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.

Close But No Cigar... Revisited

An email from an old running rival prompted me to revisit a blog I wrote 12 years ago.  The original intent was to point out that Estero's Erick Montoya, a sub 9:10 3200 runner, never won a state title.  He reminded me of a particularly outstanding Kansas high school distance runner, Steve Shaad.

I can remember the first time I raced against Steve.  It was at an AAU meet in Lawrence to qualify for the AAU State Championships. We raced over one mile.  Steve won and I was about 15 seconds behind him back in fifth or sixth place.  Because our schools were in different classifications we never raced in high school competition.

But we did race again at the same AAU meet the following summer in blazing hot conditions.  Steve easily crushed me in the mile and two mile running something under 4:40 and 10 minutes.  I was second in both races a good 50 yards behind in the two mile.  It was so hot I went from 130 pounds to 118 pounds in four hours.

Shaad was a stud in the early 1970's at Bonner Springs High School.  The town sits just to the west of Kansas City.  He was a competitor that I feared and respected because he was tough as nails.  On the flip side he was incredibly humble and friendly.  Everyone liked him.

Steve had the misfortune of coming up against some other awesome prep runners that he raced in the same classification, Terry Glenn and Jerry Peffly.  I don't remember Steve's best times but I know he ran in the low 4:20's for the full mile and in the 9:20's for two miles.  It seemed Steve was always running second or third behind those two.

One race I remember in particular occurred in 1973 at the Kansas Relays.  Shaad was a senior and had entered the boys mile steeplechase, skipping the two mile, figuring he could pick up the prestigious title.  Unfortunately Bob Christensen, who had won the boys mile the day before, had entered as well.  The two waged a great battle both bashing the meet record running 4:36 with Christensen coming out on top.  Ironically both runners ended up at Wichita State as teammates and became top steeplechase competitors, both breaking 9 minutes.

Despite the crushing disappointment Shaad toed the line 20 minutes later for the boys 4 x 800.  If my memory serves me Steve ran the third leg, handing off to his 880 state champion teammate Mark Denning, who crushed his anchor leg giving Bonner Springs the Kansas Relays title. 

It was great to see Steve Shaad celebrate.  It was as good as a state title for him.  It's a memory I will always carry with me seeing his joy because he knew his lack of a kick would probably keep him from ever topping the victory stand at state.

Steve ran 8:51.34 in the steeplechase while he attended Wichita State.  That was an outstanding collegiate time in the 1970's.  He's stayed in Wichita after graduating where for years he was a major part of the minor league baseball team that plays there.

A Razorback Farewell

A major chapter will close on Saturday for the greatest distance runner ever produced by a Lee County high school.  Fort Myers grad Krissy Gear will toe the line at 5:41 p.m. to race the 1,500 meter finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.  The Arkansas senior has a superb chance to earn her sixth All American honor and should all the cards fall right, claim a victory to end her epic career.

Coming out of high school Gear was an under-appreciated budding star.  She appeared on the scene in the fall of 2014, an unknown sophomore who grabbed a surprising second place at the county cross country championships.  The icing to that cake came with a medal winning 19^th place finish at State helping her team to a second place podium finish.

By the end Gear had set every record at Fort Myers High from the 800 to the 3200.  At her final State Championship she ran an incredible triple to earn three gold medals to end her career with six state championships.   Even at the New Balance Nationals Gear was overlooked and put in the slow heat.  Gear turned the tables reeling off a 4:49.36 placing third overall.  She should have been looking at scholarships from top five distance powers but having gone unnoticed landed at Furman.

Her time at Furman was fruitful but failed to fulfill the promise she had shown at high school.  Gear won the USATF junior title in the 3000 meter steeplechase as a freshman making the national team that competed at the World Junior Championships in Finland.  Gear was a second team All-American in the steeple her sophomore year.  As an outside observer I felt that Gear wasn’t being given a chance to show what she could do in the 800 and 1500.  From my perspective I think the Furman coaches saw her as a steepler and nothing more.  Suddenly Gear was gone and off to Arkansas, a distance power.

It didn’t take long for Gear to make her mark.  Just as she was prepared to show how Razorback training had transformed her into a formidable miler COVID hit.  Her chance to show the quick progress she had made at NCAA Indoor Nationals was gone and we wouldn’t get to see what she was capable of for a full year.

What she did in the space of four days in March of 2021 is the stuff of legend.  Gear anchored her Arkansas team at the NCAA Indoors to a silver medal in the Distance Medley Relay.  She capped the meet off my grabbing second in the mile for her second silver running 4:32.27.  Earlier in the year she had broken the school indoor record for the mile running 4:31.83.

