State Track Meet Memories

What an exciting weekend! We spent much of Friday morning in drizzles. After getting somewhat wet, one person in our group brought out a long roll of painter's plastic which we used to cover our blanket-covered laps. After the drizzles turned into a shower, we poked holes in the plastic to pop our heads through. We now had a mutli-person poncho which stopped our wet blanket/coat problem, but presented a different problem. With our hands under the plastic and the plastic tucked under our shoes, we couldn't hold a cup, wipe our noses, or eat anything. We could only sit there with our hatted heads poking out and smiles on our faces. When the showers turned into heavier rain, we withdrew our heads from the holes and pulled the plastic down a few inches until the head holes became eye holes from which we could see the final 100 meters of the race. At least we could now use our hands on whatever was already under the plastic--like our packs of snacks. We looked pretty funny. In fact, we looked like a long alien cocoon with wriggling pupae inside, but our hats and faces weren't getting any wetter. Besides, we were also warmer because we could no longer feel the icy, cutting wind.

We experienced everything there was to experience. From rain-drenched hats, coats, and blankets to sunburned faces, from bone-chilling wind to sweat-producing heat, from cheers in photo-finish races to moans at missed jumps, from screaming, "Go (insert name)" to laughing and celebrating, "Can you believe he/she/we/they made it?" we had fun, fun, fun!

And the color! What slaps you in the face first at Eastern Washington University is the red astroturf on the stadium infield. On a sunny day the red is practically blinding. On an overcast and rainy day, it still jumps out at you. One amazing thing about the red is the fact that on a sunny day the underbelly and wings of low flying seagulls appear pink from the reflected field. So, when there were moments of inactivity on Saturday, I amused myself by watching the pink gulls.

In addition to the color of the infield, the color in the stands was great also. We sat on metal bleachers opposite the main stadium seating all Saturday morning. That area provided ring side seating for the high jump and triple jump areas. From our seats, we could observe the horde of people opposite us. It was like a Jackson Pollack painting. There were blobs and smears of bright yellow, neon orange and lime green randomly splattered amid the sea of blue, black, and brown coats and athletic uniforms.

And the shoes and socks! It was so much fun seeing the creativity and individuality in footwear choices. Shoes were any and all colors and combinations of colors. In stockings, there were bright yellows, lime greens, neon oranges, blacks, and whites that ranged from full length to anklets. In addition to being fun to look at, it made cheering for certain athletes easier, "Go green sock guy!", as well as picking out our own girls when they were running in a pack on the far side of the field.

Not only did I enjoy watch the pink gulls during lulls in the competition, I loved watching the athletes on the infield. What a mingling of sprinting, jumping, high stepping, stretching, baton passing, and fancy footwork delighted my mind as they worked, concentrated, and warmed up for their soon-to-be events.

Then there were the sights of food and their varied aromas. Hot buttered popcorn---yummmm. Nachos Supreme-aaaaaaaaaaaah. Teriyaki Bowls--ooooooooooooo. Then someone would come by with a tray holding several cups of hot drinks from the outside. Can you say, Starbucks? Now, that was not very fair, especially when we were freezing and wet. In fact, I would say it showed unsportsmanlike conduct.

We enjoyed talking to the people around us. When we weren't cheering for our own team, we cheered for theirs--they cheered for ours. That was sportsmanship at its best.

We were so proud of our team. We took home a total of twelve medals--eight of them split between our two relay teams. The medal total was exciting for us, as quite of few of our athletes are freshmen. The most exciting part was for our 4x200 relay team's performance. In each racing event there were two heats with eight competitors each. The top three in each heat plus the next two fastest runners (8 total) would advance into the finals. Statistically, our girls should not have qualified for finals. Of the sixteen prelim teams, our girls were faster than only a couple other teams. But, as I said in my last post, at State anything can happen. They finished 4th in their heat and fast enough to make the final cut. That meant that no matter where they finished in the final event, they would each take home a medal. They finished eighth.

Sadly, two of our athletes didn't survive preliminary competition, therefore not medalling, but no one went home a loser. Just the fact that qualified for state competition as freshmen was an achievement in itself. Way to go Wildcats.



With my roll of plastic ready for whatever weather come our way next year,

Jan