NCAA Track & Field Championships 2018

Wow, Eugene Oregon, Hayward Field just as I pictured it Grandstands and every-thang... wait......what???!

NCAA D1 Qualifiers

I have not attended an NCAA Track Championships since 1976 and that would have been the D III Champs. at the University of Chicago. My main memory from that one was Edwin Moses falling in the Qualifying round and not making the final. News stories reported that he fell on a slippery track or that his glasses fogged in the rain and he tripped. I remember he ran that qualifier in his baggy cotton sweat pants and hit a hurdle. Can anyone corroborate?

The meet officials ran a "consolation" race for Edwin where he ran by himself and was three seconds faster than the winner of the event. At the time Moses was the fastest 400 M Hurdler on the planet and would win the Olympic Gold Medal and set a World Record.

Anyway I finished second in the 5,000 M. In 1975 I ran the D III Meet held at Baldwin Wallace College. I barely qualified to go after a challenging season and then there were so many of us that they ran a qualifying round on Thursday and final on Saturday. I ran a personal best in the qualifier and finished 5th and the next day we got the news that Pre had died in a car crash.

Most of us idolized Pre so that was shocking news. Just before our final on Saturday there was a moment of silence for Pre. I was inspired but still I finished 11th in the final 10 seconds slower than I ran in the qualifier.

For some time in the 1990's I had aspirations of becoming a college track coach as my own competitive running had wound down and I served a coaching stint at the University of Lowell. Unfortunately or fortunately perhaps I could not get a placement and so I had to let it go.

If the 2018 USATF Nationals had been held in Eugene I would have come for that instead or even if they were held in Sacramento which I had assumed that they would be.

I am happy to be here at the NCAA's of course and it is a great meet outside of the United States Olympic Trials or Prefontaine Classic it is the best and it may be the last we see of the Historic Hayward Field we all remember.

This renovation reminds me of the discussion surrounding Fenway Park in Boston and also in my own position as a Library Director in the small town of Berlin MA population under 3.000 people where our library building will soon be 90 years old and is quite antiquated but has many supporters who do not want to see it replaced.

I do love Hayward Field but it is quite striking when viewing a Diamond League meeting from one of the great cities of Europe just how rinky dink it is in comparison. Eugene more Hooterville than Paris so maybe the USA deserves to have a magnificent facility that can accommodate a World Champs but when they are over what then?

Where other Pro Sports are over exposed Track & Field gets little attention in comparison. Will a world class facility help change this? I will keep coming to so called Tracktown USA  regardless though I will miss old Hayward we get older and things change, life goes on.

Speaking of Berlin MA Jon Green a Berlin native will be competing for Georgetown in the 10,000M. Jon ran a personal best 28:36 at the Payton Jordan Meet and is a former Massachusetts State Cross Country Champ and USA Junior 10,000 M Champ as well as having a couple of top ten finishes in the NCAA Cross Country Champs.

Other New Englanders of special interest Gabby Thomas of Harvard in the 100 & 200 Elinor Purrier of UNH in the 1500 M and Abbey Wheeler of Providence in the 5,000 M.


I will be sharing some impressions from Section O Row 3 and other locations and generally enjoying myself with old friends and new incorrigible tracknuts all. Maybe I will see you there.

Meeting Areva Paris