons and piled up some significant miles over the summer.  Sommers will hope to lead a resurgent Wildcat squad this fall.

As far as teams the boys and girls from Fort Myers are the gold standard.  While the boys and girls from Bishop Verot look to be the only squad capable of giving the Green Wave a run for its money,

The Block Off The Old Chip

It's been a rough week. My hometown lost a living legend. Hank Booth was radio in Lawrence. He was the voice of Lawrence High football. To be in the press box for a Lawrence High game was a life changing experience. The passion, the joy, the bombast, he could literally shake the entire press box with his play by play on KLWN radio. 

Hank was my first boss in the business. As I was working my way through journalism school at the University of Kansas, I constantly applied for work at KLWN radio. Finally, after three years of trying going into my senior year I was hired. I had no business being behind the microphone of a commercial radio station. But Hank and station manager Bob Newton took a chance. 

 What followed was a comedy of errors. The first memorable gaffe should have gotten me fired but it went undiscovered. I had been tasked with taking a sound system out to the Douglas County Free Fair for the weekend. I was also tasked with picking it up after the event. I forgot to do that. Suddenly on Monday I realized my error and rushed out to the rodeo arena to find the equipment still there. I schlepped it back to the station, management being none the wiser. 

 The second boner came during my awful morning shift that required me to run the AM and FM stations simultaneously. This particular Sunday the headset was broken. Normally I could hear AM in one ear and FM in the other. Unfortunately the AM side wasn't working. We aired church broadcasts during the late morning part of my unbearable six hour shift which required a lot of patching of cables to bring those broadcasts to air. This Sunday I unknowingly had left my microphone open after having given the station ID on the AM side and patched in the Plymouth Congregational Church service. I couldn't hear it. I repatched and still couldn't hear it. I began to steam and cuss and on the other side of the glass the newsman, Craig Martens, started pounding on the glass pointing to the red light. My microphone had been on and the expeletives had been broadcast live right over the church service. I realized my error and figured I was just a few hours away from getting fired. Craig saw the humor in my mistake but I certainly didn't. 

Days and weeks went by and I heard nothing about my terrible mistake. Finally about two months after the fact, Hank called me into his office and asked if I had sworn on the air during the church broadcast. I said yes. I figured he was going to fire me right there. He looked me over and simply said, don't do it again. And that was that.

I went back to work for KLWN almost 15 years later while I went to graduate school. I had a lot of television news experience under my belt. My first Sunday back on the board we had a tornado and I walked the listeners through the storm in a way that I could have never done in my first tour of duty at KLWN. Later that day Bob Newton called me and simply said, you got good. After that I was invited back to man the studio board during storm coverage. Hank liked nothing better than chasing tornadoes through Douglas County. It was a staple of storm coverage for the Lawrence community. Hank Booth was better to me than I ever deserved. 

 And as for the title of this piece, the block off the old chip. It refers to what a friend mine, former Lawrence High teacher Tony Gauthier once said about Hank. If you knew Hank, he was a large man, his dad Arden, also a broadcast legend, was rather slight. Enough said. RIP Hank.

Finally A Champion

Southwest Florida distance runners can hold up their heads for their performances at last week's Florida State High School Track and Field Championships. The four classes competed on four separate days spread Wednesday through Saturday. 

In the end Bishop Verot the boys and girls proved their teams can claim the spot as the top distance power in Lee County when looking at all of the results. And finally for one Southwest Florida distance star, a state championship could be claimed. 

Starting with Class 4A ladies Gianna Del Pizzo, the Lehigh junior, pulled off a fine double placing 4th in the 1600 with a personal best of 5:05.8. She doubled back in 11:29.52 in the 3200 placing 11th. Ahead of her in that race was the breakout sensation from Riverdale, junior Ansley Kelly. She placed 5th running 11:11.52. 

I usally don't touch on Collier County runners but the performances of Palmetto Ridge senior Bernardo Barnhart and Gulf Coast junior William Montoya in the 3200 stand out. Barnhart clocked one of the fastest 3200 times from the area in years hitting 9:12.24 for 3rd while Montoya was close behind running 9:17.82 to finish 5th. 

The biggest Class 3A result came from the boys of Fort Myers in the 4x800. Timmy Schultz and Joseph Koraya helped lead the Green Wave to a 4th place finish in the 4x800 in a school record 7:57.68. Schultz and Koraya doubled back in the 1600. Koraya, only a junior, took seventh running 4:24.73. Schultz, a senior, was 14th in 4:29.24. The only other podium finish came from Declan Ziomek. The Cape Coral senior finished 8th in the 3200 hitting the finish in 9:31.50. Dunbar junior Joshua Dorestin came close finishing 9th in the 800 running 1:57.75. 

The only girl to race in an open event was Fort Myers sophomore Masha Dorofeev who passed up the 1600 to focus on the 3200. Her decision almost paid off with a podium finish with Dorofeev placing 9th in a personal best of 11:15.06. Class 2A was the Bishop Verot show. Both the boys and girls squad grabbed 4th place in the 4x800. 

The Verot girls of Sofia Roman, Julia Reitz, Kylie Thomas and Mackenzie DeLisle did it in style clocking a school record of 9:31.44. Reitz followed that up with a fine 8th place finish in the 1600 with a personal best 5:07.65 while super sophomore DeLisle took 4th in the 3200 running 10:55.26. The Vikings Grayson Tubbs doubled back in the open 800 taking 3rd in 1:56.52. Class 1A saw the girls of SFCA snag an 8th place finish with a 10:00.32. 

We also want to give a nod to SFCA senior Hayden Tank who wrapped up his fine career with a 9:38.06 and a 9th place finish. Hard to believe that Tank would run that fast and not podium. The capper goes to Ava Povich who once again showed what it takes to be ready for a state championship. Povich ran a sterling 5:01.84 to take 4th in the 1600. Then making a bold move with two laps to go the Florida State bound star held on to win her first state title running 10:47.99. Povich now joins the ranks as one of the best distance to ever come out of Lee County.

State

Ava Povich, ECS

First, I apologize for not writing more about this wonderful season of high school track and field produced by Lee County athletes.  Life comes at you pretty fast and this 67-year-old just couldn't lock in and put forth the effort to follow all of the great performances that were produced this season.

This week a strong contingent of Lee County distance runners will travel to the University of North Florida to compete at the Florida High School Track and Field Championships.  Before I delve into the results class by class, I will state my biggest complaint about the sport in this state.  The season is way too long.  Meets started in early February and run through mid-May.  Given the awful temperatures and humidity in Florida the season should end the last week of April.  Ten weeks of competition is more than enough to separate the wheat from the chafe.

