The Greatest Time Of The Year
By Glen Hazelwood
I love this time of year.
Which is somewhat ironic because it seems like it was just five minutes ago that we were in the part of the year that I like the least.
That point in time where cross country is done for 99.99999% of the athletes.
And it's too cold to be out there watching it even if it wasn't.
And quite frankly…I'm kinda tired of cross country by that time anyway.
(Sacrilege, I know. It is what it is.)
But now we stand on the brink of a shiny new track season, and everything starts feeling fresh to me again. It's the anticipation of the possibilities, based upon past performance and blended with potential that does that for me. I use this line a lot, but it's the best way to sum it up...
I cannot wait to see what these kids do next!
Each year, no matter where in New York you live or what teams or events you follow, you will find plenty of those "moments" that completely validate your passion for this sport. But almost invariably, there will be the story of a "wunderkind", or a particular upcoming match-up…a story which stands out from the rest and becomes universally appealing to most every track and field fan. And that story becomes the track and field "story” of that year.
Think of Nick Ryan two years ago, laying waste to distance fields across New York and leaving a trail of lapped opponents and broken records in his wake.
Or last year’s Rose/Brown/Benjamin sprint free-for-all, which we will have the good fortune to be able to watch again this year, likely at an even higher level.
Or a young lady from Westchester County, who actually transcended the single year concept even further by toeing a start line in Bronxville several years ago, taking her race 3,000 miles across the country to Oregon, and still remaining firmly locked in the minds of NY “trackies” even now.
I believe there are a couple of things developing on the NY track and field scene that have the potential to be the “Story of the Year” for 2015, and the first one is a little different from the ones above in that it doesn’t focus on a particular athlete or match-up. It’s more of a broad stroke dynamic that’s been building over the past few years, which I believe is about to come to a head explosively as we forge on into the 2015 New York State track season.
This story begins back in the year 2012, when six freshmen athletes from New York State....James Burke, Marco Pompilj, Mike Brannigan, Luke Gavigan, Bryce Millar and Jeremy Speizio....raised up on their skinny little 15 year old legs and broke 4:25 at 1600m.
In the grand scheme of high school racing, a 4:25 1600m in and of itself is not a particularly notable benchmark. It is unquestionably a great time for a freshman, or even a sophomore.
But overall, literally hundreds of U.S. high schoolers do that in any given year.
But in 2012 there were a total of 28 freshmen athletes nationwide that broke 4:25...and more than 20% of them came out of New York State.
That is pretty notable.
And it doesn't even tell the whole story of the Class of 2015.
Another half dozen freshmen that year were right on the heels of this group, going under 4:30. And a total of thirty four lil' New York fishies had times that would have been good enough to qualify them for the Freshman Mile at the New Balance Nationals.
That's a whole lot of speedy adolescents for a state that can barely train outdoors for four months out of the year, and most all of them have continued to progress wonderfully as they moved on through high school.
That on its own should lead you to believe that this could be a really special year for high school distance running in New York, as the Class of 2015 begins their final “peak” going into their senior year. There’s going to be some serious, serious heat flying around the tracks of this state in 2015.
Now let's see if we can't raise the temperature even more....
Skip forward one year to 2013.
While not quite as impressive on paper as the New York freshmen class of the previous year, this group of now juniors added another dozen or so sub-4:30 frosh runners, including three medalists in the Freshman Mile at NBN, most of which have developed very nicely since then and worked themselves right into the mix with their older counterparts.
A somewhat obscure but interesting note about that year’s freshman class....
In 2013, there were only three high school track programs in the nation that had two freshmen athletes under 4:30 in the mile, and two of those three (Brewster and Saratoga Springs) were from New York State.
This group, as well, should certainly have an impact on the whole distance running dynamic in New York this season.
Now toss in these additional elements.…
Add in the group of New York runners that didn't necessarily start out in the upper echelon of their class early on, but have since grown bigger and stronger, put in the work and injected themselves solidly into the fray.
Then add in the guys who haven't necessarily been stand outs on the track thus far, but who had tremendous "breakout" cross country seasons this year, which usually plays really well going forward into track season.
Then add in the younger faction; that handful of “alpha” freshmen and sophomores, who for whatever reasons have already “figured it out” and are capable of running with the big boys from the two earlier classes.
Add in the transfer factor. Yes, we lost a Gaynor....but we gained a pair of Affolders (at least for the spring season), and while other states may dispute our claiming them as New Yorkers, I'm shamelessly going ahead and doing it anyway.
Then add in some theoretical kid somewhere that nobody's ever even heard about yet, but who has quietly decided for himself that 2015 is going to be his year, and is putting in the work to assure that nothing will deny him that.
And finally, let's add in the ‘reasonable presumption’ that everything that I've presented so far about these athletes regarding their 1600m performances will quite likely also apply to their 800m, 1000m, 3200m, steeplechase, 4x800m relay, DMR, and occasional 5000m performances as well!
You can’t possibly look at all that and not be thoroughly fired up about the prospects for distance running in New York State in 2015!
Allow me to take a moment to temper my somewhat hyperbolic enthusiasm about this with some reality.
There’s just no way to reliably predict how a high school athlete, much less a group of them, will perform from one year to the next.
Higher performance levels inevitably lead to higher levels of expectation and pressure, and some of these kids understandably will not do well with that.
Their school workloads, as well as their life and social workloads, become much heavier as they move toward graduation, resulting in their time and schedules becoming far more difficult to manage.
Many of them are getting recruited by colleges, and maintaining good grades and achieving high SAT scores become as much a factor in that process as fast times.
Injuries, sadly, will almost certainly come into play for some of them.
And at the end of the day, they’re still kinda, sorta just kids…and staying focused isn’t always their strongest trait. On any given day they’re more interested in getting their driver’s license than in their quarter splits.
The list goes on, and any of these variables could, and likely will, affect how they perform athletically.
But if you accept all that as the reality that it is, and then set it aside and consider all of the things I’ve presented above, then mix it all up into one big, high-toned, Tiger Balm-soaked mess of teenage speedsters...you come away with the potential for the year 2015 to be the most exciting year ever for high school distance running in New York State.
That’s one of my New York State track and field “Stories of the Year” for 2015.
Because I cannot wait to......heh, you know.