#63 - Kessler, Fisher & Guardrails!

Inside This Issue:

• Guardrails Needed For Regional Qualifying

• Grand Blanc’s Salute To Grant Fisher

• New for History Buffs!

• Jaydin Blackwell Soars In Paris

• New Hall of Fame Class Coming

• Interview: Hobbs Kessler

Guardrails Needed For Regionals Plan

Like everyone else, we are excited to see how the MHSAA’s new regionals qualifying plan will work this track season when it debuts. It has the potential to solve some of the inequities inherent in the old system, but with only partial details released so far, we have concerns that some aspects of the new system may open the door for abuse. We hear that over the coming weeks the committee is taking a good look at the actual nuts-and-bolts of the plan, so we share these thoughts in the hopes that the final plan will be fair for all.

Here’s what has been publicly released so far: “The Council approved a Cross Country/Track & Field Committee recommendation allowing for athletes to qualify for MHSAA Finals by reaching predetermined standards during a window beginning April 1 of that season and extending until that athlete’s Regional meet.” (MHSAA release, 5/9/2024)

Beyond that we’ve seen a lot of discussion about what might be in the plan, but nothing is official yet. We have heard from some who have been involved in the process and that has been very helpful. It would appear that the people involved share some of our concerns, or in some cases have at least discussed them. Believe me, there is good intent on all sides.

With that in mind, here are some of our concerns, with a few suggestions:

More Eyes Needed: We hear that qualifiers may be allowed from almost every type of qualifying meet, including some dual meets. As someone who has dealt with a massive number of coaches over the years with regard to validating marks (and as a guy who verified all the entry marks for the U.S. Olympic Trials—twice), I have misgivings. I would like to think that every coach out there will play by the rules, but I am not going to bet on it. When there’s a a big prize at stake (such as a state meet qualifier), some people might think nothing of fudging a time by a tenth or two, or tweaking a long jump mark by a half-inch.

With automatic timing sure to be required, in addition to certified officials, wouldn’t that protect the integrity of the marks? One would hope so, but In my career I have seen numerous instances of faked or tweaked FAT times. I have announced meets where the timing system failed and most of the times were bad hand-times but were not reported as such. With many coaches operating their own timing systems at dual meets, will there be a real check on potential abuses like these? We hear that timers will have to be registered, but we don’t know what that looks like yet.

Also, certified officials can’t be everywhere. I’m thinking back to a controversial mark that will not be named here. You won’t find it on the state records list, though I believe it’s still out there on A-net. There were two officials working that particular meet, but neither were at that field event, which was measured by students & parents. Neither official was called to the event to confirm the big mark, and one reportedly expressed big doubts about it.

These are worst-case scenarios: bad timing, fudging of marks, even collusion among coaches. One hopes that such instances will be extremely rare—but they are plausible enough to insist on guardrails to the process. And the most feasible one is to restrict qualifying marks to meets of a certain size—a minimum of 4-5 teams present at least. The more coaches, the more eyes, the less likely that suspicious qualifying marks affect the list of regional qualifiers.

Wind Readings Needed: Especially in April, we get a lot of big winds. It will affect who makes it to the state finals. In our sport, a maximum legal wind is 2.0mps. That’s one of the standards for Olympic Trials qualifying, etc. The NCAA uses a limit of 4.0mps to decide who qualifies for its regionals—that works too. We are not suggesting that a limit be in place for MHSAA Final qualifying. However, the data will be extremely helpful in future years if the committees involved ever do want to look at a system that doesn’t favor those who are lucky enough to run with big tailwinds.

It’s not hard at all. If a meet has a hurdle crew, then one of those people can also read the wind gauge. It’s an easy task—I teach students to do it every spring and it’s usually a 2-minute lesson. I will be glad to show up at a MITCA clinic and show coaches how to teach kids how to do it. It’s not costly (about the price of a pizza for a legit gauge). And other states do it—look at the A-net lists for Arizona & Colorado, among others.

Grand Blanc Applauds Grant Fisher

The return of Grant Fisher to Grand Blanc proved to be an inspirational event. The double Olympic medalist met with local cross country teams, took a million selfies with fans, and was the focus of just about every honor possible in Genesee County. The Ascension Genesys Health Club named its indoor track after Fisher, a fitting move since that’s where he did so many of his workouts while training to be a 2-time Foot Locker champion and sub-4:00 miler while at Grand Blanc High.

Said Fisher, “I've smiled on this track, I've laughed on this track with my friends. I've cried on this track. I've bled on this track. I've thrown up on this track… So it means the world to me.”

For more on Fisher and his coach Mike Scannell and his plans for 2025, check out the Track & Field News article I wrote after the event.