We're going with the biggest class first, Class 4A where two girls will compete. First is Gianna Del Pizzo.  The Lehigh junior will run in the 1600, her strongest event, and the 3200.  Del Pizzo is one of a handful of Lee County girls to break 5:10 this season.  She appears ready to make a run at a sub-five clocking and has a good shot at making the podium in the 1600.Second there's Riverdale junior Ansley Kelley who burst on the scene this spring. She's got a shot at a podium finish in the 3200.  If he can rebound with a performance like the one he had at Districts he's got a shot at a top eight finish.

Class 3A is chock full of individuals and teams that could podium.  At 800 meters Dunbar's Joshua Dorestin barely scrapped through the qualify for State.

Over 1600 JoJo Koraya of Fort Myers hasn't quite shown the brilliance of his sophomore campaign.  Koraya will need a sub-4:20 effort to medal as will his senior teammate Timmy Shultz.

Koraya and Shultz will help put the Green Wave in a position to win the 4x800.  The dark horse team will be the Dunbar Tigers in this event while Cape Coral could make the podium as well.

The Cape Coral 3200 duo of Declan Ziomek and William Canales will certainly put their nose in this super competitive event.  Ziomek has the best chance to podium but it will take a big PR to claim a spot.  

On the girl's side Fort Myers will send its 4x800 team while it has one girl competing in the 1600 and 3200.  Sophomore Masha Dorofeev will need to score a big personal best to score in either event.

Class 2A is where Bishop Verot has stamped itself as the distance power of Lee County, both boys and girls.

Grayson Tubbs has a great shot at making the podium in the 800.  His rival from Estero, Max Sedmak, has an outside shot at a top eight finish.

In the girl's 800 Bishop Verot senior Kylie Thomas will need to run yet another personal best to score in the 800.  Don't count her out as her season has been one PB after another.

Another Verot senior Julia Reitz came close to breaking 5:10 earlier in the season and may need to run that fast to make the podium.

Verot super sophomore MacKenzie DeLisle joined the exclusive sub 11 club earlier in the season.  She will need to run one of the fastest times in Lee County history to win the state title but she appears to have a lock on second.

The best chance for gold for the Verot girls is in the 4x800 with DeLisle, Reitz, Thomas and Sofia Roman leading a solid squad.  The Verot boys could also snag a gold in the 4x800.  Regardless, this season has been a real feather in the cap of Verot distance coach Tyler Stowell.

We wrap it up with Class 1A which includes one of the best female preps in Lee County history.  As of right now ECS senior Ava Povich is looking at a 4x800, 1600 and 3200 triple.  She's a competitor who appears to run better the more she races.  It wouldn't surprise me if she skips the 1600 and opts to race the 3200 only as it's her best bet to finally take an individual state title.  ECS had a shot at a team championships but those chances slipped away when sprint star MacKenzie Travis tore her hamstring.  Povich may consider cutting back to a double since those team points won't matter as much.

ECS also has a stellar entry in the 800 Casey Johnson.  The girls from ECS will compete in the 4x800 with a squad from SFCA.  The boys from SFCA has a real shot at making the podium with 800 finalist Jack Gifford and distance ace Hayden Tank leading SFCA's boys squad.

Two other Lee County seniors look to podium in the 3200 in their final state meet. Tank appears ready to run another PR and should land on the podium even if he doesn't.  As should Canterbury Gabriella Santucci who has finished 10th and 9th respectively, missing the podium by one spot last year.

Midway

The Florida high school track and field season has hit the midway point.  I haven't been as faithful in rambling about what I've seen so far this season.  Life comes at you pretty fast sometimes but it slowed down enough today for me to share my thoughts.

Declan Ziomek   

We'll start with the boys in Lee County and it's the familiar faces that you would expect to see running  fast times.  The Cape Coral 3200 duo of Declan Ziomek and William Canales are rolling.  Ziomek followed up a 9:33.33 PR two weeks ago with a 9:34.57 at the FSU Relays.  Canales ran a 9:44.14 PR early in the season and has run consistently under 9:50.  Ziomek has also posted a fine 4:26.6 in the 1600.

Hayden Tank of SFCA is doing Hayden Tank kind of running.  He's set a PR in the 1600 in 4:29.26 and has been consistently under 10 minutes in the 3200.  He appears poised to lower all of SFCA's distance records before seasons end.

Joseph Koraya and Timothy Schultz of Fort Myers are finally hitting their stride.  Koraya clocked a near PR at FSU running 4:21.4 over 1600 with Schultz hitting a PR of 4:27.53.  LCAC should be a distance showdown between the Cape Coral duo and the Fort Myers trio of Koraya, Schultz and Craig Allard, Jr.

Over 800 meters only two runners have dipped under two minutes.  Estero sophomore Max Sedmak ran a 1:58.58 at Dunbar on Saturday.  The other sub two man, Bishop Miego senior Grayson Tubbs was busy running a school record 1:55.59 at FSU.  Tubbs has also run a fine 4:22.08 1600 earlier in the season.

On the girl's side there have been a few surprises.  First the arrival of Riverdale junior Ansley Kelly who left the ranks of swimming for the track.  She's run 5:27.61 over 1600 and 11:22.83 for 3200.  Then there's the re-emergence of Gianna Del Pizzo of Lehigh.  She's run the fastest 1600 in the county to date at 5:08.54 and a PR of 2:21.84 over 800.

The smaller schools have the most dominate girls.  Bishop Verot senior Julia Reitz has run a PR over 1600 hitting 5:16.3  She's followed by another senior Kylie Thomas who has dropped some big PR's over 800, 2:26.97 and 1600, 5:19.79.

The Verot program has another stud in sophomore MacKenzie DeLisle who has battled ECS senior Ava Povich all season.  DeLisle ran a school record over 3200 in 10:51.86 at FSU, just a hair behind Povich's school record of 10:51.11 at the same meet.  DeLisle also has the Verot school record in the 1600 in 5:15.47.  Povich has run 5:14.62 this season for 1600, about seven seconds off her school record.

The Private 8 conference meet should be a barn burner with the pack from Verot, Povich and Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci who has run a 1600 PR of 5:20.95 and has a best of 11:27.47 over 3200.  

The Florida Relays are this coming weekend with championship season to follow.  I wouldn't be surprised if we see a third Lee County girl under 11 before seasons end.

