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TRACK AND FIELD
Track & Field: Ohio men shine in final home meet
’Cats save the best for last, win 13 events with high
emotions
Jason Fazzone / Assistant Sports Editor / jf104004@ohiou.edu
With arms draped over each other’s shoulders, members
of the Ohio men’s track and field team took one last victory lap around
Goldsberry Track, bowing collectively when they reached the finish line.
Saturday’s Ohio Open was the last regular season home
meet for the team, and the emotions were high.
“Being the last time at home, it pulls on you pretty
hard,” coach Clay Calkins said.
The Bobcat men appeared to save the best for last,
winning 13 events and providing a storybook ending by taking first place in the
4x400-meter relay, the final race of the day.
“It was important to us,” Dan Bailey, who was part of
that relay team, said. “It was the last men’s relay team at Ohio University
to compete at a home meet, and ending it on top — it doesn’t get any better
than that.”
Scott Mayle won three individual events — the 100-meter
dash, the high jump and the long jump — and the senior anchored the
4x100-meter relay team that finished first.
Fellow senior Eric Bildstein won three events as well,
taking the discus, hammer throw and javelin competitions. Bildstein’s mark of
55.97 meters in the hammer throw qualified him for NCAA regionals.
Bildstein was one of three Bobcats to meet the regional
provisional mark Saturday. Women’s team members Chelsea Stephan qualified in
the javelin with a throw of 44.71 meters, and Bahiyjuai Allen made the mark in
the shot put with a throw of 14.50 meters.
“Everybody did better than expected today,” Calkins
said. “We had three regional qualifiers in the throws today, which is good to
see. Any time you hit those kinds of marks, you know you’re doing the right
things.”
Five other members of the men’s team won their
respective individual events, including Bailey’s victory in the triple jump,
Curtis Leuenberger’s win in the 200-meter run and Austin Schiele’s first
place finish in the 1,500-meter run.
Women win 11 events
The women’s team turned in a strong performance as
well, led by Stephan’s and Allen’s regional qualifying marks. In addition to
her victory in the shot put, Allen took first in the discus.
Chanelle Harmon won both the 100- and 200-meter races,
and Kari Summers won the 800-meter run.
The Bobcats conclude the 2007 season at the Mid-American
Conference Championships, next week in Oxford.
Your Turn: Men’s track team will compete for last time
with pride
Letter to the Editor
This Saturday will be a historic day for Ohio University.
This weekend will be the last time the OU men’s track team competes in Athens.
I am proud to be a part of a group of men that has competed for this university
for almost 100 years, but unfortunately, our proud tradition has no place in
Kirby Hocutt’s master plan for Ohio Athletics. This past February at the
indoor Mid-American Conference meet, I was honored to experience our tradition
and sit face-to-face with Bobcat greats including former coach Elmore Banton,
national track hall of fame coach Stan Huntsman and 200-meter silver medalist
Les Carney. It was gut-wrenching to hear these great runners address our team
and describe how they had been betrayed by the university they loved so much. I
only wish Mr. Hocutt could have been on hand to describe to these great athletes
how “strategically investing” in certain sports is really the best plan for
Ohio Athletics and explain why track and field is not a sport worth investing
in.
If I have learned one thing from this ordeal, it is that
the actions of a few, good or bad, reflect upon us all. I believe that the
actions of the students in reaction to the sports cuts should be a source of
pride for this university. I was overwhelmed by the support we received from the
student body after the cuts, and on behalf of all the affected teams, I would
like to thank all the students at OU for their support. I would also like to
salute the student-athletes on the men’s swim team, women’s lacrosse team
and men’s track team for representing this university with class and fighting
elimination through every means possible. Although the conduct of these cut
athletes has reflected well on our university, unfortunately the actions of a
few have reflected poorly on us all. It is not only students that represent this
university, but administrators as well. The dishonest and misguided actions of
Kirby Hocutt and Roderick McDavis are a far greater source of embarrassment to
OU than any cruise ship full of drunken students. I can only hope that one day
soon the administration will start working with students instead shutting them
out and stop overshadowing all the great things happening at this university.
