By Michael Newman

[email protected]

 

It happens at this same time every year. An old year leaves up and a new year full of opportunities and hope approaches us. Before we ring in 2014, let’s look back at the 2013 Cross Country Season and some of the things that made it special.

 

State Meet Race of the Year

 

All six races at Detweiller Park in November were exciting. The one race that stood out in my mind was the 3A Girls Race. There was the speculation at the beginning of the year that perhaps the 16:00 barrier on the Detweiller course could be broken by Madeline Perez (Glenbard West HS, Glen Ellyn). The defending state champion, who had run 16:02 in 2012, had her season curtailed by an injury. Her state meet race was only her fourth race of the year.

 

Perez and wonder freshman Alexa Haff (Central HS, Hinsdale) ran side by side for the majority of the race. Mimi Smith (New Trier HS, Winnetka) was lurking behind the two at the two mile point by six seconds. Perez made a move on Haff at the 2 ¼ mile mark only to be passed by Haff and Smith with 800 meters to go. The dynamics of the race changed that quickly. In the last 400 meters, Smith made a defining move that made her the state champ.

 

Non-state meet races of the year

 

I can’t really comment on races that I was not at. There were two races that I saw that were memorable in my eyes.

 

At the beginning of October at St. James Farm in Warrenville, the championship race of the Wheaton North Girls Falcon Classic looked like it would be a non-exciting moment. Skyler Bollinger (Yorkville HS) had stayed with the pack the week before at the Palatine Invitational before she was outkicked the last 400 meters to finish third. In this race, she went out hard daring anyone to keep up with the tough pace. Yorkville Coach Chris Muth after the race said, “If someone was going to beat Skyler today was going to have to kill themselves in the last mile.”

 

I was standing by the two mile point and saw Bollinger pass by. Her lead was over 10 seconds to Lauren Van Vlierbergen (Jacobs HS, Algonquin) and Mimi Smith. I started to jog towards the finish line waiting for the finish. I paused at one point to watch the runners go by me with a little over 800 meters to go. Bollinger’s lead had shrunk to seven seconds. Smith and Van Vlierbergen were working off of each other cutting that lead down. I stood by the finish line waiting for the finish. Over the ridge in the distance with 300 meters to go I saw Mimi Smith charging for the finish line. It shocked me. Smith came across the line in first. A spent Bollinger crossed six seconds later in second place. I agreed with Muth. She had to run the race that she did for a chance to win.

 

The other race that was memorable to me was the West Suburban Silver Conference Meet on the campus of Proviso West HS in Hillside. The Boys Varsity individual race was over at 2 miles. The Downers Grove North duo of Zack Smith and Ryan Clevenger broke away from the pack. It was clear that they were going to finish 1-2. What was in question was the team race between the top two teams in 3A Boys at the time #1 York and #2 Hinsdale Central. I was standing at a point 1000 meters from the finish. As I had my video camera going, I was counting the scores of the two teams. The Red Devils presence towards the front was evident as they had a 40-44 lead over the Dukes at that point. As the runners came in, both teams were approaching the finish line in reckless abandon sprinting as hard as they could.

 

York won that battle that day 36-50. What was the difference was that Hinsdale’s star freshman Blake Evertsen had not had breakfast the morning of the race and it affected him. He faded from sixth in the last kilometer to sixteenth. That was the difference.

 

Central was down after the race but realized a few days later that they had York beat if it had not been for what has happened. It showed a few weeks later at the state meet when Hinsdale dominated that race with the same tight pack that they had demonstrated at Proviso. York was not jumping up and down after the race knowing they had escaped for the win.

 

The race also showed how strong that the West Suburban Silver was in 2013. At the state meet, four of the top five 3A schools were all from that conference.

 

Moment of the Year

 

I was about ready to watch the Girls Varsity race at the Lake Park Invitational when my phone went off. I started to receive texts from several people that were at the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park. Maura Beattie (Woodstock HS) and Mailin Struck (Riverside-Brookfield HS) were running side by side as they passed the two mile point of the 2A Girls Race. Five minutes later, there were still runners that were at the right side of the course that had one mile to go. The leaders were approaching the finish line. Beattie was the first to finish.

