#19 - Time Machine Wish List #1

Inside This Issue

• Back To The Past

• Highlights

• End Of An Era In Dexter

• Building A Hall Of Fame

• Interview: Jaydin Blackwell, Double Gold In Paris

• The Little Things At The End

  (including “no newsletter next week”)

If I Only Had A Time Machine…

Go ahead and laugh, but that’s one of my fantasies about the sport. I’d kill to have a time machine (equipped with FinishLynx and a wind gauge, of course) and travel back to see certain track & field performances that I’ve only read about.

The top trip on my list would be to set the dial to May 18, 1961, when I was twiddling my thumbs in utero, waiting to be born that fall. I’d point the machine to 20000 Evergreen Road in Detroit, the site of Henry Ford High School. That afternoon, the dirt track there hosted a tri-meet between Ford, Western and Northwestern.

It was 2 days before the MHSAA state finals, not that it mattered to anyone there, since Detroiters had been barred by their school board from competing against the rest of the state in 1931. The weather would not have been considered ideal for sprinting. The forecast was for temps between 58-62, with winds blowing 20-30mph. The Northwestern coach, young Tom Hendricks, knew that his star sprinter, Henry Carr (AKA “The Ghost”) was capable of big things.

The coach knew “something was up” with Carr earlier in the day, when the senior was uncharacteristically quiet in class. “I hadn’t decided whether to run the Ghost in the quarter mile or in the sprints but Henry said he’d like to run the 100 and 220 and that was it.” Carr had added the 440 to his repertoire that season to build his strength and in a May 11 meet against Chadsey and Southwestern he had shattered the state record of 48.8 set 10 years earlier by Cliff Hatcher of Detroit Central with his 47.8.

First came the 100-yard dash. Carr had already run a legal 9.5 state record (tying his own 0.5 record from the year before) the same day he ran the 440 record. He clocked 9.4, a mark which would have tied the national record first set by Jesse Owens in 1933. However, all observers agreed it was wind-aided. In fact, without a gauge handy, they agreed that the wind was an oddly specific 14mph, triple the allowable for a record.

Then the 220 came up. As was common for high schoolers at the time, it was run on the straight. Carr got the full benefit of the wind but still shocked with his 20.0. At the time, the accepted World Record for 220 yards on the straight was 20.0 by Dave Sime. The best for 200 meters around a turn was 20.5, shared by 4 athletes.

Yet there was no serious thought given to submitting the marks as records. “We didn’t have a wind gauge, so we can’t have the records approved, “ said Hendricks, who added, “We’re not too concerned about having the record recognized yet. Henry will run this well again, maybe even better.

“He got off the blocks very good in both races and was the picture of relaxation as he won the 100 by about 6 yards. He was more than that ahead in the 220.”

Later in the meet he won the long jump at 21-9 and anchored the winning 4×2 with a 20.8 (around a turn).

Said Bob Wyman, the Ford coach, “He was just phenomenal out here. We had three timers on him. Tom [Hendricks] was holding one watch, I another and Ken Segal, our student manager, the third. The wind was strong, though.”

The Detroit Free Press headline heralded the marks as records, but the writer, Rich Koster, was not a regular track writer and probably didn’t understand the rules. The Detroit News account was penned by Harvey Barcus, a veteran track writer who set the world straight. The Associated Press wire service got it right, and the next day’s papers around the United States correctly noted how windy it was.

So, how fast did Carr run, looking at the races through a 2023 lens? The timers were not exactly A team officials. There were 3 watches on each race. In the 100, Hendricks (Carr’s coach) and the student manager both got 9.4, while the Ford coach got 9.5. The rules at the time said that majority rules, so he was given an official 9.4. Same story in the 220: Hendricks and the student got 20.0, Wyman 20.1.

Converting that to modern terms, remember that there never has been a statistically-accepted conversion from 100y (91.44m) to 100m. Ballpark is 0.8 seconds, so let’s say 10.2 or 10.3. In FAT terms, I bet it would be around 10.60.

The 220y is longer than today’s 200m, by 1.17 meters. Standard conversion is to subtract a tenth, so 19.9 (!!!!). But, remember, huge wind and questionable timing. Still, he probably ran something like 20.30-20.50 FAT. It’s impossible to translate that into a time around a curve. Too many impossible variables to figure.

Before any of today’s stars snort and assume they could have beaten Carr, note that he was running on a dirt track that was laughable by today’s standards. And that his shoes were certainly not high-tech carbon fiber spikes. For my money, with modern spikes, modern tracks, modern training and lane 7, Carr would have been at least the equal of recent prep 200 superstars Erriyon Knighton and Isaac Asinga.