A New Historical Resource

Let’s talk shot put (at the Class A/D1 level)! What school has scored the most points in the event? What school has the most winners? Have any individuals scored 4 times? What individual has scored the most points? What’s smallest winning margin ever? What’s the biggest? How many times has your team had someone place at state?

These are questions you won’t find the answers to on the MHSAA site or anywhere else, until now.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we have been working on something big. Now we’re ready to start sharing it, a little bit at a time. It’s a statistical history of the A/D1 state finals from 1895 to the present—showing, as much as possible, all placers (top 8), all marks, all grades and all the stats. Of course, some of that information is impossible to come by for many of the years, but you’ll see we have unearthed a lot of precious information (and continue to do so, as it’s a work in progress).

Boys first on this—we’ve spent years researching the hard stuff, the nearly 80 years before girls were allowed in the state finals. We are currently working on the girls side, but have a long way to go.

Check out the first event we are sharing, the shot.

Oh, and the answers to the above questions? Most total points is Ann Arbor Pioneer (194.5). Most winners—that’s Lansing Central at 6 (and the school closed nearly 100 years ago!). The only 4-time scorers were Wyandotte’s Carl Garack and Loy Norrix’s TJ Duckett. The individual points leader is Duckett, at 32. Smallest winning margin? That’s zero, from 2009, when Ethan Dennis beat future Olympian Andrew Evans, both throwing 57-9.75. Largest margin was the 13-1.25 that Connor Bandel won by in 2016. The stats for your team? That’s your homework.

Paralympian Jaydin Blackwell Soars In Paris

It’s belated news here, but still very much worth noting the amazing performances by Jaydin Blackwell at the Paralympics in Paris. The Oak Park alum, who is still just 20, first won the gold medal in the T38 100, his 10.64 breaking his own World Record by 0.08. Then, four days later, he won the gold in the 400, his 48.49 tying the World Record. He told NBC, “I’m here and I’m the best. No. 1. Nobody can stop me.”

Blackwell raised a troubling point a few days later, posting, “I’m a 2x Double National Champ, 2x Double World Champ, Double Paralympic Champion and Double World Record Holder, and I’ve been undefeated for two years If this doesn’t take me to the point of making track my livelihood IDK what else.”

It’s a common refrain in our sport. The number of “professional” track athletes who can’t support themselves with their sport-related income far outnumbers the relative few who have good shoe contracts. The situation is surely worse for Paralympians, who only get TV coverage and public attention every four years or so.

There’s no obvious fix to the problem. Recent initiatives to put on new meets that pay athletes better (Grand Slam Track, Athlos NYC) are only aimed at a few of the top runners (field eventers, forget it). I’ve been working in this sport for nearly four decades and I have yet to hear a feasible plan to address the problem.

One small way we can all help is by following athletes like Blackwell on social media; the number of followers an athlete has is one of the metrics shoe companies look at when they decide whom to sponsor. Twitter: @JaydinBlackwell / Instagram: @jaymo_blackwell

New Round of Hall of Famers Coming!

Starting with our next newsletter, we will be inducting 10 more members of the Michigan Track & Field Hall of Fame this fall. Already the Hall of Fame has 32 members. Check out that page to find bios on all of them and a 46-page PDF booklet.

The next class will be a mix of old and new: there many deserving names out there, from Olympians to NCAA champions to high school legends. We will add 6 men and 4 women this fall. While at first glance that does not seem equitable, we can assure you that from 1970 to the present, the numbers will be equal. However, we have nearly 80 years of champions from the years before women were allowed to participate scholastically, so there is still a lot of catching up to do on the sport’s history in Michigan.

Thanks to our Hall of Fame sponsors for making this project happen:

• In Memory of John Fundukian

• MichianaTiming.com LLC

For details on how your company/school/team can be a sponsor, or how you can dedicate a sponsorship in memory of a lover of the sport, go here.

Michtrack Interview: Hobbs Kessler

Time has flown for fans of the upstart miler from Skyline High. It was just four years ago that folks were talking about the amazing Pandemic time trials by that Hobbs Kessler kid. And just three years ago he broke the 4:00 mile, set a national high school record for the 1500 and appeared in the Olympic Trials as a high school senior. And now we can safely say that he has come through on his promise, his 5th place in the Olympic 1500 securing his place as one of the world’s greatest runners.

It’s been quite a ride for Kessler, now 21. We recently had the opportunity to have a long talk with him on the porch, covering a wide variety of topics. Here are just a few excerpts from that morning:

Michtrack: It was obviously a good year, but what made it good?

