Behind the scenes at the state track meet

The Group AAA track and field meet is fun and games, drama and angst, disappointment and jubilation – all in one, bright package. The weekend’s event at Todd Stadium in Newport News delivered on its annual promise. Here’s a look at the mood – and some interesting precompetition routines – behind the scenes, on the track and in the field at Saturday’s meet.

Heads up!

Among the slogans decorating team T-shirts were the “Rules of Vaulting” for the athletes of T.C. Williams:

1. No concussions.

2. Don’t suck.

3. Get over the damn bar.

“The 'don’t suck’ one was mine,” senior Tommy Clark said. “It’s the last thing I say to the guys as they’re going down the runway, as kind of a joke.” Turns out Clark is a guy who follows the rules – at least, most of them. After a brisk tailwind forced him to alter his approach, Clark planted his pole too deep and crashed into the bar, then watched helplessly as the bar smacked him atop the head.

The good news? There was no concussion.

“And I didn’t suck,” he said.

Hey, two out of three ain’t bad.

Passing the time

Playing cards? Books and magazines? They’re so 1990s.

These days, the athletes turn to technology to pass hours upon hours of down time at a track meet.

Stretched out on a blanket at Todd Stadium, four members of the StoneBridge girls team passed around a portable version of the game Catch Phrase , an electronic cross between charades and hot potato.

“It’s a movie you’ve never seen before … set in a jungle … ” Andie Schindler said.

“Um … 'The Lion King’!” Stephanie Paradis replied as she seized the device.

“Wait a minute,” Emily King said. “You’ve never seen 'Lion King’?”

At the other end of the blanket, Tyler Smith and Fernandos Ramos each manipulated hand-held Nintendo games as they dueled each other in Pokemon.

And then there was Kevin Linbuit, pecking away feverishly on his cell phone.

Space Invaders, Kevin? Pac-Man?

“Actually,” he replied, “I’m just making a phone call.”

Oops!

It was supposed to be a showdown between heavyweights Green Run and Western Branch in the 400 relay. But a little more than 41 seconds after the gun, the race became a coronation for … Nansemond River?

“That’s right, Nansemond River,” a beaming Warrior James Taylor said. “Everyone else was doing the trash-talking. We were the underdogs. But look who’s on top now.”

The bid by powerful Green Run was thwarted almost as soon as it began. A mix-up on the first exchange between Davion Jones and Antonio Simmons sent their baton – and the Stallions’ hopes – crashing to the ground.

“That’s the team we really wanted to run against,” Taylor said. “I hate to see that happen to anyone. So I was really disappointed Green Run couldn’t finish.”

As for the Stallions, any disappointment they – at least in the cases of Jones and Simmons – felt was masked by anger and a search for accountability.

“I gave it to him,” Jones offered as he collected himself after the debacle.

“I don’t care if I dropped it,” Simmons snarled.

Rain? No problem

The expected thunderstorm wasn’t going to sneak up on Bill Boyd.

“I’ve got this lightning meter,” the 73-year-old meet referee said as he held up the brick-size gadget. “When it shows the storm is between 3-8 miles away, we’ll shut things down.’’

Like most of the meet organizers, Boyd was braced for lightning at about 2 p.m. and for the meet to be suspended for roughly an hour.

“But I’ve seen worse,” he said. “One time at the Texas state meet, we had a storm that lasted about five hours. The meet ended at 1:30 in the morning.”

But when 2 p.m. came, the once-threatening winds had died down, the sun was at its most intense and Boyd didn’t even bother consulting his trusty lightning meter.

“It looks like we’re going to skate,” he said. “We’re not going to have problems after all.’’

A different race

Cierra McGee gasped, unable to find a breath in the steamy mid-afternoon humidity. The Landstown senior couldn’t walk another step, let alone run.

Only minutes after running the third leg of the winning Eagles 400 relay team, McGee was competing again in her most cherished race – the 400.

She won that, too, but now she couldn’t breathe.

“Get the inhaler!” another Eagle shrieked.

Nobody knew where it was, and the hunt began. Teammate Dallas McKnight returned in a flash from the Landstown tent, handing off the inhaler as if it were a baton. One puff later, McGee dropped it to the ground.

