Weather delays first day of Illinois state track meet
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By Shannon Heaton | Monday, June 16, 2008 |
CHARLESTON, Ill. — Friday afternoon at the Illinois Class A boys state track and field meet, two weather delays penetrated the running of the 400-meter relay. After its conclusion, three more delays wound up holding up the start of the rest of the day, for both Class A and AA competitors.
All told, the race was delayed by almost 1 hour and 15 minutes — midway through it.
“Everyone was down about it, but we’re all hanging out, talking about it. Laughing about it, eventually,” Sterling Newman 400 relay leadoff Phil Wahl said, adding that he never had competed in a track meet with three weather delays (which eventually became five) in it.
“All you can do is just sit there, stretch and get mentally prepared.”
Fortunately for the Dragons of Aledo/Westmer, the delays for thunder — which are mandated by national federation rules — came after their heat, even though the tandem of Matt Dawson, John Berthel, Kyle Tompkins and Brandon Bolton brought the thunder during it.
The Dragons finished in 44.04 seconds, .40 seconds slower than their sectional time (adjusted to fully-automated time standards), but led wire to wire in their heat to win it, giving them an automatic bid into today’s finals, where they have the third-fastest preliminary time.
“That was the best we’ve run all year, and we knew at that time we’d be seeded good,” Dawson said. “We wanted to come down and place in the top five.”
The co-op finished sixth in last year’s 400 relay, and with Dawson and Berthel bringing experience to this year’s group, a better finish this year seemed likely.
“Being with Darin (Blaser, a relay teammate last year), he’d been down here so many times before, it was good to have someone with his kind of knowledge. Now me and John (Berthel, who ran second) can be there for our younger guys,” Dawson said.
Newman had to deal with two weather delays before getting its heat in. But, like the Dragons, the Comets also looked like a possible finals qualifier based on time after finishing second in its heat behind the fastest Friday team in Herrin. But instead the Comets found themselves on the outside looking in. Newman was 10th — the fastest non-qualifier Friday – in 44.57 seconds.
“I guess we could have gone (just) for time, but we thought we could run with them (Herrin),” Wahl said. “We thought that, them being in our heat, maybe we’d run faster. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened for us.”
Annawan/Wethersfield – which has battled with Aledo/Westmer all year for 400 relay dominance among Lincoln Trail Conference teams – was just a long blink behind the Comets, finishing 16th overall in 44.77 seconds.
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