The Mansfield quartet (Briana Chuisano, Jen Esposito, Julia Jones and Maddie Oldow) - Thanks to John Carroll for the photo
The girls 4x400 team were invited to the New Balance Grand Prix as a result of their strong 4:03 dual meet time a few weeks ago. They were very excited to go, but a bit nervous to be running in front of about 4,000 screaming fans. The team had run into some difficulties since being invited and was not quite the same as the one that ran so well against King Philip. The old coach thought, though, that they were up to the challenge and envisioned that here was an opportunity to go after the school record of 4:00.
The team showed up at Reggie at the requested time (4:00 pm) and immediately were introduced by their coach to Brooks Johnson, one of the architects of girls track and field in the US and the head Olympic Coach of the 1984 Women's team. Johnson, a native of Plymouth, MA, a graduate of Tufts University and Chicago University of Law was his usual gregarious self in speaking with the girls. Brooks was also the former head coach at Stanford University and before that had been the coach at Sports International where he had taught the Mansfield's girls coach most of what he knew about track.
The uniforms were picked up and a walk into Reggie was quite different than the usual entrance into the track facility. Instead of being barren with lots of high school athletes filling up the arena, there were lots and lots of posters, curtains and TV cameras all over the place. The facility was quickly filling up with fans, rather than other athletes. A few of the pro athletes could be seen walking around, getting situated for the meet ahead.
The coach met some old friends from many years ago (early 70's) when indoor track meets used to be held in places like Madison Square Garden, Toronto's Maple Leaf Garden and other major venues that used to be a part of the major indoor circuit. This modern version of professional indoor track was on a smaller scale, but the excitement was still the same. Lots of big time athletes with a loud buzz of fans' adoration being heard and felt.
The girls went back into the gym area to warm up at 5:10 pm. Their race was at 6:15 pm, so they had plenty of time. The coach stayed away, finding a location where he could get the splits for the team. A special area had been set up for coaches near the finish line, so that was very thoughtful of the meet promoters.
As the girls 4x400 teams came out, it became apparent that there were more than the six teams the coach was told about. In fact, a quick count had the lineup at 10 teams facing each other on the 200 meter oval. This was more like Penn Relays than a 4x400 state championship race. The coach moaned as he knew his leadoff replacement, Briana Chiusano had never been in such a situation and this was not a good time to face such a task. Had it been known there would be 10 teams, the logical approach would have been to put speedy Jen Esposito on the leadoff to get clear of the other teams then run Maddie Oldow and complete the competition with Chiusano on the third leg and Julia Jones on the anchor.
The girls were as shell shocked as the coach, fighting to get in the right position at each handoff, trying to get back into the race and eventually finishing a distant 5th in a less then desirable time of 4:07.64. After Chiusano's leadoff leg, Esposito ran a 59 second 400 leg, having to start and stop a few times as she worked her way through traffic. Oldow ran a solid 62 leg and Jones finished off with a 60,holding off three teams down the homestretch.
The coach felt awful. He had thought he did his job of preparing this team well, but in the end, he had failed to ask the right questions when he had checked in his team. He had never thought to ask, "How many teams are running". Perhaps the outcome would not have been different, but certainly it was not fair to put Chiusano, the rookie leg out there facing what she perceived as a "firing squad". Almost immediately Chiusano was pushed back at the start and it just emphasized her fear of the unknown.
The event was a learning experience both for the girls and for the coach. The girls had an opportunity to take some risks and chase a crowd of competitors and not be afraid to sprint out early on their legs. Despite starting off back in the pack (8th), there were a number of opportunities where the girls could have made up a lot of distance and possibly finish as high as third (they finished 5th). But so it is, sometimes being exposed to a really tough situation will help in moulding a stronger competitor. Our hope is that this will be the result here.
It was a great experience for the Mansfield group, maybe not quite as rewarding as has happened at other times, but running before 4,000 track fans will be something they will remember for a long time. The coach enjoyed being back among old friends, but will remember that his job is to prepare his team to compete well at all times and put the team in the right order......
Here is hoping that the experience of running at a big time meet will instill a desire in the girls to want to do this again and give them the motivation to continue growing and developing their talents in track.