After her exhausting Friday/Saturday double Gear made the trip from Birmingham, Alabama to Stillwater, Oklahoma for the NCAA Cross Country Championships.  Never a cross country standout in college, Gear ran the race of life finishing 21^st to claim All American honors.  That made three All American awards in four days.

Outdoors was just as impressive.  Gear ran the second fastest 1500 in Razorback history running 4:09.00 in Modesto, setting a meet record in winning the SEC steeplechase clocking a 9:38.62 which also topped the Arkansas school record.  She closed the 2021 season out with a fifth place finish in the 1500 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

While her senior year hasn’t been as magical, so far, it’s been more rewarding in some ways.  Indoors Gear ran the 800 on the Razorback’s school record setting and national champion Distance Medley Relay team at the NCAA Indoors.  Outdoors Gear anchored Arkansas to a collegiate record 16:53.87 in the 4x1500 battling North Carolina State star Katelyn Touhy for the victory at the historic Penn Relays.  The Razorback squad crushed the old record by nearly 15 seconds.  Gear’s anchor leg was emblematic of her Arkansas career, winning for her team.  Krissy always shines brightest when she’s part of something bigger than herself.

Saturday in Eugene she will take center stage against the best collegians over 1500 meters.  Regardless of the outcome, she will have cemented her place as a Razorback great.  What comes next is another is the great unknown.  Which shoe company will see the potential that others have overlooked too often? The world of professional track and field awaits Krissy Gear.

Week 11 State

Sure... let's run 18 kids in a final.  Sure it's a great idea to watch 18 kids fight for space in an 800 meter race.  What a farce.  The FSHSAA should be ashamed of itself.  There were so many things wrong with the way this meet was handled I can't even begin to get into it.

As I noted last week, Florida needs to have at least two more classes in track and field and run two to three classes simultaneously.  Last week's hot mess made tripling difficult to nearly impossible for distance runners.  If you want top performances, the schedule has to be more forgiving for all of the athletes.

We'll start with the good and finish with the bad.  The good, Ava Povich of ECS scored an outstanding double in Class 1A claiming seventh in the 1,600 running 5:07.51.  She faced an uphill battle against the legion from Cambridge Christian.  The 3,200 went before where the junior star ran a big PR in 10:53.51 to finish third.  It was the only top three finish by any Lee County distance athlete.

Bishop Verot's boys and girls brought down school records in the 4x800 in Class 2A.  The girl's finished seventh in 9:50.50 and the boys placed 4th in 8:06.79.  The other Verot distance podium came from freshman MacKenzie DeLisle who took 8th in the 3,200 in 11:19.82.  More on Verot when we get to the bad.

The Fort Myers boys scored a big school record with their 4th place finish in the Class 3A 4x800 thanks in large part to a massive lead off leg from senior Colsen Palmer.  Later in the evening Palmer doubled back in the 1,600 running a PR of 4:22.01 to finish 12th with teammate Joseph Koraya one place better with a PR of 4:21.36.  

SFCA's boys also came home with a podium finish and a school record in the 4x800 with an 8:17.26.  Junior Hayden Tank fresh off a school record in the 3,200 ran a respectable 9:50.98 to finish 11th in Class 1A.  Another season of training and Tank will be ready for his place on the podium.

While I focus on the Lee County kids I want to point out a couple of strong performances from Collier County distance runners.  The Naples girls 4x800 squad ran a super fast 9:29.5 to finish 4th thanks to a strong 2:14 anchor from Tara Watkins.  The freshman star later finished a respectable 8th in the 800 running 2:19.73.  Palmetto Ridge junior Bernardo Barnhart also podiumed with a big PR in the 3,200 of 9:23.04.  Barnhart also ran a leg on the Bears' 4x800 squad which finished 8th.

Now on to the bad.  Undefeated Estero senior Kolton Pickard ran into a lot of it in Gainesville.  He was battling for the lead in the Class 3A 1,600 when he tightened up to finish 4th in 4:17.09.  Then came the 800 where he was perfectly position with 200 to go when the eventual race winner decided to pinch Pickard into another run causing Pickard to tumble to the track.  It was a perfect example of why you can't run 18 athletes in an 800 final.  The track was overcrowded and it was a veritable traffic jam with 200 to go.  

Bad luck also cost Verot junior Cooper Banks a third place finish and a big PR in the 800.  As Banks was sprinting to the finish chasing two other runners, one of them tumbled to the track in front of Banks forcing him to stop and hurdle the fallen runner.  Even putting on the breaks couldn't stop Banks from clocking a fine 1:56.07 but the loss of momentum caused him to go from third to eighth.  A cruel way to end his season.

Listen up FSHSAA... 18 runners in a two lap final is ridiculous.