Track Is At Hand

The 2023 outdoor track and field season toes the line this Saturday at Dunbar High School.  More than a dozen Lee County distance runners could be eyeing podium spots when the high school season wraps up in mid-May at the State Championships.  One athlete stands ready to carve her name into the annals of one of the county's all time greats.

We'll start with Ava Povich of ECS.  Her progression to her senior campaign has been one of constant improvement.  Povich dipped her toes into the blink of an eye indoor season that unfurled over the last couple of weeks winning the State Indoor at 3,000 meters in 10:01.  By the numbers that would be an improvement of her 3200 PR of 10:53.38 by about ten seconds.

Povich stands ready to do some things few girls in Lee County have ever done.  She should break 10:40 for the 3200.  She should break 5 minutes for the 1600.  My hope for Ava is that she finds a fast race and become the first Lee County girl under 10:30 for the 3200.  Given her unbelievable strength I can see it happening.

The only girl capable of giving Povich a real race in Lee County is Bishop Verot's Mackenzie De Lisle.  The super sophomore should join Povich in the sub 11 club over 3200 meters.  De Lisle is on the cusp of breaking 5 minutes for the 1600.  Any match up between these two should be epic.

A third senior could slip under 11 minutes by seasons end.  Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci ran 11:27.47 last spring.  Dropping 30 seconds is a big ask but given the amount of competition Santucci will face week in and week out, a big PR wouldn't surprise me.

Other girls to watch this spring in distances from 800 to 3200 are Jazlyn Forbes of Oasis, Bishop Verot's Kylie Thomas, Lehigh's Gianna Del Pizzo, South Fort Myers' Sophia Torres and Giana D'Altrui and Masha Dorofeev from Fort Myers.  

The boys side of the equations is equally impressive.  Bishop Verot has two middle distance standouts in Cooper Banks, 1:55.6 and Grayson Tubbs, 1:57.9.  Tubbs will also be a force at 1600 and could break 4:20.

The best returning 1600 runner is Fort Myers junior Joseph Koraya who ran 4:21.36 last spring.  Following a stellar cross country season Koraya is on pace to break 4:15 this spring.  He'll get pushed in practice by 3200 standout Junior Allard and 800 meter stud Timmy Schultz.

Cape Coral has two top tier 3200 runners in Declan Ziomek and William Canales.  Ziomek has a real shot at running sub 9:30 this spring.  Canales shouldn't be too far behind.

Finally SFCA senior Hayden Tank should re-write the school records he set last spring.  Tank ran 4:33.55 and 9:42.68.  Sub 4:25 and low 9:30 are well within his wheelhouse. 

 

Rex Lane

The running world lost a good one.  Rex Lane was simply the best.  He wasn't the best runner or the best coach, he was just the best person you would ever want to know.  He passed away today at 68, just a year older than me.  

I met Rex my freshman year at the University of Kansas.  He had been a decent high school runner at Seaman High School in Topeka before heading off to Pitt State to continue his running career.  After a year he transferred to K.U. where he kept running on his own and that's where our paths crossed and a long friendship began.

Rex became something of an inspiration for me.  I had been kicked off the Kansas cross country team and figured my days as a runner were pretty much over.  I don't remember exactly how I met Rex but what I clearly remember is that he loved running marathons.  Now back in 1974 that's not something a lot of college students did as a hobby.  Beer drinking and chasing girls were more in line with college life and Rex like doing those things too but he did a lot of running.

I figured if Rex could run sub-3 hour marathons I should be able to do the same.  The biggest difference is that Rex actually trained.  He ran serious miles while I sort of went through the motions of training.  He talked me into joining him in Wichita for the 1976 USATF Marathon championships.  I think one reason is because he knew my ex-step-father lived in Wichita and we'd have a free place to stay.

Leading up to the marathon we raced in an open mile.  While Lowell Paul ran away from us I remember catching Rex at the head of the homestretch on the last lap.  He looked at me smiled and said, "Do you want to tie?"  I don't know why but I said yes and we crossed the line together holding hands in 4:45.  Paul had run 4:14.  We flipped a coin for the second place medal.  I lost.

When we got to Wichita for the marathon a month later Rex offered some really sage advice.  Take it easy.  He knew my longest run had been just ten miles.  I took his advice to heart and ran easily for the first 18 miles.  I hit the wall at 21 but managed to struggle him in 2:57:14, about ten minutes behind Rex.  I think he was stunned that I had finished in under three hours.  

He always tried to encourage me to do more with my running.  When a team named Club Midwest formed with a bevy of top runners from the area Rex talked me into running the AAU Missouri Valley Cross Country Championship.  I remember suffering through a terrible 10K finishing somewhere back in the pack.  Yet Rex wanted me to join the team and go nationals in Philadelphia which I declined to do for lack of courage.  He didn't care that I sucked, he just wanted me to be part of the experience.  That was Rex.

Rex loved track and field as much as anyone.  Alan Quackenbush and I were going to the Big 8 Indoor in Lincoln in 1977.  I was going to cover it for the local radio station, Alan for the paper.  Rex wanted go as a spectator and asked to stay in our room and said he was fine sleeping on the floor.  He had an afternoon class and wouldn't be able to leave Lawrence until an hour after we did.  

Rex hitched to Lincoln, Nebraska and was waiting for us at the hotel.  Now we had a flat tire which slowed our drive but Alan and I couldn't figure out how Rex had beaten us to the hotel hitchhiking.  But that was Rex.

After college Rex became a law officer.  An indelible memory is a picture that appeared in the Lawrence paper of Rex sitting on top of his squad car.  He was patrolling in North Lawrence when a cloudburst hit.  He knew that the Union Pacific underpass flooded easily and he tried to beat the downpour to the south side of town.  The flood waters got him and he was forced to take refuge from the water on top of his car.

Rex went onto a more successful career as a lawyer in Atchison, Kansas.  He ended up coaching track and cross country at tiny Benedictine College for 20 years.  Rex did a lot with a little talent, even coaching some national champions.  He loved going to meets in Hawaiian shirts.  I was lucky enough to catch up with Rex about five years ago at a cross country meet in Lawrence during his last year of coaching.  His athletes loved him.

A couple of years ago I went back to Kansas and decided to go to a Royals game.  Much to my delight as I stood in line for refreshments I heard a booming voice and turned to see Rex.  It made me so happy to see him.  He sat with my friends and family and we talked for a good half hour.  He was enjoying life as a semi-retired country squire.

