Too Close [Track-Releated]

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DX
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Too Close [Track-Releated]

Post by DX » Wed May 02, 2007 4:06 am

The Ridgewood track team before today had won 26 dual meets in a row over the span of 4 years. We did keep it going with a win, but we barely won in a down-to-the-last-event 69-62 nail biter. Never have we had such a high stakes meet be so close. Paramus Catholic became a strong team out of the blue this year. We were actually down 16 points mid-way through the meet. We mounted a charge with a win in the high hurdles, a win in the 200, and a sweep in the 800, but still trailed coming into the 4x400. The 4x400 is scored as winner takes all in the NNJIL. Win it and you get all of its 5 points. That 5 points was the meet.

In light of how important this race was, a couple friends and I rallied the team. The entire boy's section of the bleachers emptied and everyone was out on the infield to support this vital race and to keep our streak alive. We won the 4x400 by an unusually large margin. Everyone understood the critical need to win that race, even the freshmen.

And so we stand at 28 duals in a row; the senior class remains undefeated. We have one more next week. If we win that, we will be the only senior class in school history to never lose a dual meet. 4 years, 30 wins, all consecutive. I don't even think that's ever been done in the entire NNJIL!

Not only did we win today, but we ran fairly. Due to the surface being bad, we were told that we had to take our spikes out. Plenty of Paramus Catholic and St. Joes runners [the "vast majority"] kept theirs in. The officials didn't even care and did a very poor job of timing as well. Explain how three sprinters cross the line at the same time, but one gets a 23.8, one a 25 flat, and one a 26 flat. Now explain how I lost to a guy, but got a better time than he did. Exactly, you can't.

The last dual meet is against Bloomfield and Montclair. They are public schools, so perhaps they will play by the rules? The meet is at home, so at least we can wear our spikes. Wow, I just realized how interesting it is that our record-sealing victory could be at home!
Mess With the Best, Get Soaked Like the Rest!

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Drenchenator
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Post by Drenchenator » Wed May 02, 2007 10:54 pm

I guess that I only partially know what you are talking about. Brunswick is almost always close to local rival Smithsburg in point total, with Smithsburg beating Brunswick 9 out of 10 times. Recently, we did beat Smithsburg at a large meet in outdoor track (92 to 88). And in indoor we lost our conference (league) championship by 2/3 of a point to Smithsburg (85 to 84.33). I don't really know of any closer meets, especially championships.
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DX
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Post by DX » Thu May 03, 2007 3:39 am

2/3 of a point? That really sucks, though I'm curious, how can a point be split like that?

This dual meet streak has been especially important to me. The streak was going when I first started track and it is still here now. We've passed the powerful Ridgewood team of the late 90's by far [which went 16 in a row]. 69-62 in a dual meet is really, really scary for us. This is a team that has blown out teams like Belleville and Nutley with scores like 120-6 and 114-12. In fact, taking winning for granted probably contributed to yesterday's close call. I don't know how coach would have reacted if we had blown the streak.

We've also passed past teams in championship consistency. Only one Ridgewood team [and an old one at that] has ever won the league's "triple crown" [county, league, and state group], but we've come close in recent years. In 2005 we messed it up with a 2nd in the State Group and last year we messed it up with a 3rd in the County meet. However, we have a streak going in the league meet, no less than 6 years of winning in a row. If we mess up any of the championships this year, it better not be that one. It is kinda funny how some other teams in our league would kill for 2nd, but it is a "mess up" for us. We messed up the country relays earlier this season with a 2nd and I've hardly seen our coach more angry/afraid. We'd won that two years straight. Ridgewood loves its streaks... :rolleyes:
Mess With the Best, Get Soaked Like the Rest!

2004 Red Sox - World Series Champions
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Post by Drenchenator » Fri May 04, 2007 2:14 am

2/3 of a point? That really sucks, though I'm curious, how can a point be split like that?
Three people tied in both height and attempts in high jump. Brunswick had one of the three. For that reason we were awarded with 1/3 of a point (1 point split up evenly by three people). In the end, the same person could have been in the 55m or 55HH which would have gotten us more than one point. Our coach just wanted him to "practice" high jump at the meet.

In the end, I blame myself because I ran only 3 events and putting me in either 300m to 1600m would have sealed the meet for Brunswick. My indoor bests would have placed 3rd in either. I also could have anchored Brunswick's 4x800m to pick up extra placement (replacing a guy that gets 2:24 with a guy that runs 2:04 is a good idea).

As for dual- and tri-meets, Brunswick never really cared much. We always have a meet against the only other 1A school in our county (Catoctin) and many times, we let them win. Everyone enjoys a victory.

Two years ago, our coach disqualified about half of our boys team after they went to the Sheets closest to Catoctin High before the meet started. Needless to say, he told the rest of us (myself included) to just run a fun meet and whatever we wanted too. I remember that I chose to run the 100m because I never did it before. No blocks, no idea, and no problem later I ran a pretty good 11.9 and won my heat. I was happy. Catoctin did end up winning the meet by a small margin.

Last year, our new coach put in bad sprint relays and Catoctin won those hands down. And this year, since our 4x400m and Ben Horner, our best-in-state discus thrower, had the Penn Relays, our coach told us to treat the meet as a practice. I again chose the sprinting-route (I need to improve my speed still) and ran an excellent 23.5 200m. I think that I speak for everyone in saying that everyone likes to win and have fun and a good time. Sometimes it's just not all about winning.
Last edited by Drenchenator on Sat May 05, 2007 1:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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