2/16/13 - Winter Track States

Although I was not in attendance at the bubble on the fateful Saturday, the most successful day for East Distance in my lifetime, I have heard enough about the race and have felt enough about the race from the confidence emanating from the runners who will be traveling to Meet some Champions this Saturday.

All around the board, CHHSE runners and jumpers aspired for greatest and perfection and most nearly achieved it; even our coach, Matthew "I ran a 16:24 on Holmdel" Cieslik referred to the day early on in the meet as "perfect".

On the distance side of the meet, Dan Helfand ran a different kind of race than that of the previous Sunday to  a huge 4:28, 6th place finish in the entirety of group 4 in the 1600. Purportedly, Dan fought it out with the leader nearly to the death, getting drug along to a 1 second pr and more importantly, a secured spot (33rd seed) at MOCs. You continue to impress, Double-B.
In the meantime, Ben Dillon ran yet another solid race, dropping 13 seconds from his previous at sectionals, to take 8th with a 9:44 and a qualifying spot (34th seed) at MOCs in the 3200. Nice job Ben, your attitude over the last few weeks has been unmatched (possible correlation?).

On the sprinter/jumper side of states, Jared Athias and Kyle Bryant matched their sectionals marks and moved on to MOCs, taking 3rd and 6th places with jumps of 6'02", respectively. Kevin Barry took a wildcard spot with 9th place in the 400m dash in 51.39, and will also be back in Tom's River this Saturday. The sole imperfection in the meet that nearly was such a paragon was the 4x400m relay which failed to qualify.

As I know both all of our runners will do well on Saturday, all that I can say is to DO SOMETHING. The way you bulls are running, you seriously look like you can't lose; do everything possible to get a point. Run to win, run to make a name for your team then yourself.

"He that shall see this day, and live old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors and say "Tomorrow is Saint Crispian." Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars. Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day" (Henry V. IV. iii.47-52)

Saturday is Meet of Champs. Get some scars.