Seven months ago Rex suffered a terrible stroke that left him paralyzed.  He battled through it like he had battled through all of his marathons.  But today the race ended.  It just makes me so sad.

I kept running marathons because of Rex.  You see, I just wanted to run at least one marathon faster than Rex.  It took me 15 years of trying to do it.  I never told Rex that's why I kept running marathons long after he had stopped.  But I think deep down inside he knew, he always knew.  Ever gracious, welcoming and beautiful to those who came to know him, that was Rex.

The Coming of Jalen Wilson

Kansas is on its way to defending its first NCAA basketball championship in 14 years.  I'm going to posit that the 2022-23 edition of the Jayhawks is more talented than the championship team.  Blasphemy but hear me out.  The only thing missing from this year's supremely talented squad is senior leadership.

Gone are All American Ochai Agbaji, the enigmatic David McCormack, the surprising Christian Braun and the longest serving Jayhawk in history, Mitch Lightfoot.  It's a lot of leadership and talent.  But back are two key pieces to the Jayhawk roster, fourth year junior Jalen Wilson and junior Dajaun Harris.

Three games in and Wilson has elevated his game to a level that we saw glimpses of in his first two seasons as a Jayhawk.  Tuesday night against Duke, Wilson became only the fifth Jayhawk in history to score 25, pull down ten boards and dole out at least five assists.  Think about it.  He did this against Duke and we're talking about a lot of Jayhawk history.  Wilson will average 18 and 8 all year and he's not even the best player on the team.

The best player on the team is the best freshman that I've seen since Andrew Wiggins suited up for Kansas.  Gradey Dick is the real deal.  He's got something that Wiggins lacked, aggressiveness.  Somehow Norm Roberts had forgotten that he had buried Dick on the bench.  Once back in with five minutes to go Dick made a three, a back door flush and a twisty lay up and it was game over for Duke.  Dick has the quickest, purest jump shot I've ever seen.  And for a freshman he doesn't look completely lost on defense.

Harris leads a stalwart back court.  His old man game would be complete if he ever committed to being a good three point shooter.  The same can be said for his principal back up Bobby Pettiford.  But both guards play hellacious defense and dole out assists like Mary Poppins spreading sunshine and cheer.  Then there's Joseph Yeseufu.  I said it last year and it's even more evident this year.  He's a waste of a scholarship.  He's taking minutes that should go to MJ Rice, another fabulous freshman who will have to fight for minutes.

Harris's running mate is a Texas Tech transfer who is the only senior on the squad.  Kevin McCullar plays defense.  He's the best defender since Marcus Garrett and he can do something that Garrett couldn't do, he can shoot.  Even though he is one of two seniors, it's clear that Harris and Wilson will provide the leadership for this squad.  The other senior, Michael Jankovich would actually be a better alternative for instant offense that Bill Self will look for out of Yesefu.  He's a deadly shooter but isn't the defender that Yesefu is.  Too bad.

The three guard rotation will be vital because the achilles heel of this year's squad is the four big men expected to take the black of David McCormack.  K.J. Adams deserved more minutes than he got his freshman year.  He's not tall but he's supremely physical who needs a little more polish to his interior game.  He'll be backed up from two supreme freshmen who are both beasts in the making and both first rate shot blockers.  Ernest Udeh and Zuby Ejiobor are physical specimens.  Both are 6'9" and both top 240 pounds.  Once they get some minutes under their belts, watch out.

That leaves sophomore big man Zach Clemens on the outside looking in. Clemens excels from the perimeter but seems to lack the desire to go inside.  If he can stand to wait his turn odds are he'll be in an excellent position to take Wilson's spot on next year's squad.  But my guts tell me he's going to think about transferring out.  Speaker of transfers, one has to wonder if the now injured Kyle Cuffe will stick around.  With a number of guards already committed for next year and McCullar the only senior guaranteed to be graduating it leaves a dwindling number of minutes.

And then there's Bill Self, serving out his four game suspension.  The NCAA is so neutered and incapable of doing anything it's going to look really bad if they try to take serious action against the Jayhawks, for violations that occurred nearly a half dozen years ago that under the new NIL rules would likely be legal.  Kansas is back for another deep NCAA run and possible trip to another Final 4.

Green Wave Fever

Saturday Night Fever has nothing on JoJo Koraya's Friday night fever.  The pre-meet illness must have had the Fort Myers Green Wave boy's cross country team sick to its stomach knowing that their junior star might not be 100 percent for Saturday morning's Class 3A State Championship showdown.

Koraya showed no signs of illness as he picked his way through the star studded field to finish fourth and lead his team to a consecutive second place finish at States.  Junior Allard, the Fort Myers sophomore star who had an up and down season aided the Green Wave cause by having an up day finishing 20th to earn All-State honors.

Other Lee County teams and runners acquitted themselves with sterling performances throughout the different classes. We'll start small first and the one sure thing all season.  You could bet the house that ECS senior star Ava Povich would finish in the top three in Class 1A.  The Florida State signee did just that to finish third improving four places on her junior year finish.

Canterbury's Gabrielle Santucci closed out her senior campaign claiming All State honors.  Santucci ran 19:32 to place 20th.  Not far behind was another senior who certainly can claim the honor of the most improved runner in Lee County.  SFCA's Tommie Bade finished 29th in 19:47.

My favorite senior story came in the form of another SFCA senior, Hayden Tank.  His season looked like a complete disaster after a heat distressed race and health issues early in the season.  Tank led his SFCA squad to a 6th place finish by finishing 8th in Class 1A.  Given the obstacles Tank overcame don't be surprised if his outdoor track season is something special.

Class 2A Mackenzie De Lisle did everything she could to lay claim to the title as the best girl in Lee County.  The Bishop Verot sophomore sensation ran the fastest time of the weekend in 18:07 to finish fifth.  The best Lee County freshman girl was also in that Class 2A race.  Oasis Jazlyn Forbes finished 27th in 19:31.

The Bishop Verot boys can rightly say they had the third best boys team in the county.  The Vikings squad finished a solid 5th in Class 2A led by senior Grayson Tubbs who claimed All State honors with his 18th place finish.  Verot returns the bulk of their squad next year.  

The second best team in Lee County were the boys from Cape Coral.  The Seahawks were nipping at the heels of the Fort Myers all season thanks in large part to Declan Ziomek and William Canales.  Cape finished fifth in Class 3A with Ziomek finishing 9th and Canales 17th.

