Broken Records - A Fan's Perspective

If you look at the Track & Field records for most small schools (and maybe larger ones too, I can't say) you'll notice they are often set in specific eras. There will be a year, or a couple years, where many records seem to be established, because every so often in the cycle of the sport, a school is lucky enough to have a group of very good track athletes. That isn't to say that there aren't very good athletes every year...and random records, because that definitely happens...but in general, the numbers needed to set several records only come along occasionally.

At SHS, the girls track team has been consistently solid for decades, rarely winning big meets, but always doing well in their events and sending an athlete or two to Drake & the State Meet nearly every year. Like other small schools, there have been a few "glory" years, when multiple records were set. A couple fell in the 80's - including the 400 meter Hurdles. During the mid 1990's a gifted group of young ladies broke a few relay records.In the early 2000's new standards came in the 100 & 200 sprints, and tied a record for the Open 400, while Jesse Schmidt took the 800 crown...... and nearly all the records each group captured had been set in one 3 year stretch.

1973 -1975...Those were the stellar days of Oriole Women's track. 

In 1973, you ran a 110, 220, 440, or 880 yard dash.  Most tracks were black cinder that would shred your skin when you fell...leaving permanent scars. The track shoes were black canvass racing flats with white rubber soles and white stripes, the orange cotton shorts were short, and the socks were knee length with two colored stripes. So okay....maybe we all looked a little "silly"...but the race times....were fast.

In 1973, behind the instruction and encouragement of Coach Davis, in his windbreaker and hat, (and yes...plaid pants) with the ever present clipboard and stopwatch in his hand, and the speed, endurance and ability of girls like Brenda Barner, Carol Zeller, Janine Johnson, Lori Rose, Luann Minish, & Vicki Wurster, the Oriole women won their lone outright conference Championship.

In that year, this writer was a lowly 8th grader, watching in awe as those girls broke records, & scuttling out of the way in a hurry when they walked down the halls, the medals on their letter jackets jangling with every step they took.  They were intimidating...a force unto themselves. The Oriole women made a name for themselves on the track during that timespan.  The shuttle hurdle relay team shattered the previous record, and would break it again in 1975, for a record that still stands.  The 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1500 open records all toppled.  The 4x100, 4x 400, Sprint Medley and Distance Medley records fell.  The long jump, and 100 meter hurdle records also fell victim to the girls of the 70's.  They ruled the track, and in some ways, the school.  Carol and Janine were two of the most gifted athletes to ever grace the halls of SHS, and Janine still owns the 100 meter hurdle record.

For a decade, those records held fast.  Through the 80's & 90's a new group of super girls came on the scene, and again under the patient but persistent direction of Coach Davis, still in the windbreaker and hat, (thankfully sans the plaid pants) still with the clipboard and stopwatch permanently attached, records again began to fall.   The 4x100, The 4x400, the Distance Medley all tumbled to the new girls, with the improved shoes, and the flashy new nylon uniforms. In the 1990's Stephanie Martin set the still standing High Jump mark, with a jump of 5'7", and Lisa Robertson captured the Shot & Discus records...and toward the end of that decade, Coach Davis retired...ending an era, but leaving a legacy. In 2006 Hannah Collins stepped up to the start line and claimed the 100 & 200 open records, also tying the record for the 400, set by the afore mentioned Janine Johnson in 75.  As time passed, many records were rewritten, and the majority of the records of the glory girls of the 70's tumbled. Most of them stayed on the board for a decade or so, till faster shoes, faster girls, and electronic timing eventually took them down.  One or two, however, have been permanent fixtures. Among them; Long Jump, set in 1975, 100 meter Hurdles set in 1975, and the 1500 Meter run & Sprint Medley set in 1973.

Enter the Oriole women of 2009. Runners ... who with a new coach, new Asics compression singlets & shorts, brazenly colored specialty spikes, and metallic batons, want their names on the record board ... and are making sure it happens. First to fall was the 4x100, which in fairness, fell in 2008, but since the board never changed, and the same four girls bested their own time this year, we'll call it a 2009 accomplishment.  Second in line, (thanks in large part to a slight but demanding coach Abby, who doesn't take "I don't want to run 400's" for an answer) the open 400, where Brittany Clarke, ever the overachiever on the track, set a new standard - breaking the tie and establishing herself as the master.

