Track athletes holding out hope season isn’t lost
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Fort Cherry’s Mara Whalen takes the handoff from Jadyn Hartner during the 1,600-meter relay in the 2019 WPIAL Class AA Track and Field Championships.
Luke Campbell/Observer-Reporter
McGuffey’s C.J. Cole prepares to land in the pit in the triple jump at the 2019 PIAA Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University.
Maybe this is the year when not having a track pays off.
Fort Cherry track coach Ben Maxin was hoping that’s the case as he scrolled through an email sent out by Slippery Rock University only a few days ago that stated its plan to re-open for events starting in May.
With the WPIAL Track & Field Championships scheduled for May 14, it was another glimmer of hope that the spring sports season had yet to be completely lost.
“We were gearing up,” Maxin said of the practices before the coronavirus pandemic forced the PIAA to suspend both its winter sports championships and the spring seasons.
The Rangers were eager to defend their WPIAL Class 2A gold medal in the girls 1,600-meter relay, the team returning senior Jadyn Hartner and junior anchor Mara Whalen. They also won gold in the 3,200-meter relay.
“It’s been put on hold and possibly taken away from them,” Maxin said. “It’s been extra hard. We have to stay on top of things because we don’t know what’s going to happen.”
But this season was about more than just defending gold for Whalen, who saw her last-ditch effort in the PIAA Championships last May at Shippensburg University fall short. Trying to make up for a slow start, Whalen sprinted her one lap around the track with conviction to finish the relay in 4:08.05. It ended up being a second-and-a-half short of qualifying for the state finals.
The Rangers’ 1,600 relay time of 4:03.21 that won a WPIAL title broke the school record and was close to a district record. Whalen was hoping more records for both her and Hartner would be shattered in 2020.
“This was the year we were going to break more records,” Whalen said. “It’s really upsetting, but in a time like this you have to do what’s best.”
But Maxin’s athletes are maintaining hope there will be a season. They send him daily texts about not only practicing social distancing but preparing for whatever event they partake in. The texts that have ranged in subject matter from athletes running the hilly terrain in the rural school district to throwing the shot put off a cement pad behind a barn.
“It’s been pretty tough finding tracks,” Whalen said. “I had been working out at Chartiers-Houston’s track but they shut that down because there were too many people. But we don’t have a track, so we are as prepared as you can be for things like this.”
While it might be a different situation, it’s not far from the unique techniques Maxin has been forced to implement without the benefit of a track.
“Our kids have been able to adapt,” Maxin said. “They are creative and diligent enough to do that. We have relied on hard work instead of having the luxuries of a track. We’ve given them some ideas but they have a lot in their bags of tricks.”
Maxin was referring to all of his track athletes, but he could have been talking about all in the area who are left wondering if their entire season will be wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
He said the athletes most affected are those who do events that require repetition to develop muscle memory.
For three-sport standout and McGuffey senior triple jumper C.J. Cole, it’s strictly about remaining in shape. With school districts being shut down, an accessible jump pit can be considered a treasure.
“It’s honestly so up in the air,” Cole said. “You don’t really prepare for something like this. You do what you can do. It’s nice to live in a more rural area where I can run hills and do more stuff on my own, but it’s frustrating. I believe two days ago would have been our first track meet.”
Cole surprised everyone, maybe even himself, on his final jump in the WPIAL Championships last year at Slippery Rock. On the outside looking in at a qualifying spot to the state meet, Cole soared 45-3 1/4 to clear his previous best by more than two feet. His jump propelled him from sixth place to a gold medal.
He finished fourth at states.
“Football and basketball have came first,” said Cole, who is going to West Virginia for football as a preferred walk-on, “but I was just as excited for track. I was really excited because of everything that happened last year. I had hoped to win WPIALs and maybe even states.”
Earlier this week, the PIAA pushed back the spring sports season until at least April 6 as it continues to follow Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders, which includes stay-at-home directives to many counties throughout the commonwealth.
Maxin does believe the track season can be saved but only if “we reach the other end of this pandemic.”
He added, “As long as it was safe, where we feel 100% sure of it, I think you can make it work. For me, it’s super flexible. I feel like mid-to-late April with a couple of meets, WPIALs and states, it could still fly. Would the section season be lost? Yeah. Would it make for a watered-down WPIAL final talentwise? Yeah. But if you are able to schedule two, three or four meets it would be a pretty awesome light at the end of the tunnel. I just know my kids want it.”