Hendricks ended up being wrong: Carr would not ever run faster. But he set the World Record three times at Arizona State, with a hand-timed best of 20.2 for 220y. His best FAT time was the 20.36 he ran in winning the Tokyo Olympic gold medal. At that point he was surely a far better athlete than he had been in high school. Four days after his 200 victory, his 44.5 anchored a gold medal, World Record 4 × 400. And not once in his career did he get to run on a synthetic track.

The Michtrack Results Archive - read the accounts of the May 18 dual meet: Detroit News - Detroit Free Press

In The News

Italy U20, Agripoli, June 17—Benzie Central’s exchange student from Italy, Federico Bruno, never made All-State because the Pandemic cancelled the state finals that year. He did win the MITS indoor triple jump, however. We’re glad to report that he’s doing well. He recently jumped a PR 52-6.75 (16.02) and then a windy 53-5 (16.28) to place 2nd at his nationals.

Székesfehérvár, July 18: Yes, that’s a real place in Hungary. Just don’t try to say it 5 times fast! At the Gyulai Memorial, Freddie Crittenden placed 6th in the 110H in 13.50.

Lucerne, July 20: Kudos to Oak Park alum Aasia Laurencin, who in her first trip to Europe and her first race there, won her section of the 100 hurdles and tied her PR of 12.80. In the 200, Anavia Battle ran 5th in 22.93. Anna Cockrell ran 4th in the 400H in 54.45. Gabriela Leon tied for 5th in the pole vault at 14-7¼ (4.45).

German U20 Championships, July 22: On July 22 in Rostok, Ottawa Hills grad Benne Anderson closed out his prep career with a win over 3000m in 8:15.14. For our Euro-impaired readers 😀, that’s 8:51.64 for 3200. Watch his finish here.

Ryan Shay Mile, July 22: Hobbs Kessler won the men’s road mile in 3:57.4, the only competitor to break 4. The women’s race went to Presley Weems in 4:28.0, just ahead of Gina McNamara and her 4:29.0. Results: Men - Women. Here’s the finish of the men’s race.

Madrid, July 22: A win in the 400H for Anna Cockrell (53.79).

London, July 23: In the Diamond League discus, Alex Rose placed 4th at 215-1 (65.56). Freddie Crittenden ran into problems in the 100H and came home last in 14.83.

NACAC U23, July 23: In Costa Rica, Kaila Jackson ran leadoff for the U.S. 4 × 100 that won gold in 42.74.

Junior Olympics Links:
USATF (7/24-30) Live Results 
AAU (7/29-8/5) Live Results

End Of An Era In Dexter

Geoff and Janell Gerstner, who have guided Dexter’s vaulters for two decades, are stepping into retirement. Their contributions to the sport are huge and greatly appreciated in a state with all too few vault coaches. A great article here.

Building A Hall Of Fame

All spring you’ve been reading our “Legend” profiles on past greats of Michigan Track & Field. The features have been popular and we believe they are important: it has a huge motivating effect on our future champions to see that others from our state have succeeded in chasing their dreams. There’s also a side benefit: by including legends as a regular newsletter feature, we are slowly but surely expanding our state’s Track & Field Hall of Fame.

Rather than including a Legend profile this week, we thought we’d take the time to explain our Hall of Fame vision and what we are looking at when we include people.

This Hall of Fame has been a dream of ours for a long time. Out of necessity, it’s all online. There won’t be any physical location until someone convinces a one-percenter to make a major donation to Michtrack. Same with an annual induction dinner—it would be great fun, but the funding’s not there yet.

So this is what we have: a slowly-growing collection of profiles of the greatest athletes in the history of the state. But how do we define great? For now, the focus is on those who have major accomplishments post-high school. And by major, we mean huge: Olympics, World & American Records, NCAA titles. Will we ever get to smaller college stars? Will we get to athletes whose claims to fame are limited to their high school careers? Perhaps someday. Again, it depends on time, which depends on funding. Coaches? Probably not ever, simply because MITCA has already done a fine job of building a coaches hall of fame.

Are we taking suggestions? Sure, knock yourselves out. But we already have a list of many, many names with huge credentials. Generating names is not the challenge; finding the time to research and write them up is.

One thing to remember: getting named to a Hall of Fame is a high bar to clear. Winning a state title is nowhere near enough. Just in track & field, for instance, the state of Michigan has seen over 25,000 individual state champions!! In any case, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our Hall of Fame. Feedback welcome!