 

The question was where was Mailin Struck? An official who was keeping track of the lead runners at the two mile was crossing off numbers as they passed him at the end. No Struck. What had happened was that the German foreign exchange student had never run at Detweiller Park before getting tangled up with the lapped runners missing the finish line. By the time she realized what had happened, it was too late. She back tracked, turned the corner, crossed the finish line and collapsed emotionally spent.

 

As this was going on, Beattie was looking for Struck as well to congratulate her. Struck took off with 800 meters to go so the Woodstock runner knew she was not the winner of the race. “Where is she? She is the real winner,” Beattie kept saying in the finish line area.

 

In November, there was no doubt in the last 800 meters of the 2A Girls state race that Struck would win. This time, she was not going to take any chances. She stayed on the far left side as she crossed the finish line.

 

Personal Moment of the Year

 

You always want your child do the best they can. This was the case at the Upstate Eight Conference Meet at Leroy Oakes Forest Preserve. My daughter Meghan was running cross country for the first time. She had never run in a competitive race before this year. It was just a joy to watch her run.

 

She had a tough summer. In the middle of July, she was diagnosed with a hairline stress fracture that forced her to miss six weeks of training. It affected the rest of her season. She was not one of the top runners for Bartlett High School this year. More importantly, she was a part of the team. That is all that mattered. She went out and gave it her all in every race that she was in.

 

The conference race would be the last race of the year for her. All I was hoping was that she would finish the year with a personal best. More so, I was hoping she would finish.

 

I watched the clock as I was standing by the finish line. Runners were crossing the line and I was just looking for her to approach. I saw her getting closer to the line and she was sprinting hard. I looked at the clock and realized that she was running her best race of the year.

 

She crossed the line with a huge smile on her face. She had run 97 seconds faster than she ever had run before. She did not win the race. More importantly, she finished and had fun at the same time. For me, I watch so many races during the year. I keep my personal emotions to myself. It would not be professional to be cheering at the finish line. In this case when she crossed, my emotions came out. She fell half way through the race. Her leg was covered in mud. She still finished. The motto that my college coach Al Carius had and still has applied was racing through my mind: “Run for fun and Personal Bests.”

 

I’ve had so many emotions from running. I’ve been part of state and national championship teams. I’ve been on the other side losing. I know how it felt. I’ve had so many emotions covering. The last feeling that I received was what many of you parents have experienced in watching a race. My stomach turning feeling helpless that there was nothing that I could do. Being proud watching your child compete tops them all.

 

Story of the Year

 

It should have been a non-story had common sense been used. The state cross country meet and what happened has been documented by me. You can read what I said about the fiasco here.

 

It was the second time that a state meet has been mismanaged in the last year. Remember the Boys State Meet and the phantom thunderstorms?

 

It was tough watching the 1A Boys race with all that had happened before that. It was tough to talk to the coaches and athletes who had been affected from a “bonehead” decision. The story should be the accomplishments or the heartbreak within the race, not with the actual running of the race. It is something that the people in the IHSA have forgotten. It should be about the kids. Actions speak louder than words. The IHSA professes they do it for the kids, but what actually happens states otherwise.

 

I am praying for peaceful state meets in 2014. We can only hope.

 

Non-story of the Year

 

I regretted tweeting something on September 6: “Madeline Perez not running on Saturday at Hinsdale – College Visit.”

 

Madeline Perez did not run most of the season because of a leg injury. It was news because she was the defending 3A State Champion. I had heard that she could be injured from someone at a meet that I was at before Hinsdale. I followed it up by sending a message to Madeline on Facebook. She did not reply. I thought that it could be more serious.

 

The college visit tweet was wrong obviously. In the next couple of weeks, I continued to ask Glenbard West Paul Hass about the situation. He would tell me the same thing each week. I was hoping that she would run. I am glad that she did and was able to help her team to win a state championship.

 

It should have been a non-story. A high school kid gets injured. Yet, every week on the video shows I did I would mention it. We are not talking about professional athletes on DyeStat Illinois. These are kids that are doing it for the love of participating. I shut up on the whole thing when I saw an interview that was done with her explaining what was going on. There are sometimes when you do not go after stories. It was not right. I bent my ethics on this. It was sensationalistic. I can’t control others. I am glad that I stopped. So, to all that were involved from Glenbard West, I am sorry.