I would suggest that this Saturday we forget about all
the sports cuts, budget deficits, retention problems, RIAA letters, IT breaches
and plagiarized engineering theses and concentrate on a group of men who have
been nothing but a source of pride for OU. I would encourage all students,
faculty and administrators to come to Goldsberry Track this Saturday to support
the men’s track team and witness a bit of history.
Eric Vandenberg is a
junior pole vaulter.
By
Zack Lloyd
SpeakeasyMag.com
Thursday, February 1st, 2007
While
only four Ohio varsity sports teams were cut with last Thursday morning's
announcement by the Ohio University athletics department, members of the track
team contend that there may as well have been five.
Athletics director Kirby Hocutt officially announced the morning of Jan. 25 that
women's lacrosse, men's indoor and outdoor track, and men's swimming and diving
would be cut following the 2007 season.
However,
with the elimination of the indoor and outdoor men's track teams, the immediate
impact is that next year's cross-country team may lose runners who want to
transfer to other schools where they can run cross-country, indoor track and
outdoor track.
"We were really looking forward to having one of the best seasons in
cross-country in the past decade," said junior runner Craig Leon, who also
runs cross country. "We had set up this season. I red-shirted last year so
that I could come back as a fifth-year and have a shot at winning the
Mid-American title. It just feels like somebody dropped a bomb in the middle of
us because we're blown to pieces right now. People are going to end up going
their different directions."
In the long term, the cross-country program will likely struggle with recruiting
since most runners would like to compete during all three seasons, rather than
just the fall season, which is all OU can offer.
"It's unfortunate because if you don't have a track team, in reality you
can't have a cross-country team," Leon added. "They might as well cut
that, too, because you're funding a sport that's never going to be competitive.
No real cross-country runner or distance athlete is going to want to come to a
school that doesn't have track."
Posed with the hypothetical situation of cutting the cross-country team in order
to fund one of the other teams that was cut, the track-team members were
unanimous in their preference.
"If you could cut the cross team and keep the swimming team, I would feel
that that would be a fair trade," Leon said. "The swimming team could
be competitive, but the cross team without track and field could not be
competitive."
Perhaps if the athletics department had spoken to the athletes earlier, their
concerns would have been heard and the damage could have been minimal. As it is,
the athletes remain skeptical that all options were explored before coming to
the worst possible conclusion.
"There's no foreground whatsoever," Leon's teammate Eric Bildstein
said. "It wasn't like we need you guys to cut the budget. You need to not
get t-shirts this year or get shoes. We could live with that. There are 50 guys
on the team. We can network with people to try to raise some money, do some
fundraisers, do something. I would want to bet that we could cut some fat here
and there and make it work if every sport cuts back. Why couldn't we do
that?"
That question will likely never be answered directly because the administration
conducted an in-depth investigation into what would be the best way to cut
spending, and eliminating teams is what they came up with. It's uncertain
whether they considered a solution similar to every team cutting back a little
bit.
The Three Ts
Last fall, OU President Roderick McDavis gave a speech to all university varsity
athletes. He gathered the athletes of all 20 varsity sports in the Convocation
Center and made his motivational pitch. McDavis stressed three things in
particular during this speech -- traditions, teams and titles. The three Ts:
traditions, teams and titles. That is what Bobcat Athletics is all about. Don't
forget the three Ts.
Don't worry, they didn't. The frustrated Ohio athletes recalled the message of
McDavis' speech after the announcement last Thursday.
Members of the men's track team discussed their displeasure over the
inconsistencies between McDavis' speech in the fall and the decision that was
announced Thursday morning.