Interview: Jaydin Blackwell, Oak Park’s Double Gold Medalist in Paris

In the 2021 season, junior Jaydin Blackwell was a major player on the powerful Oak Park team. At the D1 finals, he ran on all three sprint relays for the Knights, making All-State in the 4 × 200. With a sprint bests of 11.26, 22.27 and 49.84 he appeared poised to have a great senior year. Indeed, that’s how 2022 started out. Indoors he hit PRs of 7.12 and 22.11. Then disaster struck. A serious ACL injury and torn meniscus ended his high school career.

That day in March he told me about the injury and following surgery, he also said something prophetic: “I’m also planning to run in the 2024 Paralympics.” I didn’t realize it until then, but Blackwell has cerebral palsy, a condition that was diagnosed when he was 9. It was just one of the physical challenges he faced, having been born premature at 26 weeks, weighing only 1lb, 9 oz. Yet years of hard work turned him into a track star.

Since his recovery from surgery, he has worked to make his vision come true, training usually alone under the guidance of Motor City TC’s Fred George. “He’s extremely focused, he’s unbelievable,” says George of Blackwell’s work ethic. In the world of Para Athletics, he competes in the T38 classification, defined as “movement and coordination affected to a low degree in the lower trunk and legs.”

Says George of their practices together: “You don't have to tell him anything twice. He learns really fast when it comes to applying principles to track and never complains.”

The hard work has paid off. At the U.S. Paralympics Championship in May in Chula Vista, Blackwell won the 100 in 10.96 and the 400 in 50.23. That qualified him to represent Team USA in the World Para Athletics Championships in the Olympic Stadium in Paris in July.

In Paris, Blackwell rose to the challenge of international competition. In the 100, he ran a 10.87 Championship Record in the heats before taking the gold in the final at 10.92. Then came the 400. He ran an American Record 49.61 in his heat. The next day, he destroyed that mark with a stunning World Record 48.49 in the final for his second gold medal. “It was a really good experience to take in, even though it was my first time. To me it was just another meet.”

The World Record, he says, “felt pretty great.” He adds, “I was looking for that record since the previous day when I ran the prelims and I was just thinking about it like afternoon and night and morning.”

The 200, probably Blackwell’s best event, wasn’t available on the schedule. “I was pretty bummed out when they didn’t have the 200.”

For his part, Blackwell approaches para competition much like he did high school competition. “The only real difference is I'm just facing older people that I haven't seen before compared to people that might be a little younger than me or the same age.” His high school experiences, he says, “prepared me well.”

What many haven’t realized was that Blackwell as been working towards his goals while processing a horrific family tragedy. A year ago, his grandmother was killed in what police have described as a murder-suicide.

“My grandmother has been one of my biggest supporters because she would come to every track meet that she could. And her passing, it really took a toll on me because I was really connected with her. It was just like hard for me to believe it.”

“It really took a lot out of him,” notes George. “He’s really overcome a lot of stuff.”

What does the future hold for Blackwell, still just 19? “I know I can go faster than I ever ran. With the right work ethic, and how much I can train and get my body right, I could probably go way faster, but it's gonna take some time for me.”

“With persistence, you can overcome all obstacles,” says George, ever the proud coach. “They come, they come slow, but as you continue to build upon them, they build. And before you know it, you have a castle. It only takes one brick at a time to build a castle. But if you stay persistent enough, you'll build that castle. I think that he's headed in that direction in terms of success and reaching his goals.”

Blackwell adds, “I just want people to remember me as just this cool, chill, funny guy who works harder than anyone else in the world.”

Says George, “This is a young man who has really had to fight to build his self-esteem. You know how they talk about a diamond in coal? He was a piece of coal and became a diamond through persistence.”

The Little Things At The End

No Newsletter Next Week: A break is needed, and I’m planning far away from both home and track.

Spread This Link: Saline High School is hosting Rachael Steil and her Mind, Body, Food, and Culture: Eating Disorders In Athletes workshop. It’s August 8. For more information and to sign up: click here.

Help Out Landon Peacock: Remember when Landon Peacock of Cedar Springs was Michigan Runner of the Year? He went on to a successful collegiate career at Wisconsin. Now however, he’s facing a serious health challenge and needs your help. His GoFundMe.

Fun Reading: Not a Michigander, but this article on NCAA/USATF steeple winner Kenneth Rooks just dropped.

Thanks to our supporters! We continue to move closer to the point where we can put some serious time into our historical projects while we continue to expand the Michigan Track & Field Hall of Fame. Please join us in the effort!