byLarry EderElliot Denman is one of the keenest observers of our sport. A long time writer for the Asbury Park Press, Elliot had his trials of miles over the distances of 3k to 50k in the race walk. Elliot won the 1959 AAU titles at 3k and 50k in 1959. He competed in the 50k Racewalk in the 1956 Olympics, where he placed 11th.
The two major bastions of indoor track & field, the NB Armory and the Reggie Lewis Center, will hold, between them, 140 plus events and give over 130,000 athletes a chance to compete, in the highschool, college and open divisions. In my mind, these sites, like the local high school track or university track center, are positive sanctuaries for sport. We need to celebrate them. That is what we have asked Elliot Denman to do in this story.
Start of the NB Women’s 3,000m, 2011 NB Indoor Grand Prix, photo by PhotoRun.net.
RBR asked Elliot to provide us with his thoughts on the New Balance Indoor Games in particular and the Reggie Lewis Center in general. Here are this thoughts:
2011 NB Indoor Grand Prix Showcases the REGGIE LEWIS CENTER….
By ELLIOTT DENMAN
BOSTON – Of course-of course-of course, Reggie Lewis‘ number one sport was basketball.
He did so much playing Dr. Naismith’s game – as a high school
All-America at Dunbar High of Baltimore, as a collegiate great at
Northeastern University, as captain of the Boston Celtics, as a six-year
NBA standout and 1992 All-Star.
And just as his pro hoops career was reaching its peak – he averaged
20.8 points a game his last two seasons with the Celtics – Reggie Lewis’
short and wondrous life came to a shattering end.
At a Celtics’ off-season practice session on July 27, 1993, he fell to
the hardwood and never revived. The cause was determined as
hyperthropic cardiomyopathy – a structural defect that has been linked
to the deaths of other young athletes.
Well, it’s going on to 18 years since Reggie Lewis left us – but his legacy continues to run on and on, and on and on.
The Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center on the campus of Roxbury
Community College, in the Roxbury Crossing section of Massachusetts’
capital and largest city is considered a capital of indoor track and
field, too.
Its smartly-designed and engineered 200-meter, six-lap, Mondo Super
X-surfaced banked track is considered one of the fastest not just in
the USA but in the world. Complementing the oval is a fast straightaway
track up its middle, and first-rate facilities for the jumps and
throws. Located in a 70,000-square foot fieldhouse, the building has
3,500 seats for track and field, and can be expanded to over 5,000 for
big meets.
Cambridge Jets win Relay! NB Indoor Grand Prix 2011, photo by PhotoRun.net.
It took years and years of political and community wrangling for the
RLTAC to spring to life. A facility like it was first proposed in the
1970s but it didn’t happen until 1993 when Governor William Weld gave
the OK to get it done. In June 1995, it formally opened.
Did it take the sorrowful farewell to Reggie Lewis for it to finally
happen? That part is uncertain but it surely was the most logical thing
to name it all after him when he was gone.
Reggie Lewis surely would have loved this building. In addition to
the track facility, it has a 12,000-square foot gymnasium with permament
seating for 500, and room to add 800 more seats, and this is home to
Roxbury Community College’s men’s and women’s basketball teams. Sports
medicine facilities, along with room for entertainment events,
receptions, dinners and luncheons are all part of it, too.
Over its 16-year history, the track facility has been home to
everything from the USATF National Indoor Championships, to the Masters
Indoor Nationals, to the Nike High School Indoor Nationals, to
many-many-many high school and collegiate championship meets.
Nothing is forever and in 2011, anyway, the Open Nationals and Masters
Nationals have moved to Albuquerque and the High School Nationals to
the Armory Track Center in New York. But rotation is very often the
name of the schedule-setting game and there’s every hope of such biggies
coming back to Boston sometime down the line.
Then again, the RLTAC is hardly hurting for attractions. Its 2011
championship-meet season will be highlighted by the Northeast 10
Conference title meet on Feb. 17; the many divisions of the
Massachusetts state scholastic meet, leading up to the grand finals Feb.
26; the tradition-laden New England Championships, March 4, and the
ECAC Championships, March 5-6 (the women’s counterpart of the IC4A
men’s title meet taking placing simultaneously at nearby Boston
University.)
But, the biggest date of all circled on al RLTAC-goers calendars was February 5.
Sheila Reid leads Carmen Douma-Hussar, NB women’s Mile, photo by PhotoRun.netThis was New Balance Indoor Grand Prix time and some of the sport’s
top stars came out to shine – under the glare of the ESPN cameras and
the commentary of the network’s expert analysts.
First staged in 1996, in rather humble beginnings – the meet has
evolved, under various sponsorships over the years – into a major stop
on the U.S. invitational-meet circuit and second event in the Visa
Championship Series.
The 2011 meet schedule was slimmed-down to just over two-and-a-half
hours, included just one field event (the women’s pole vault) and no
hurdles races, but was action-packed just the same.
Nick Willis, Alan Webb, running NB Men’s Mile, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Russell Brown, a New Englander (out of New Hampshire’s Hanover High
School) who’d gone off to Stanford University and now maintains a
training base in Oregon, came home in triumph to stun an elite field of
international elite milers in 3:54.81. It was surely the best race of
his life and he left the likes of Garrett Heath (a former Stanford
teammate, the runner-up in 3:55.87), Olympic silver medalist Nick
Willis (third in 3:56.29), Henok Legesse of Ethiopia (fourth in
3:58.06)…..and Alan Webb (an unhappy seventh in 4:00.70) to reckon how
all this happened.
Russell Brown winning NB Men’s Mile, photo by PhotoRun.net
Dejen Gebremeskel of Ethiopia (who lost a shoe on the first lap but
still won in 7:35.37), Mo Farah of Britain (7:36.81) and Nixon Chepseba
of Kenya (7:37.64) gave the fans a scorcher of a 3,000-meter race – one
not decided until the final strides.