Fort Myers easily produced the best girl's squad in Lee County.  Led by sophomore Masha Dorofeev the Green Wave finished 16th at State in Class 3A.  Fort Myers will reload next season losing only two seniors, Olivia Olney and Lilly Harris.

Finally there's Class 4A and the runner who I would dub the Comeback Runner of the Year.  After a less than sterling sophomore campaign, Lehigh junior Gianna Del Pizzo rededicated herself.  The work paid off with a fine 13th place finish at State.

This cross country shows me that we could be in store for some incredible fireworks when the first outdoor track meet rolls around in three months.  We can't wait to see what these athletes will do on the oval.

.    

Two Weeks To Go

Lee County high school cross country is into its home stretch.  Teams and individuals begin competing Thursday to qualify for the State Championships to be held in Tallahassee in a little less than two weeks.  My complaints about their being too many meets and the length of the cross country season took an unexpected turn due to Hurricane Ian.  It dropped an atom bomb on a lot of athletes and coaches right at the height of the season and the fact that so many local schools will probably be racing on November 5th is no small testament to the perseverance and commitment these folks have to the sport.

This time I will start with the men where two runners have dominated the county, Fort Myers junior Joseph Koraya and Cape Coral senior Declan Ziomek.  The two have traded scalps all season.  What happens at State should decide once and for all the county's top XC dog  They will face off again this Thursday at Regions in Lakeland.

Team wise it's been Fort Myers and Cape Coral all season with a surprising surge from Bishop Verot under new coach Tyler Stowell.  Fort Myers has the best chance to podium as they did last year.  But strange things happen in Tallahassee and it wouldn't surprise me if Fort Myers and the Cape both finish in the top five in Class 3A with Bishop Verot doing the same in Class 2A

The biggest surprise from this season was the rough road faced by SFCA's Hayden Tank.  It started with a heat incident at the Fort Myers Invite that led to a health scare.  I want to give Tank all due credit for not letting these setbacks ruin his senior campaign.  He's got the talent and two more weeks of training could put him in position to finish in top 10 in Class 1A, a major accomplishment considering what he's endured.

On the ladies side all due props go to Mackenzie DeLisle of Bishop Verot.  The sophomore star wouldn't step aside for ECS senior standout Ava Povich.  These two are by far and away the best in the county. The two have handed each other defeats with DeLisle winning their last meeting with a victory at Private 8.  Both have been running sensational times.  I wouldn't be surprised if these two both run sub 18 in Tallahassee.

The surprise individual was a freshman from Oasis, Jazlyn Forbes.  She has broken 19 minutes and appears to be capable of a top 20 finish at State Class 2A.  In fact if Oasis gets a strong performance from senior Jenna Rosado the Sharks are capable of cracking the top ten as a team.  

A trio of other Lee County runners stand good chances of claiming All State honors Class 4A.  Lehigh junior Gianna Del Pizzo saved her best performance of the season for the qualifier at Districts running her fastest time to date, 19:11.  South Fort Myers senior Sofia Torres did the same with her fourth place finish at Districts in 19:43 in Class 3A.  The third, Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci should be a lock to earn All State honors as well in Class 1A.  

When it comes to teams there's no question that the girls from Fort Myers can lay claim to the top spot in the county.  The Green Wave should make it to State led by sophomore Masha Dorofeev.  The question will be whether or not the Greenies can crack the top ten.  

Friday Night Lights

I wanted to write this a week ago because I was supposed to be covering the Cypress Lake High School football game.  But I had no internet and I didn't see the point.  Tonight I was supposed to be in Naples covering another game but with Lee County not playing football I wasn't needed.  So I figured now was as good a time as any to write.

We rode out Hurricane Ian in our home.  After Irma I had vowed never to do it again.  I really didn't think this storm would get us.  But like Hurricane Charlie in 2003, this storm made the right hand turn and wham.  Except this time it was like a slow motion execution.  This thing was the slowest moving monster I could have ever imagined.

The morning of Tuesday September 27th I asked the Czarina if she wanted to go to West Palm Beach.  Miami and Fort Lauderdale were out of the question.  I-75 was jammed with traffic headed to the east coast.  I thought it might be wise to get the family together and head to West Palm.  That suggestion was rejected.  At about 11 p.m. that same day the Czarina said we should go to West Palm.  I told her it evacuation at this point was out of the question.  It was too late and too dangerous and given the direction of the storm there was nothing to say that it wouldn't head straight east to West Palm Beach.

The entire family huddled down Wednesday morning for the big blow.  We lost power very early on in the storm.  It was gone before 1 p.m.  I had forgotten about the radio I had left behind so we couldn't hear the news and our cell phones were useless.  We had no idea what was going on except for the wind.  With hurricane proof windows we could see what was happening outside and it wasn't pretty.

The Czarina wanted to hide in the small guest bathroom area which has no window exposure.  I chose the master bedroom because I couldn't see anyway that the tiny bathroom window would blow out.  Pretty soon I was joined by everyone else including a portable battery powered light that was a life saver.  A card game ensued and eventually Baxter the Boston Terrier was allowed to settle with me in bed.

The wind was endless.  My past hurricane experiences told me that the bad wind lasts three or four hours.  This storm went on for eight hours.  The Czarina was terrified.  The rest of our Russian clan seemed pretty composed.  The Czarina fretted about not having hurricane shutters.  I told her that's why we invested in the windows.  By the time the storm had calmed down it was too dark to see much of anything in our neighborhood of about 300 homes and condos.

The next day showed that Ian had meant business.  We had suffered minimal damage.  We lost some big tree branches and had some soffit damage to the back of the roof.  Our new roof appeared to be intact.  The same couldn't be said for dozens upon dozens of our neighbors.  Shingles were everywhere.  Huge pieces of aluminum from lanais were laying around yards everywhere.  One neighbor had lost a nice size chunk of their entire roof.  I can only imagine the terror.  Some huge trees had tumbled.  The only saving factor was the lack of rain.  We had missed the major flooding that we had figured was a certainty.

Thursday morning I jumped in my SUV and made my way to my store fully expecting to find flooding as it sits less than a half mile from the river.  Every traffic light was out which made major intersections a sometimes exasperating game of chicken.  Once on McGregor Boulevard, Fort Myer's main drag, you could see the giant palms resting against the power line.  Some were laying across the road.  I got to the store, saw a few shingles missing and a gutter ripped off.  The store itself was bone dry.

