Division II Track & Field at Salem

The Division II District Track & Field Tournament was held at Reilly Stadium here in Salem today. It was a beautiful day, if not a little windy. The boys mile was a particularly good race. Aiman Scullion of Salem recently ran a 4:15 at Penn and this was the first time I would see him perform. What I didn’t know is that the Division II state 2005 state champion was in the race. Scullion went out in the lead and passed the 400 in 60/61. This was too fast even for someone coming into their own. At 800 he was about 2:05 and had a sizeable lead on a strung out pack. Holding a 4:10 pace would have been astonishing after a 61 opening lap. He was also looking back an awful lot. The 3rd lap was significantly slower with approximately a 1:12, but it was hard to get accurate splits from my vantage point. At this juncture it was slow and Chris Sinick from Magadore Field was slowly reeling in the lead (see pic above). Now Scullion was looking back a lot. Sinick looked strong and I had seen him jog a 2:03 win in the 800 heats on Thursday. I wish I had kept track of the splits but between taking pictures and watching the race I missed them. On the last lap Sinick became a locomotive and ran down Aiman on the backstretch. Coming off the last turn Sinick (see pic on left) just dominated the fading Scullion. Sinick set a meet record (breaking his own 4:23 from the previous year) with an impressive 4:18.89. He ran a smart and confident race. Aiman ran home for 2nd in 4:26.7. I don’t know what kind of speed he has, and have settled on the hasty conclusion that Chris Sinick is the proud owner of some serious wheels, but had Aiman run more conservatively he would have had a better chance and certainly run faster.

Chris Sinik went on to run about 1:57 for the 800 (see photo right) final but I failed to get the results. He took the lead on the 2nd lap but it was a close race and the other guy might have out leaned him. I will get the details later. On top of that Sinik anchored the 4x400 to bring his team to a 2nd place finish. He ran a great quarter but the leaders were just too far in front.

The boy’s 3200 was almost as interesting as the mile and nearly presented a repeat of its finish. Aiman went out fast (see pic left). While he did not do anything ridiculous I was hoping he would back off instead of running positive splits again. Scullion ran about 2:15 and 4:38 splits to the mile mark. As usual he looked smooth, prancing along as if he couldn’t get tired, but that’s how he looked in the mile. The third phase of the 3200 is tough and it proved to be in this case. Aiman slowed as Paul Robinson, another senior from Field was closing the gap inch by inch. The final 800m was more of the same, a shrinking gap, and a lot of looking over the shoulder on Scullion’s part. With about 200m to go Robinson made his move and tried to pass. Scullion fought him off around the turn and pulled away with a solid finish, demoralizing the Field runner over the last 100 meters. Scullion won with a 9:31 and Robinson was 2nd with 9:40.

The girls 3200 was also exciting. The Shivers sisters ran 2-3 the entire race (see pic right). The Shiver family lives in our neighborhood and is a clan of very successful runners (Paul Shivers ran a 9:58 in the boys 3200 today). There are about 27 Shivers running around the neighborhood at any given time. I don’t have the results, or even their names, but will try to post those later. The one Shiver sister made a bid for the lead on the final lap, almost catching the leader in the final stretch but the girl who had lead the entire way had something left and held her off. They managed a nice 11:40.

I believe Salem high school won the meet. Details later.

Blast from the Past - Penn Relays 3k

After posting about our local Salem runner’s success at Penn Relays I became nostalgic and decided to relive my H.S. 3k from 20 years ago.

This was my senior year in high school. I’m the guy in the middle with his arm up, getting boxed in. It was a fast race, the fastest 3k in the United States for 18 years before Galen Rupp broke John Troutmann’s record of 8:05 set this very day (see red arrow). Rupp ran an 8:03.67 in an open and elite race with older runners. The race depicted here was comprised of only high school runners. Trout went out fast (4:19 at the mile) and kept going. I was in the back of the pack with a 4:32 first mile – and I mean the back. Fortunately, most of the guys who got swept up in the record setting pace fell apart and came back in the second half, leaving me with a 6^th place finish (8:34). It was a race of attrition for me. O’Conner is still in the top 4 times at Penn with a 2^nd place finish of 8:21. I will never forget hearing the “The Voice,” Bob Hersh (of Millrose, World Championships, and Olympic fame) and his excitement booming across the stadium, “One lap to go and John Troutmann of Monroe Woodberry NY is on record pace!” And 300 meters later, "It looks like a national record!"

For what it’s worth, Troutmann almost missed this race. Our warm-up went long and when we entered the stadium, still in the stands and wearing our sweats, as we watched the guys in the 3k jog across the infield to the starting line. We jumped the wall and explained ourselves to the officials (when they caught up) while everyone waited. The rest is history.