Kessler: Everything was smooth and went to plan. Yeah, training went smooth and consistent, which allowed for consistent racing and results, you know? I feel like I only really only had two bad races. There's nothing I really could have done to prevent that. Everything I had control over went well. I think we did a really good job of being prepared. I feel like I raced the best I could have in every important race.

Michtrack: Did your 1500 time, 3:29.45, surprise you at the time?

Kessler: I thought I would run a little faster in the 15. I was a little disappointed. I thought I’d be going under 3:29. I don’t know if I was in better shape at the Trials than at the Olympics. I’m not sure. But I thought I could dip under 3:29. I mean, it was pretty much the perfect setup at the Olympics to run fast. Those guys finished in 13 seconds for the last 100, and I ran a 14-second last 100. I just didn’t quite have the strength they had.

Michtrack: Being the first American to qualify in both the 1500 and 800 in nearly 50 years had to have been a thrill.

Kessler: I was surprised to do it in the 800. It wasn’t until the semis at the Trials that we realized the potential was there. I wasn’t even sure if I was going to run it… Running a high-stakes race with no stakes. You get all the benefits of it but you just go and run hard. Pressure’s off.

Michtrack: Obviously the Olympics were the peak, but were there any races that stand out as just being fun or rewarding?

Kessler: It’s hard to single out because everything built on the backs of the other races, It kind of accumulated. You wouldn’t be at the Olympics without the Trials and you wouldn’t be at the Trials without making the standard. There’s a progression to it. But I just love the concept of the Olympic final and the end of the line. Like, this is the highest you’re going to get, the best of the best, the hardest race in the world to win.

Most of the races represented something. I learned something valuable or had a breakthrough or made a mistake that I learned from. I think World Indoors is probably going to be one of the most formative races for me because [indoors] I was really racing every weekend and I was pretty tired at that point. We were using the indoor season as mental training for the outdoor season to deal with high-stress situations. Every race I did, I took very seriously and I would consider it high stakes.

By the time I got to the World Indoor Championship, I was pretty mentally tired because I was just adjusting to the new level of stakes and stress and stuff. And I was warming up for the race and I was already trying to figure out what I did wrong, I was trying to figure out why the race went poorly, like, maybe I should do this different next year or we messed this up. And at a certain point in the call room, I realized, “This race hasn’t happened yet! I can’t just give up. That’s not fair to anybody that’s helped you. If you’re not going to give a good effort, someone else deserves the jersey and the spot on the team.”

Walking down the track to the starting line, I really turned the narrative around in my head and got poised. And then I fought for the win and came up with a medal. It was a really important race because I learned that I can execute a race regardless of if I feel shitty mentally or if I feel shitty physically. I can execute to the best of my abilities at that given moment, so that carried me the rest of the season because it made me a lot more confident. No matter if my legs were tired or I was emotionally flat or out of bandwidth, I was going to run the race the best it was able to be run.

Michtrack: You’ve always been a fierce competitor, but do you find you race differently now that there’s money on the line?

Kessler: It doesn't cost that much to go run as hard as you possibly can. Ideally, you’re racing to the best of your ability. I’ve gotten advice from people: “Don't chase money. Don't worry about money. You run well, the money will come.” I've really taken that to heart because they've talked about people in the past who started chasing money, it just makes them bitter towards the sport… I'll never look to see what what the prize money, or the bonuses, are before the race; I only look afterwards because I don't want that to be a factor I'm thinking about on the line. At the end of the day, that's not why I'm doing it. It doesn't matter. It just feels like an excellent bonus. It feels like free money. You run well and you get free money.

Michtrack: Are you planning any training changes for next year?

Kessler: I've done this system for a year, right? It's a high volume of quality, lots of threshold, lots of strength. And it's power stuff… I've done it for a year and I've gotten this much better, so my work capacity is a little higher. So next year, I have a whole another year—year after year the adaptations pile on top of each other. So that's the biggest thing, more training with time. And then there's just a few things where we made mistakes this year that we can correct. But those are all quite small just compared just letting time and consistency do the job.

Michtrack: Are you still going to be an 8/15 man?

Kessler: It's still 800/1500… Or probably 1500/5000. Well, I mean it's just tricky, right? Because to get the strength to get my 3:29 down to 3:27 to be in medal contention, I need to get stronger. We're unsure whether the 800 will suffer or not. But I think I could’ve run 13:05 this year. I think I need to be around 12:55. So another 10 seconds, or sub-7:30 in the 3000, whatever… I don't know if that'll come at the cost of the 800 or not. I mean maybe it'll just make me better because I'll be that much stronger in the 800 and we're taking measures to kind of prevent the speed and mechanics atrophy that you get with training really high volume.

Michtrack: What are you looking to get out of this sport long-term?

Kessler: I just want to keep getting better… but also, medals.

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