"Traditions, teams and titles. That's what they wanted us to focus on in
the fall," Leon said. "I was like, that makes sense, finally we are
getting down to focusing on what's important for OU athletics."
"It was a motivational speech," senior runner Austin Schiele recalled.
"The three Ts. Traditions, teams and titles. And now it just seems like it
was a load of..." He stopped short but you get the picture.
"And by cutting teams, you're not only cutting teams, you're cutting off a
tradition here at Ohio University," senior runner Dan Bailey said.
"Track is one of the oldest sports here."
Obviously, members of the track team are upset about the contradiction between
being asked to continue traditions in the fall and then being told the
traditions had ended in the spring. Such frustration is certainly
understandable, especially considering that track contends with men's basketball
for the grandest tradition of all, stretching back to the early 1900s. In
addition, the history of the men's swimming and diving program goes back to
1935, a history that includes eight Mid American Conference team titles.
So much for the three Ts.
Bobcats React
Although the official announcement to eliminate four varsity sports was made
Jan. 25, the coaches and players affected by the decision were actually informed
Wednesday afternoon, the 24th.
"I had a meeting with the administration at 2:15 p.m. yesterday and I was
told the news," Ohio Lacrosse Head Coach Allison Valentino said on Jan. 25.
"The administration then met with my team at 6:30 p.m."
Valentino did not break the news to her players herself because the
administration asked her not to. So how did the lacrosse team react to the news?
"We had a meeting for a while together in our locker room," goalie Jen
Heup said. "Once I left, I actually tried calling (my parents), and I
couldn't get a hold of them. But (when I talked to them), I just called them in
tears and just broke it to them and told them there was no longer going to be a
lacrosse program."
Heup took the news of the elimination hard but she wasn't the only one
devastated by the situation.
"All my life they have put so much into me playing lacrosse," Heup
said. "I know it's the same with all the girls. My parents put everything
into me playing sports. And lacrosse was my life, so it definitely hit them as
hard as it hit me."
The track team was also informed of the bad news by the administration, but they
were more surprised than devastated when they met with the administration and
discovered that their sport had been cut.
"At 3:30 p.m. when we normally practice, we do two laps around the Convo,"
Bailey said. "We asked coach if we should get started and he said no, we
have a meeting. Let's have all the guys go downstairs. When they separate the
team like that, it means one of two things -- either we're just in a lot of
trouble for screwing up or you know it was something serious."
"Nobody, I don't think, really knew what was going on at first, but all it
took was for them to put us in a room and Kirby said I don't know how to say
this. And right then you don't have to say anything else," Bailey added.
Bailey, Leon and Bildstein all used the same word to sum up how they felt after
the news was broken -- "shocked."
As surprised as the rest of the track team was, Schiele was even more surprised
when he heard the news. Schiele had class and missed the scheduled practice so
he was unable to attend the meeting.
"I was walking back and I saw a group of our guys running, and I just kind
of gave them the 'hi,' and then they shouted my name as I passed," Schiele
said. "I looked back and they were like never mind, we'll tell you later,
that kind of thing. I was like, I wonder what that's all about. I get back to my
apartment and my roommate's there who runs. He said, 'Judging by the look on
your face, I guess you haven't heard the news.' I'm like 'what news?' and he
said 'we had a meeting.' So that's how I found out."
Bright Future
All of the lacrosse and track-team members had similar responses in regard to
what should be done in the future. With the elimination of their respective
sports, the athletes made it a point that they will stick together and respect
any decisions by their teammates to transfer to other schools where they can
continue their collegiate athletic careers.
"I've never felt this close to a team as I have this year," goalie
Heup said. "We've talked about it, and if anybody transfers or if anybody
does anything, we'll stay together."
In addition, with the track team and lacrosse team as proverbial sitting ducks
this spring, they insist that they will leave it all on the field.
"If anything, when we play this season, we are going to work harder,"
Heup said. "Just because we're going to work hard and play for each
other."