 

Shoes

 

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about Bartlett High School student/athlete Mariah Brown and how she was collecting shoes for people that were not as fortunate in third world countries.

 

As of the middle of December, Mariah had collected over 1400 pairs of shoes. How cool is that!

 

She still is collecting shoes. She will be packaging them and delivering them to Share Your Soles on January 19. The article that I wrote is here. There is still time to contribute.

 

A big thanks to Mariah, the Girls & Boys Cross Country Teams at Bartlett High School, and the Bartlett running community. Thank you for making a difference.

 

And finally...

 

In December 2012, I did not know what would happen in my life. It looked like DyeStat would not be coming back. A few weeks later, I talked to Ross Krempley who is the CEO of RunnerSpace.com. He had purchased DyeStat and told me of his plans for the site.

 

At the end of February of 2013, we went live. The adventure continues.

 

I am blessed in so many ways. I am blessed that I can write about running in Illinois. I get paid to go to Cross Country and Track Meets. I love what I do. Not too many people in this world can say that. I am blessed that I am part of a great team with RunnerSpace.com. All my life, teamwork has been a big part of my life. That still continues. Through all the conference calls that I have been through with these guys and the time I spent with them covering a meet in Edwardsville, I realized that I am as big of a track geek as they are. I am glad I am part of this team. My big thanks to Ross and everyone at RunnerSpace for letting me be a part of the team.

 

It has been an interesting year. I have been blown away with the e-mails that I have received from all of you that follow my adventures. The one that I treasure the most was from the aunt of Anna Sophia Keller who lives in Panama. She told me that she loved the videos and stories that were on DyeStat Illinois about “her Anna”. The numbers have been unbelievable. I compared them now from when DyeStat was part of the ESPN family and I was shocked with the increase that we have in clicks and viewership. We started our Twitter account at the end of February. At the end of the year, we are over 1500 followers already. I did not think we would be at that number so fast. I guess I am writing the things that you want to read about.

 

I’ve learned a lot about myself. With all the exposure that DyeStat Illinois has received, there have been some things that have hit me. Videos that I shot at meets have showed up on other sites, some running, some local news sites. There was one time where there was an interview that I did on another site. The thing was that it was shot of me doing the interview. I got a good laugh. The one thing that I continue to remember is that I cannot control other’s morals, ethics, or flat out willing to take the easy route. All I can control is what I do. I am satisfied with the road I have chosen to travel on.

 

The biggest issue of this season has been what I have written about the state meets. I think it hit me hard that when I was at the event to listen to what others had to say about what was happening. What hit me the hardest is what the student/athletes have had to say. I guess that is why I wrote what I did. Someone has to speak up. Over the last 10 years, we have been walking on eggshells in regards of saying something that the IHSA has done. Perhaps it is their arrogance. After what I wrote around Thanksgiving, I received some e-mails thanking me for writing what I did. A couple of people told me that it was courageous of me to say what I did.

 

I asked myself why it was courageous. Good question. It could be that there will be retribution down the road. I know there was some during cross country from what I had written after track. I am sure that there will be more when I head to Charleston in May. I know from what I wrote in November, there will be changes. It did not show up in the committee notes. I received notes from one member whose time is up on the advisory committee. Some of the things that I suggest will happen. It is nice to make a little bit of a difference.

 

I feel that I should not be called courageous for telling the truth and standing up for something that I believe in. What if I did not write what I did? I would consider myself gutless for not standing up on this issue. All I can do is be me and write what I feel is right. I am not looking for brownie points. I am not looking to be called the best or whatever you want to call me. I am confident with who I am and do not need an ego boost. All I can do is continue to do my best and hope that it will be acceptable to all of you.

 

There are no resolutions for 2014. If there is one, it would be just continue to keep my feet on the ground and do what I do with a smile on my face. Ok, maybe make Monday Morning Finish Line a little lighter covering the stories and having fun with it.

 

Congratulations to all of you that have competed for an Illinois school this year. It has been my privilege to keep DyeStat Illinois going and to write about a sport that you and I love. My best wishes go out to all of you. May this upcoming year be special and blessed.