Mo Farah ups the stakes in the 3,000m, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Mo Farah, Dejen Gebremeskal, Nixon Chepseda fighting over 3,000 meters, photo by PhotoRun.net
They also thought they’d run the
three fastest indoor 3000s of 2011 – until someone told them that a
Stuttgart race earlier in the day had bested them all.
Jenn Suhr, America’s leading lady of the pole vault world, easily
outclassed the three other rivals, and took three solid cracks but
unsuccessful cracks at the American record height of 15-10 ½, before
settling for the win at 15-1 ½.
Jennie Suhr competing at New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Trell Kimmons wins the NB 60 meters! photo by PhotoRun.net.
Trell Kimmons (6.60) took the men’s 60-meter sprint and Lauryn Williams (7.17) led the ladies.
Lauryn Williams took second at Millrose, and wins at the 2011 NB Indoor Grand Prix, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Lindsay Crevoiserat wins 2011 NB high school girls mile, photo by PhotoRun.net.
The high school milers got to have it out in prime time and the
winners were New Jersey’s (the appropriately-named) Miles Schoedler
(4:16.92) and Connecticut’s Lindsay Crevoiserat (4:52.60.)
Fastest HS
miler of all, though, was Illinois’ Lukas Verzbicas, who got to mix it
up with Russell Brown and the big guys and clocked a sizzling 4:03.88 in
eighth place, ahead of some USA, British and Mexican internationalists,
and third quickest-ever by a US schoolboy.
Lukas Verzbicas en route, NB Men’s Mile, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Lukas Verzbicas, working the final laps, en route to 4:03.88 mile, NB Men’s Mile,photo by PhotoRun.net.
Another delighted Grand Prix winner was Charlie Kern, who took the
meet-opening men’s Masters Mile in a terrific 4:19.73 meet record,
outracing Lance Elliott (4:23.72) and 15 others,
one of them 1992 USA 5000-meter Olympian John Trautmann (11th in
4:37.17) but back in the running after years and years on the injured
reserve list.
Charlie Kern breaks Meet record for Masters Mile! photo by PhotoRun.net.
“I haven’t run a (serious) mile in over 20 years,” said Trautmann.
“I’ve lost 65 pounds (from a high of about 205) and got running again,
basically just to meet Gags (Frank Gagliano, his former Georgetown
coach.) It’s a long way back, but I’m just happy to be here,”
The Old warriors return…John Trautmann and Tom Nohilly ran well in the NB masters mile, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Even happier was the Masters Mile champion, Charlie Kern.
“I was a pretty good runner in college, 3:44-caliber type 1500 meters,
but there were a lot of other guys in that category, too,” said Kern.
opportunities just weren’t there. But I never lost in my interest in
running, either.”
Instead, he focused on a teaching and coaching career while maintaining his training base.
Well, now that he’s of Masters age that lifelong dedication to fitness is finally getting him some recognition.
He’s both a USA and World Masters 1,500 champion in the 40-44
division and will be running after another global Masters crown when the
World Masters Championships return to the USA, in Sacramento this July.
And the Boston win put him squarely in the spotlight. “It’s terrific
that the Boston people have this race,” said Kern. “It puts us on a
fast track, in a good meet, and in front of some fans. That doesn’t
happen to Masters very often. Not too many people notice us.”
Nevertheless, the “most happy fella” of all in Boston must have been
Russell Brown. He’d given himself “maybe a five percent chance” to win
it, but ran the race of his life to hit the tape first, with flocks of
family and friends in the stands to cheer it all.
He knew that Garrett Heath’s presence made it all possible.
“When he (Heath) took the lead from Willis, I was sort of transported
into workouts we’ve done,” said Brown. “It didn’t feel like a race
anymore, it just felt like a practice we’ve been through.”
“I live about a mile away from Dartmouth (College in Hanover,)” said
Brown. “I felt I needed to grow up some. I didn’t really need to go as
far as Stanford, but it seemed nice there.”
So off he went to California, but now he was back in familiar territory.
The number one memory of his high school career was winning the 600 on this track at the New England Championships.
“Oh, that was so great,” said Brown. “I think I was number two
all-time, I set a New England record. That was my goal all throughout
high school.”
Injuries had plagued his Stanford career but now he’s both healthy and
hopeful. Bottom line: Don’t dare tell Russell Brown “you can never go
back.”
Russell Brown, en route to his NB Mile win, photo by PhotoRun.net.
Boston also boasts world-class indoor track sites at Boston University
and Harvard, but the RLTAC is by far the busiest of all. The RLTAC’s
meet schedule opens in early December and runs through mid-March. When
not used for meets, many thousands of people train and work out here.
It’s just the kind of place that has spurred a revival of track and
field interest, in the critical wintertime. Now if even more major
“snowbelt” cities could get one like this one, or The Armory Center in
New York. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Buffalo, Cleveland,
Chicago, are you listenining?
“The Reggie Lewis Center certainly has a huge impact on the
community,” said Rich Kenah, the two-time World Championships 800-meter
medalist and USA Olympian who now is director of marketing for Global
Athletics and Marketing, Inc., organizers of the New Balance Indoor
Grand Prix and the adidas Diamond League Meet coming to New York on June
11.
“Wintertime, just look at the numbers of people involved in the things that happen here. That’s a tremendous thing.
“We’re just happy to be part of its success. It’s a lot more than
just a track and field facility. It’s a community center. It provides
something for everybody.”
A man and his two shoes, Dejen Gebremeskal, who ran and won the 3,000 meters with one shoe on (he lost his partner shoe with less than ten steps into the race!), photo by PhotoRun.net.