The yard clean up went quickly.  It mainly a matter of stretching food supplies and praying for a return of electricity.  After Irma power was restored within 24 hours.  This time it was a different story.  But again we were lucky.  Power was restored after only 48 hours.  As I write thousands of people in Lee County still don't have power.  We were lucky because Ian had sucked out all the heat and humidity and our weather was cool and comfortable like a mid-February winter.

The Russians returned to their home on Sunday when power was restored to their neighborhood which was closer to parts of the county that had been severely punished by Ian.  Fortunately their home was spared from the winds and water. Sunday night I was supposed to travel to Tampa to watch the Chiefs game with Ron and Tracy Tabb.  But I couldn't justify the trip and instead went to Walmart where I purchased the last available antenna and watched the game in all of its HD glory.

Monday our internet and cable returned.  I had gone to the store to find power had been restored and my lone customers was an evacuee from Sanibel who had lost everything.  Her husband needed running clothes so I gave him a couple of singlets and some heavily discounted a pair of shoes.  I sat there pondering just how I was going to pay my bills as I knew that business would be really, really slim for the next month or so.  Plus my store relied heavily on Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach residents and those communities in reality, no longer exist for at least the next several months.

Each day I've gone to work and had one customer, sometimes two.  But today, Friday was different.  Several people came in, many to replace shoes lost to flooding, some to replace shoes left filthy but all the yard work.  I helped those who really needed it with the price and gave away a lot of socks.

I reached out to a couple of my main shoe suppliers, Hoka and Saucony, to see if we could get some free shoes for nurses who had lost theirs to the storm.  Hoka has come through big time, I'm still waiting to hear from Saucony and I suspect they will come through.  

I can't believe the pictures I see.  Much of my community looks like some post-apocalyptic hell.  I look at my neighborhood and marvel that a matter of six to seven miles can make such an incredible difference.  I really like living here.  Even the miserable heat and humidity of the summers are worth the incredible late fall, winter and early spring weather we enjoy.  But this is the third major hurricane I have lived through in less than 20 years.  I just don't know.

This was a thousand times worse than Charlie which was really, really bad.  Irma was a walk in the park compared to this storm.  We bounced back quickly after Charlie and Irma.  I believe we will bounce back sooner than a lot of people probably believe from Ian.  Southwest Florida is one of the few remaining parts of Florida that isn't overpopulated.  The state needs the income that Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel tourism generated.  I suspect heaven and a lot of earth will be moved to make these communities livable sooner rather than later.  

 

Four Weeks In

The Lee County high school cross country season reached its fourth week of racing and one thing is clear.  Ava Povich and Mackenzie DeLisle are going to battle all season.  DeLisle, a Bishop Verot sophomore, runs with a fearlessness that she didn't show last year.  Povich, the ECS senior, just grinds.  She powers her way through a cross country course trying to bend it to her will.

They matched up Saturday night at the Kelly Road soccer complex at the Fort Myers Invite.  DeLisle appeared ready to try and bury her pursuers early.  Povich, Tara Watkins of Naples and Olivia Fraga from Lourdes chased.  The course played a major role in how the race unfolded.  It was a hot mess because Lee County Parks wanted to protect their precious soccer fields from the 700 plus runners after a couple of days of heavy rain.

DeLisle made a off course detour allowing Povich to pounce leading to a long two mile plus drive to the finish for the win.  Mackenzie never recovered and had to be content chasing Fraga and Watkins.  The course issues were numerous.  Due to the triple loop runners were getting lapped.  There were about ten turns on every loop and it was an invitation for misdirection.  Plus apparently some self appointed course marshals helped contribute to the chaos sending runners the wrong way.

The course issues led to the disqualification of Bishop Verot's number three runner.  Much to my surprise Fort Myers not only beat Verot but Naples as well.  Verot is without one of its top runners, Julia Reitz who has a foot injury.  Fort Myers senior Olivia Olney is also dealing with a foot problem but still managed a top 25 finish.  Lilly Harris and Rori Pandolfini showed signs of coming to life for the Green Wave so figuring out which of the two squads is best still up in the air.

DeLisle and Verot will get a chance at payback next week in Northport.  The course is the fastest in the area and should produce some terrific performances.  Povich will be there as well and the stated goal on her half is to run 18:30 or better.

The boy's race was a battle of attrition.  Cape Coral's talented senior duo of Declan Ziomek and William Canales made sure the early tempo was fast.  It took about a mile to whittle the lead pack down from ten to four.  Ziomek steadily applied pressure to ease away for a three second victory over defending champion Bernardo Barnhart of Palmetto Ridge.  Sergei Guzman of CSN keeps showing what a good summer of training can do taking third following up his second place finish last week at DDD, a meet which Ziomek won.

Ziomek is looking more and more like the best boy in Lee County.  Hayden Tank of SFCA had a terrible night due to the heat and humidity.  Joseph Koraya of Fort Myers started slowly and never put himself in a position to compete for the win, something he did at the opening meet hosted by Dunbar.

Koraya's seventh place finish helped the Fort Myers boys beat Cape Coral.  The Green Wave put three in the top ten which was enough to negate Ziomek's win and Canales's ninth place finish.  My personal hero was Fort Myers senior Timmy Schmidt who ran much of the race after losing a shoe.  He still managed an eighth place finish.

Hiding in the weeds are the Dunbar boys who have opted for meets out of the area the last two weeks.  Junior Olmar Bartolon will be a factor at the county championships.  The question is whether the Tigers can get their fourth and fifth runners in a position to put a scare into Cape Coral and Fort Myers..

State is still eight weeks away.  I'm looking forward to mid-October for Private 8 and LCAC.  At Private 8 Povich and DeLisle will square with Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci in pursuit.  The boys rac will be a hot one as well with Verot's talented duo of Cooper Banks and Grayson Tubbs taking on defending champ SFCA's Hayden Tank.

The Lee County XC Championship should be a walk for the Fort Myers girls and an interesting battle between Fort Myers, Cape Coral and perhaps Dunbar.  Can't wait for the fireworks.

  

So It Begins XC 2022

The first official meets of the Florida High School cross country rolled by this Saturday and surprise, look out for Mackenzie DeLisle.  The diminutive Bishop Verot sophomore is two inches taller and took a major scalp at the preseason meet hosted by Dunbar last week.  DeLisle scored the "upset" by beating ECS senior star Ava Povich.  DeLisle followed that win with another Saturday morning at the Lemon Bay Invitational helping her depleted team to a second place finish to the always powerful squad from Naples High.

