10th Annual Jason Manse Relays
Canton Central Catholic High School
18/May/2013
In their last outing of the
season, seven girls [co-captains Margot
and Christine, fellow seniors Daisy and Lucy, juniors Trish and Annie, and sophomore Cat] traveled
to Canton Central Catholic High School to participate in the 10th
Annual Jason Manse Relays. While the
initial intention was to compete in only the pole vault, the 1500m run, and the
three relays (4 x 100m, 4 x 200m, and 4 x 400m), two quick developments changed
those plans. First, Captain Margot Warner was truly under the weather and not
feeling well at all; hence, a joint decision that she not run the 1500. At about the same time, we heard that the
officials were wondering if WRA was entering the high jump relay. Two of our sprinters, Cat and Daisy (who,
incidentally, had been playing around at the high jump pit after a workout only
a few days earlier) decided that they would like to enter as a relay just for
fun. And fun it was!! Without warm-up or
practice, they entered the competition and, as a two-person relay, captured 2nd
place, with Cat clearing 4’ 6” (barely missing 4’ 8”) and Daisy clearing 4’ 10”
(with very close attempts at 5’).
In the interim, Lucy had equaled
her own school record of 8’ 6” in the pole vault and had a couple of close
attempts at 9 feet.
And that was the start of a very
exciting day for the Lady Pioneers. The
foursome of Trish, Cat, Annie and Daisy, stepped onto the track, knowing that
in order to break the record that they were chasing in the 4 x 200m (1:48.8,
set in 1986), they would have to do everything just right. They had come close
two meets earlier with a time of 1:49.3; so, they knew that it was in them. The
gun sounded; off they went. As I watched
the passes (where I thought those extra tenths of a second might get shaved), I
was worried, as they were not as crisp and fast as they had been in practice
the day before. But, then I glanced at
the first split from Trish, and she was under the time that we knew she needed
if that record was going to fall. This scenario played itself out with each
successive pass; not the best passes, but Wow, did they run in between!! Each
girl was hitting the split that would bring them closer to that record. At the end, upon glancing at the final time,
I held my excitement, knowing that the official time would rule the day. Then, the official word came: Western Reserve
Academy, 3rd, with a time of 1:48.0, precisely the time that I had
captured. Screams of joy!!!
Next, Chris stepped onto the track
for her run at the 200m hurdles, a strange event, indeed. Two developments: one – she and I had been practicing with an
extra hurdle, 6 instead of the 5 with which she was presented today. Well, she negotiated that surprise reasonably
well enough to capture 4th place with a time of 32.6 (6-tenths of a
second faster than she had run in that event last year). But wait; they discover that one of the
hurdlers had one fewer hurdle than the rest of the group. This glitch meant that they would need to
re-run the event. The decision was to
have the “do-over” after the final scheduled event, the 4 x 400m. That would mean that Chris would need to gear
up to run it again in less than 20 minutes.
The second running occurs and Chris not only runs the same time (now on
legs a bit more tired) as in the first running, she also moved up a place,
snagging 3rd in the final of the 200m hurdles.
Between the two episodes of the
200m hurdles, the sprint relay foursome have to head back to the track to
attempt another run at one of those old records. This time, it was the 4 x
100m, a mark that had been standing since 1985.
Once again, the thinking was that everything had to be right if they
were to dip under the 28-year old time of 51.1.
Again, they had brushed against the record two meets earlier with a time
of 51.8. So, where would we shave off
those 8-tenths of a second? And once more, we looked to the passes and possibly
some extra push from each girl. Well,
the gun exploded and Trish had us on the way.
This time that first pass was a bit crisper, then, the second pass
happens, and I see that they are right on track. In fact, there was visible determination in the
way they were running at this point.
That third pass goes lightning fast and here comes Daisy down the home
stretch. She crosses the line in fourth,
but that was hardly the aspect that interested me then. Again, I had to restrain myself, hoping that
the girls would not look up and ask me if they had done it. My stopwatch had a nicely frozen final time
that excited me, but I had to go down to the official for confirmation. Before I could reach the finish line, that
confirmation came; my time of 50.88, rounded as it should be to 50.9, was
enough to re-write the record. And
screams of joy once AGAIN pierce the air.
During that second celebration,
we realized that Trish really was hurting, and the decision to forego the 4 x
400m was made with little hesitation, which actually came from Trish herself,
wanting to push through the 400 so that Daisy would have a fitting close to her
high school track career with another chance at breaking 60 in the 400. Graciously and unselfishly, Daisy would have
none of it; we were not going to run the 4 x 400m, and that was more than fine
by all of us.
Can you believe it? – With only
six competitors, we entered only 5 of the 16 events AND we did not finish
last. This sextet scored well enough to
finish 7th overall in the meet.
This day had been even more
joyous than had we tried to script it.
And although we were not sure if it counts as the type of result that
merits ringing the victory bell, we did it anyway. And it sounded great!!!!
Congratulations, ladies.
Papa G
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