Thinking back to last fall when McDavis made his motivational speech to the
athletes, maybe he was a little bit misguided. Maybe instead of talking about
the three Ts he should have talked about the two Ts, because for the athletes
and coaches affected by this decision, this season has turned out to be nothing
more than trials and tribulations.
Editor's note: Zack Lloyd is a staff writer for SpeakeasyMag.com and can be
reached at zl357205@ohio.edu.
Plan to Save Track and Field
This
is a letter from Robert Walter,
Track
Alumnus and President of the OU Alumni @ DC.
Track & Field Supporters,
This is an update on the status of Ohio U. Men's Track Program
The coaches and I met with the Athletic Director on Tuesday (2/20).
During that meeting we proposed the following plan:
1. Eliminate Indoor Track
2. Keep the Outdoor track team with a smaller roster of athletes (35)
3. Raise an endowment that would fund the operating budget for the outdoor
season.
We asked the AD to give us an answer soon on our proposal. He said that he would
think about it and discuss it this week and get back to Coach Calkins when the
team returns from the MAC Meet first thing next week.
If he agrees to let us attempt to raise the necessary amount for an endowment,
we will have to move very quickly and aggressively to reach the level of funding
we would need by the time we would need to raise it by. We assume that our
deadline would be around the end of the school year/end of June - so that all
the athletes would know what is going on for the next year.
The level of funding we need to raise we estimate to be $300,000. This amount
would endow the team permanently with a payout each year of $12,000 for the team
operating budget. This amount would grow progressively as time goes on because a
portion of the interest will be reinvested in the principal to grow the base.
We can add our fundraising efforts for the team onto the proceeds already raised
with the Elmore Banton Endowment Fund 3 years ago. This will slightly ease the
level of fundraising that we need to achieve. We currently have just over
$15,000 in the Banton Fund.
For our fundraising efforts we will first be sending out a mailing to all Ohio
Track & Field/Cross-Country alumni asking them to send in a pledge amount
for a donation to the fund.
We are not going to have anyone send in their actual donations until we reached
the level of pledges that exceeds the goal set by the Athletic Dept. to fund the
team. We didn't want to have to send refunds out if we don't reach our goal.
That way your money will only be used for the track team and nothing
else.
We plan to have the current track team members call all alumni asking for
pledges. I would also ask you and everyone we can reach to contact your
teammates from when you were here and ask them to give. It is one thing to be
asked by someone that you don't know for money, it helps if you are asked by
someone that you know.
My personal goal is to call everyone that I was a teammate with (86-90), or
coached in my two years as grad assistant (90-92) and ask them to help out. I
would ask you to do the same to everyone that you ran with on the team when you
were at OU.
We will be asking all the Coaches (Banton, Huntsman, etc..) to help in this
effort and reach out to the athletes that they coached and ask them to give as
well.
One thing you should ask your employers is whether they MATCH donations. Many
companies will match donations and this kind of thing can help us reach our
goals. The donations are going to the Ohio U Foundation, and are tax deductible.
We also need to reach outside our circle of alumni if we are going to be
successful in this effort. Any individuals or organizations that have an
interest in seeing Track (in general) survive are encouraged to help! Please get
us their contact information, or ask them yourselves if you know them.
Think
of any foundations that might support sports and reach out to them or send us
their contact info.
I am pledging the first $1,000 donation to help kick off this campaign to save
our team. We cannot let the oldest sport on the planet disappear from our alma
mater.
I am confident we will be successful in this effort, if the Athletic Dept.
allows us to try.
We will send out an update as soon as we have word from the Athletic Dept. next
week. In the meantime, keep the current team in your hearts and minds as they
compete in what is the last Indoor MAC Championships ever for the Men's team
this weekend.
Go Bobcats!
Robert Walter, '90, '92
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DROPPED
TEAMS
2006
Women's Lacrosse Team
Swimming
and Diving
and
Track
and Field
|