The biggest prize, however, remained on the tip-top shelf. For the second year in a row the Sprint Medley team chased one of the few still standing records from the glory girls of the 70's.  Set in 1973, by the *it* girls - Janine, Lori, Carol and Brenda, at 1.55.10, it remained untouchable for 36 years... ....Until Thursday, May 7, 2009.  At the conference meet, on a perfect night under setting sun, with all their parents in the stands, the Sprint Medley team took their places on the track, jaws clenched, eyes straight ahead, the vision of a gold medal and a record in their heads and hearts. Every parent, and most every Oriole fan in the bleachers had that time - 1.55.10 -in their head, or on a sheet of paper in front of them. We knew that they needed to take at minimum a full second off their best time. That meant they would need to be pushed...and this night, running against a Drake Relay qualifying team from Maq Valley would be the best chance for that to happen. The Starter's arm went to the set position, and stayed there for what seemed like an eternity. Finally the gun went off, and in lane 4, the Orioles first runner, Sydney Vaughn, came out of the blocks, and around the curve...the hand-off was precise, and the second runner, April Coppess, headed down the back straight, handing off in a close second place. The two hundred runner, senior Sarah Thies, gave a herculean effort in the stretch to pass the baton at almost dead even, and at the beginning of that final leg, the race was clearly between two teams. The Oriole anchor lagged a bit thorough the start of her leg, and though the coach was worried about placement, the fans were not...it seems we had opposite expectations. She expected the record to perhaps fall, and the medal to be silver. We expected the medal to be gold, but feared the record would elude us yet again.

The Orioles on the track, defending conference gold medalists from 2008, had no intention of losing either the gold OR the chance at a school record. Rounding the last turn, in a burst of speed, Brittany Clarke passed her opponent and brought the team home, sealing the gold, while the parents, (and those around us probably thought we were over-reacting just a bit...but they didn't know what we knew!) watching the electronic timer with our hearts in our throats, saw the time flash...1.53.24 and began to cheer wildly. The relay girls couldn't see the time...but they knew where we were...so when they saw us, they knew...and their expressions changed from questioning worry to celebratory joy. That time puts the Orioles in the top 25 teams in the state, and at #2 in 1A...but the joy was not over the ranking. The pinnacle record...set by the Tri Rivers conference champions of 1973, had been broken.  Smashed, in fact, and there would be 4 new names - Sydney Vaughn, April Coppess, Sarah Thies, & Brittany Clarke - on that board in the trophy case.

So...what was it that made breaking that one particular record such an important goal?   To the girls on this team, who have captured three records (so far) in 2009, & will likely break a few more, (some of them their own) before they graduate over the next three years, it was pretty simple. Taunting them was a 36 years old seemingly unattainable record, and they were after it.  They wanted to do what no one else had been able to for three decades, and they believed they were the team to do it.

Of course, they were also prodded, pushed, and encouraged on a weekly basis by a fan in the stands.   To at least one parent in the bleachers.... who stood on the same track with those runners of 1973... and who passed on the things she learned from Coach Davis to girls of 2009, when they were just  7th and 8th graders with no idea what to do with a baton, or how to overcome the weirdness of starting from the blocks.....it was about a little more. It was about seeing *her girls* surpass those jangling letter jacketed icons who fearlessly walked the halls of SHS in 1973...

Ultimately, it was about seeing all the hard work that this group of young women have put into the sport, beginning with their realization as middle schoolers that they had something special...talent largely lost in the shadows of the incredible triumphant successes of our championship basketball and volleyball teams.....come to fruition. It was also about carrying on a track legacy at SHS, and putting four names on the record board that may stay there for the next 40 years, or be gone in five...but for today, says they are the best of the best at SHS.  I don't know if Coach Davis was there on Thursday, but I am sure he is proud, of the legacy he left at SHS, and how it helped the the golden girls of 2009, who are taking it to the next level.

The SHS girls track team, boasting only about a dozen members, qualified 6 events at the state meet last year, and placed in two. No one really paid them any mind...they got a little pat on the back, and a medal. This year, ranked in the 1A top 15 in 6 events, the Oriole Track team is planning a return trip Des Moines...and this year, they are coming after some serious hardware.

Great Job Ladies.... Have faith in yourselves...and just keep believing that when the sun sets on the 2009 State Track Meet, people will know who the Orioles are.

Now on to Districts, where, mark my words, it's going to be a GREAT day to be an Oriole....We Believe!

See you on The District Track!!