McKnight placed cup after cup of water into the hands of McGee , who downed each in one swig.

“I knew I had to recover real quick to run the 400; my coach didn’t want me to do it,” McGee said. “He wanted me to run the 200 instead. But I had already won the 200 and this is my senior year. ”

The running wasn’t over . Like many of her teammates, McGee was headed to the Landstown prom Saturday night.

“We’ll rush out of here,” McGee said nonchalantly. “It’ll be no big deal. My teammates and I always say, 'Life is always better after you run the 400.’”

Big-bang theory

Landstown’s Olivia Hutchins had a plan.

“I wanted to go out with a big bang,” said the senior, whose day started with exactly that.

Hutchins plowed into a hurdle midway through the 100 hurdles, the first race of the day, and fell to the ground. She nipped the last hurdle on her way to a last-place finish.

Spills were not uncommon at the state meet. Three boys found their legs tangled together, sending the trio to the ground during a curve of the 1,600. And Hutchins’ teammate Taylor Wheaton toppled on the final hurdle of the 300 hurdles and dived to the line.

“My teammates tried hard to cheer me up,” Hutchins said. “It was hard to go on after that. I had to visualize myself doing well.”

Play ball

They were at a track meet, but a football game broke out between a handful of players from Deep Creek and another from Ocean Lakes. Hornets quarterback Fred Credle brought the football, hoping to pass the time between events by warming up his arm with his teammates. Receiver Robert Hitchman joined in, admitting, “We gotta have some fun before we run.”

Underneath the bleachers, they found Shamarko Thomas, a running back and safety from Ocean Lakes, who traded spirals with the Hornets. In a few minutes, Hornet Dewey Gatling joined in, looking to loosen up before the 300 hurdles.

“Football is my first love,” the senior said. “I can’t get away from it.”

Color scheme

Whisper Mauve. Pink Flirt. Panic Button.

Kiara Arrington was painting each fingernail a separate shade of pastel, admitting, “I’m going crazy with mine.” Her Woodside teammate Denyse Moore was more traditional, alternating the mulberry with the mauve to match the school colors.

Tania Minkins pasted on acrylics while messing with a fancy array of colors.

“Can you paint my right hand?” Arrington asked another. “I don’t know how to really paint.”

“Wrap this up!” the Woodside coach barked. “This is a track meet. Get ready to run.”

The girls giggled – and kept painting.

All in the family

Maggie and Hernould Wesh didn’t flinch when their son Darrell, a junior from Landstown, was disqualified after a false start in the 100. “He shouldn’t be running,” Maggie Wesh said. “He’s hurt. I told him last night not to run.”

Darrell Wesh wasn’t convinced. “My knee gave out in the blocks,” he said. “I was in the 100 preliminaries yesterday and my knee popped. I gave up the 200 so I could get rest for this.”

Wesh is only a junior, so he and his parents, familiar faces at the state track meet, will be back next year.

The Wesh family has five runners in its family. Russell, 22, and Jordan, 20, are now in college.

Twins Darrell and Diane, 16, along with 17-year-old Marlena, competed in the meet. Though the two oldest were distance runners, Marlena gets the credit for keeping track alive in her family.

Marlena wanted to play soccer but was cut as a sixth-grader. Then came distance running, but after getting beat in the 800, she gave that up, too. Next came the 100 and 200, and nobody could beat Marlena Wesh in either event Saturday.

Making memories

Tallwood’s Octavia Rinehardt iced the blister on her foot underneath the Lions’ tent while the final running events of the day waned . Rinehardt led the 3,200 much of the way but didn’t have the kick to get past Herndon’s Hiruni Wiiavaratne. Rinehardt wasn’t lamenting her runner-up finish, though.

“To finish top two in state isn’t bad,” she said.

The meet marked the final competition for the senior, who has been a state qualifier each of the last three years.

What will she miss most about high school’s biggest meet?

“The whole atmosphere – not the before part, but the after,” she said. “To say 'I ran at state. I made it really far.’ Even if I came in dead last, just to say 'I made it here!’ is special.”