Verot is depleted with the loss of senior Julia Reitz.  The Vikings showed surprising depth in finishing ahead of county rival Fort Myers which I had slotted as the top girls squad in Lee County.  Granted the Green Wave was running without senior Olivia Olney but Fort Myers needs more from its squad, three through seven. 

Povich bounced back at the Lehigh Lightning Invitational on Saturday in a cake walk.  The Lehigh meet produced two surprises.  Oasis ninth grader Jazlyn Forbes debuted with a stunning third place finish.  The other shocker came from CSN senior Sergei Guzman who showed what a summer of training can do by winning the first varsity race he's ever run, upsetting SFCA senior Hayden Tank.  For reasons unknown Palmetto Ridge standout Bernardo Barnhart did not run at Lehigh with his team.  Let's hope this senior stud from Collier County is healthy.

Another top Lee County runner was missing in action at Lehigh and Dunbar.  Declan Ziomek didn't run on Saturday and despite his absence, Cape Coral's boys show they will be a force in Lee County winning at Lehigh after finishing second to Fort Myers at Dunbar.  With Ziomek the Seahawks could make a run for the county title against Fort Myers.

As for the Fort Myers boys, they won Dunbar behind junior Joseph Koraya's first place finish and won at Lemon Bay where Koraya finished third.  The boys from Bishop Verot finished second at Lemon Bay without the services of senior Cooper Banks.

Next weekend is the DDD Invitational at Estero Park.  Verot is taking the week off but all of the top Lee County squads will line up for the Fort Myers Invitational the following Saturday night at the Kelly Road Soccer Complex.

Jack

I was trying to remember when I first met Jack Turcotte.  It was probably in 1973 at a Lawrence, Kansas bar called the Ball Park.  If my memory is correct Jack worked there as a bartender and I eventually did too.  What drew us both to the Ball Park was a game created by a group of University of Kansas professors that allowed you to play major league baseball teams against one another based on a random number generator.  But I digress.

Jack died last week.  I found out about his passing this morning from an old friend, Phil Wedge, who was close to Jack as well when we were in high school then in college together at K.U.  Jack was one of those special people that touches your life and leaves an indelible impact.  I want to write about friends like Jack because I want to remember them.  I want others to know what made them special.

John "Jack" Turcotte grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the son of the superintendent of schools.  Jack was a pretty good high school baseball player and plenty smart.  He ended up at Kansas on a Navy ROTC scholarship even though he had been accepted at prestigious Vanderbilt University.

Jack and I became good friends around my freshman year at Kansas.  He was in his fifth year.  This was 1974. He wouldn't graduate until 1988.  It wasn't because Jack wasn't smart.  My goodness, I saw him once in our freshman biology class, just once.  You could skip all the tests and go for it all on the final.  Jack missed every class after the first day and skipped every test.  He took my awful notes and my textbook and got a B plus on the final.  

Jack was a distracted man.  Everything interested him.  I'm guessing he probably changed majors at least a half dozen times before finally graduating.  He must have had graduated with more than 200 credit hours and he even spent two more years at K.U. to earn his MBA.

Jack biggest love when I first met him were the Boston Red Sox.  He was born in Vermont which may explain his attachment to a baseball team in New England.  Shortly after getting to know Jack he met an even bigger love, Patricia McCoy, a sassy student at K.U. from Dodge City.  They got married pretty quickly after that.  

Those two loved to have a good time.  They loved their lives together.  Trisha made Jack a couple of T-Shirts that I will never forget.  One said, "Do it again, Fred Lynn."  She gave it to Jack shortly after Lynn's incredible rookie season of 1975 with the Sox.  The other was on the naughty side.  Trisha had snapped a picture of Jack doing his business on the toilet.  It was incredibly funny and Jack wore it proudly.

One of my favorite life memories was sitting in this little shack that Jack had rented drinking strawberry daiquiri's and spending hours creating baseball trivia.  We would pour through the Baseball Encyclopedia looking for obscure baseball facts.  I can only imagine how good Jack must have been at Trivial Pursuit.

Jack had this incredible beard.  He could shave twice a day.  He decided to have his facial hair removed with what I think was a laser.  I remember his red puffy face after the first treatment.  Jack got his whole face done and I think his beard was back in a year or so.  You just have to shake your head at that.

I think about three or four years into their marriage Jack and Trisha gave put their lives on  aa different path and devoted themselves to the Lawrence First Church of the Nazarene.  It was great decision for them.  Not long after they ended up moving into a house across the street from my mother.  They were great to my mom.  They were great to me when I needed their help in tough times.  

After Jack got his MBA they moved to Dayton, Ohio in the early 1990's.  I was so happy for Jack when he landed a job with NCR, National Cash Register.  We reached out to each other over email probably 20 years ago.  That was the last time I touched base with the man I also knew as Turk.

Much to the surprise of myself and Phil texted me a couple of days ago to tell me of Jack's passing.  The Turcotte's had moved back to Kansas without letting any of us know.  They had moved to Topeka, just 20 miles from Lawrence, where Jack dealt with heart failure.  His heart gave out.  I don't know if I ever knew anyone with a bigger heart than Jack Turcotte.  I wish I could be in Lawrence Friday for his funeral.  His old Lawrence friends will be and that I will have to settle for being there in spirit.

Cross Country 2022

Lee County high school cross country rolls out on August 20th with the Dunbar Jamboree.  I will write here what I have written before.  The Florida high school cross country season is too long.  And I think every meet run before Labor Day should be just 3000 meters.  Lee County boasts one of the State's best distance runners and potentially one of the State's best teams.

Ladies first.  When it comes to individuals, it's Ava Povich and a handful of girls who would like to take her scalp.  Povich, a senior from ECS, is a Bona fide Division One recruit and a sure fire bet to finish in the top five Class 1A at State.  She was the best that Lee County had to offer last fall and there's no reason to think that she won't repeat as the best of the best in this neck of the woods.

Since you score the first five on a cross country team we will mention four other girls.  Mackenzie DeLisle was a freshman star for Bishop Verot.  If she can get healthy for her sophomore campaign she could make a legitimate run for the top ten in Class 2A.  Health will also play a role in one of her teammates who should shine for Verot, senior Julia Reitz.  Reitz was hobbled by the end of last spring's track season.  The question is whether both girls have been able to put in the summer miles.

Canterbury's Gabriella Santucci comes into her senior campaign with an eye on a top ten finish in Class 1A.  She finished 11th last fall and showed continued improvement during her spring track season.  The other girl that is my dark horse for the fall is Fort Myers junior Elizabeth McHugh.  She battled injuries for the better part of a year and showed a lot of promise at the end of last spring's track season.  She could be better than returning LCAC champion Olivia Olney who is a returning senior.

