Track and Field Articles By Jordan Schilit

Nine years ago, a New Mexico native elementary school runner laced up a pair of Nike training shoes for his first cross country race in 3rd grade.  Throughout middle school, Coach Jim Ciccarello challenged the curly-brown-haired distance specialist to compete in every event from 100m to 3,000m.  And by 8th grade, Curtis Beach had found the decathlon. It was a dream come true for the Albuquerque Academy phenom to get the National High School Record in the decathlon, since he had planned to do so back when he was a freshman.  A master at wearing many hats, Beach not only… more »

     According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, “to lose” can be defined as: (1) “to miss from one's possession or from a customary or supposed place” or (2) “to suffer deprivation of.”  To the man, English tries to simplify this simple word into an even simpler meaning; the vernacular tries to make the word “loss” a black-and-white term which thus tarnishes the running world’s definition – to NOT take 1st place.  But what if there was a man who truly understood the meaning of a loss, and simply doesn’t care what YOU think the term means?  To Coach Paul Williams, “to… more »

     This past weekend, the Thompson Valley High School girls repeated its Colorado 4A team State Title.  Coach Matt Norton had predicted his team to be in the 80-90 point range, and virtual meets had predicted the Eagles to score in the upper 90s; however, these golden girls lived up to the hype they had created all season and surpassed everyone’s expectations, scoring 101 points and furthermore winning by over 30.      On Thursday morning, Thompson Valley began its dominance in the meet’s “race to watch” – the 4x800m relay.  Not only did the Eagles beat 2nd place Alamosa by… more »

     Any girl’s track team in the country that has four girls under the 2:20 will try to put together a solid 4x800m relay team in the hope of winning a State Championship, or possibly a national championship.  Surely a team of this caliber has the potential of getting All-American status at a Nike Nationals meet, but the trick of this race is getting all four runners to run to their potential on the same day.      Ironically, the Thomson Valley High School track team does just the opposite – the girls run faster in relays then they do during… more »

     It was only the third week of racing for Florida outdoor track and field, but several runners from Tampa looked liked they were ready for the FHSAA Finals already.  The cool temperatures on that March 11th evening not only produced 7 runners eclipsing the 2-minute barrier for 800 meters, but also saw 3 school records go down and many PRs along the way.  Even though this was a small Tri-meet between Jesuit, Sickles, and Robinson, the 800m race was not tactical by any means; the lead runners all came into this race fresh and ready to run lifetime bests.… more »

    It didn’t take much time into this 2009 outdoor season to notice Derek Wehunt as a runner who could contribute some major point scoring at this year’s 4A State Championship.  In his first race of the season, the Sickles’ senior smothered his 800m PR by over 4 seconds to a 1:52.90 finish, which still ranks 11th in the USA as of early May.  Only two weeks later, Wehunt surprised one of the deepest and fastest 3200m fields in FL history with his then US-leading 9:06.78 PR through a swampy FSU Invitational.  Then, Wehunt continued his dominance over the Florida… more »

For past four years, Jordan Hasay, a senior at Mission Preparatory High School in San Louis Obispo, CA, has been the face of American high school distance running.  After all, her credentials are endless: 2-time Footlocker National Champion, 4-time Footlocker West Regional Champion, 4-time California State Cross Country Champion, American High School Record holder in the 1500m, US #2 All-Time in the 3200m, and USATF Junior Olympics youth record holder in both the 1500m and 3000m.  Yet with all her accolades, Jordan Hasay still feels she has not yet reached her full potential.  With more records to break and races… more »

Blazing individual times have already proven to be the norm at Nike Indoor Nationals this weekend.  However, the newly renovated Reggie Lewis Track Complex in Boston, MA allowed West Windsor-Plainsboro North to capture its goal as well.  On Saturday, the Knights’ 4 x1 Mile team of Ryan Sleeper, Tyler Corkdale, Joe Rosa, and Jim Rosa pulled together a stunning National High School Record of 17:21.58 – bettering the previous record of 17:25.98 set in 2004. After falling during the first 800m, Ryan Sleeper may have worried his team initially, but nonetheless managed to pull off a 4:25 split to keep… more »

I am one lucky intern.  My first assignment for MileSplit US was to interview the newest on-the-rise runner our country has witnessed – Ryan Hall.  I published the first part of the story on Friday night (http://fl.milesplit.us/articles/22026) and was expecting that the second part was going to be a recap of Ryan’s American-record run in the 15K at the Gasparilla Distance Classic in Tampa, Florida.  To my surprise, despite the fact that he was his usual phenomenal self, Ryan wound up about a minute off the record. First, let me assure you that I will follow up with Ryan after… more »