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[Editor's Note: Pearl Watts normally covers Northern Virginia,
but he came to the Maryland State Meet yesterday. Here is his report.]
by Pearl Watts
LANDOVER MD 2/18/02 -- Although I focus mainly on meets in the
state of Virginia, a track and
field meet is a track and field meet. With the site being the fine
facility
at the Prince George's Sports and Learning Complex and the meet
the Maryland
2A-1A along with the 3A-2A state championships on President's Day,
I had my
built in excuse to venture across the Potomac River for further
viewing of
the soon to be ending indoor season.
There were plenty of fine performances with the Oakland Mills boys
easily
capturing the team 2A-1A title as senior Izudin Mehmedovic won three
races,
the 800; 1,600 and 3,200 runs; Urbana's Katie Graff setting a girls
3A vault
record of 11 feet 9 inches and with River Hill senior Shane Stroup
helping
his squad to the 3A-2A championship in the 4x800 relay with a 1
minute, 51.4
second anchor in addition to winning the 1,600 run in 4:27.6.
Stroup has been bothered by a sore hamstring since his regional
meet and
had to forgo the 500 dash and 800 run to be held after the 1,600
run at
states, but the large crowd at the P.G. Complex still found plenty
to cheer
about and seemed to reserve its mightiest applause in an unlikely
area; to
the second place finisher in the boys 2A-1A 3,200 run.
With the start of that race, I was on the rail by lane six at the
beginning
of the far curve and not knowledgable of the contenders in the race.
The boys
and girls 3,200 runs were in the middle of the meet schedule, which
even for
gung ho distance types like myself and especially for those more
closely
involved with the sprint events, affords an excellent opportunity
for
checking race results, grabbing a bite to eat or visiting the rest
room
facilities for many.
However, this particular race seemed to have its own identity just
fifteen
seconds into the race as for some odd reason, all the fans on the
backstretch
were clapping as the boys 3,200 field went by.
As the pack passed by on the first lap, I realized that the object
of their
early applause was easily identified by the fact that he was definitely
under
five feet tall and could not have weighed even 90 pounds by my estimation.
My
first reaction was that I thought that the state of Maryland abided
by the
National Federation rules and there was a direct violation involved
here with
someone of about sixth grade age competing in the race.
No, this was freshman Jamison Parker of Middletown running below
the head
and shoulders of the rest of the field and having to do it in lane
two since
he would probably be crushed to the infield area if he was to try
and run in
lane one against the other ten runners running stride for stride
early on.
The crowd remained the same with their constant cheering and clapping
on
both the homestretch and backstretch with each successive lap as
Jamison kept
pace with the lead runners through the first 800 meters in 2:34.
How long will this gutty guy keep up the pace, I wondered. Maybe
the whole
way, I was informed by a nearby spectator, since Parker had run
10:14 at his
regional meet the week before in going 5:05-5:09.
Eventual winner Mehmedovic of Oakland Mills gradually started to
pull away
from the field and led through 1,600 meters at 4:58.8 with Parker
and Fort
Hill senior Justin Faith in a battle for second place at 5:05. From
that
point on Mehmedovic was just running fairly comfortably for the
victory,
knowing he still had the 800 run in which to compete in later. However,
t he
was not the focus of the race for the fans, the diminutive distance
runner
from Middletown was.
In what seemed to be a rare case in track and field, Parker did
not really
seem to be spurred on by the crowd cheering his every step; his
form was
excellent, he had good rhythm and the concentration on the race
at hand was
totally there.
No, this seemed to be a case where the crowd was being spurred on
by the
supposed size disadvantage of the underdog in the race.
Mehmedovic went virtually unnoticed through 2,400 meters at 7:29.5
with
Fort Hill's Faith now sliding off the pace somewhat but with Parker
now being
challenged for second place by Glenelg senior Dan Bowring as they
hit 7:40
with 800 meters to go.
Parker and Bowring went stride for stride for the next two laps
on the 200
meter unbanked surface and were at 8:59 to go with the crowd now
even more
into it.
Bowring then made a move with 300 meters to go to move into second
place by
a couple of strides but the race was not over yet for the runnerup
spot.
Parker pulled even going into the bell lap, to once again the delight
of the
crowd. But once again, Bowring put a stride or so distance between
himself
and Parker on the backstretch with third place looking now to be
the ultimate
placing for the Middletown freshman.
Entering into the final homestretch, Mehmedovic was finishing up
with the
win in 10:00.9 but Parker gave it one last chance and his shorter
but quicker
strides brought him home into second place with a final lunge at
the finish
line in 10:13.2 with Bowring at 10:13.4, eliciting a resounding
roar of
approval from the crowd and once again the affirmation to all that
the size
of the heart can still be the biggest factor in distance running.
Maryland State Meet
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