That brings us to the teams and only two are worth mentioning.  Fort Myers has everyone back from a team that went to the Class 3A State meet.  With a healthy McHugh, Olney, sophomore Masha Dorofeev and a slew of other girls capable of running 21 minutes or better, the Green Wave could be a top five team in its class this fall.

The other top team is Bishop Verot.  It all comes down to the health of the Vikings top two.  With the departure of Jorge Fleitas, Verot has a capable replacement in Tyler Stowell who has made his bones as a youth coach.  Stowell has last year's entire squad that went to State returning including senior Kylie Thomas who could be a sleeper as an individual.   

The boy's scene will offer something of a shakeup after two years of domination by Estero's Kolton Pickard who has graduated In other words, picking the best for this fall among the boys is a hot mess..  Based on last spring's track season Fort Myers junior Joseph Koraya should ascend to the top of Lee County's pecking order.  SFCA senior Hayden Tank could be the best of the best given his better 3200 credentials and his 19th place finish in Class 1A.  Koraya was 22nd as a sophomore in Class 3A and ran 30 seconds faster on the same course; than Tank.

The real mess is deciding which runners three runners belong in the top five.  Declan Ziomek has left Ida Baker to run at Cape Coral High.  I suspect the graduation of Matthew Speruta led Jake Jacoby and Ziomek to make the switch where they will have William Canales to train with.  I like Ziomek and Fort Myers sophomore Craig Allard, Jr.  The hardest pick is number five and I'm going with Canales.  

When it comes to sorting out the top teams, it's an easy pick.  The boys from Fort Myers lost their best runner in Colsen Palmer to graduation but almost everyone else is back.  The team is loaded and could be eyeing another podium spot in Class 3A at State.  Last year's squad finished second. Timothy Schultz and Quin Roberts give the Green Wave some seasoned vets.  Coach Yancey Palmer has done a great job coaching both the boy's and girl's teams.

The other top team is Bishop Verot.  Tyler Stowell has a couple of studs to coach.  Leaving Grayson Tubbs and Cooper Banks off my top five was really hard to do.  Both had outstanding track seasons. Banks skipped cross country last fall but now realizes that a season of fall running will help his outstanding ability at 800 meters.  Tubbs had a standout spring in both the 800 and 1600.  The Vikings have enough depth that a return to State Class 2A seems a sure thing.   

What I am watching for is whether Povich can join the elite ranks of Lee County girls to break 18 minutes over 5000 meters.  The last girl to do it was Fort Myers High's Stephy Ormsby.  She's running for the Florida Gators now.  Povich and the Fort Myers boys are the ones to watch.

Worlds

Since the 1980's I've had a bucket list to try to attend every major track and field event the world has to offer.  It started with the 1976 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon where I was fortunate enough to be there as a working journalist.  Those were different times then.  I witnessed things first hand that left deep indelible memories.  There was an injured Marty Liquori crying into his wife's shoulder after having to drop out of the 5,000 meter heats.  Gerry Bjorklund making a stunning run to the finish minus one shoe to make the 10,000 team blasting by Bill Rodgers for third.  An arrogant Dave Roberts breaking the world record in the pole vault after breaking his pole and borrowing a pole from the classiest of acts, Earl Bell.

1976 1500 Trials Final

I could write an entire blog on the 76 Trials and I will but the other championship meets I made it to include the 1984 Olympics, the 1997 USA Outdoor Championships and the 1998 NCAA Outdoor Championships.  With last week's attendance of the World Outdoor Championships in Eugene I have only a handful of meets to attend.  The three major indoor championships, NCAA, USA and Worlds plus the World Cross Country Championships which will happily make a stop in Tallahassee in 2026.

I had thought long and hard about going to Eugene but spending ten days at the meet between astronomical hotel costs, tickets and travel just seemed a bit much.  Fortunately early in the year my favorite track and field travel companion Chris Ronan called me and said he had tickets for the last two nights of competition.  I said yes.  Then I asked if he would be game to come down a day early from Seattle and catch Friday night's competition and he was game.

Chris did all the heavy lifting, patiently waiting for an AirBNB that was halfway affordable.  He made the long drive from Seattle, picking me up in Portland for our journey to Eugene.  This marked our third Eugene trip together, with stops at Prefontaine in 2005 and 2017.  We had also traveled to a meet in 1998 in Edwardsville, Illinois which was set up as a swan song for heptathlon great Jackie Joyner Kersee.

I went to Eugene prepared to hate the new Hayward Field.  I had attended a half dozen meets at old Hayward.  It's charm, the incredible noise from the stomping on the wooden bleachers made it a nostalgic venue.  I had my doubts on how you replace such history.  Once I caught sight of the new edifice my doubts crumbled.  It's a magnificent facility.  The seating was amazing and the noise.  It seemed to me it was a much, much louder stadium than old Hayward.

The three nights of competition was amazing.  As great as it was to see Sydney McLaughlin's stunning world record in the 400 hurdles I enjoyed just as much watching American Kyra Winger end her long career with a sixth round throw to claim silver in the javelin. 

The following night just as we were celebrating the amazing victory by the USA women's 4x100 relay victory, the American men disappointed with their second place finish.  How the American coaching staff did not put either Grant Holloway or Eriyon Knighton on that squad is beyond me.  It took the brilliance off an amazing evening.

The final night started off with a personal flub.  I rushed to hit the restroom as the women's 100 meter hurdles semi-finals started.  I mean, what could possible happen during a semi.  I missed the world record.  I thought I found redemption when Nigeria's Tobi Amusan ran a stunning 12.06 in the final but alas, it was wind aided.  Chris and I sat directly in front of the pole vault competition and American born Swede Mondo Duplantis saved the day by breaking the world record by a centimeter.

The craziest part of that final Sunday was watching Jakob Ingebrigtsen fantastic gold medal run in the 5,000.  It was blistering hot and Norway's Olympic 1500 meter gold medalist took not one, but two shots and grabbing a cup of water during the race.  He confidently drifted out into lane four, how the Kenyans and Ugandans didn't decide to up the pace at those moments is beyond me.  It was pretty clear they had conceded the race to Ingebrigtsen and were biding their time to sort out the silver and bronze.

What's on tap next for track and field travel?  Well, it's not track but the World Road Racing Championships are in Riga next September.