The start of the 2003 girls race
The scenery at Indian Rifle Park has had many different looks over the years. The 95-acre park, located in Kettering, Ohio, is the site of the town’s ever-changing recreation complex, one that now includes a senior center, an ice arena, three swimming pools and a walking/running track among other things.
But since 1987, one thing has remained unchanged about Indian Rifle Park. The third Saturday in November, just before the Thanksgiving Day holiday, some of the best senior runners (boys and girls) from Ohio and its surrounding states have feasted on the five-kilometer trail at the annual Mid-East Regional Championships.
The PA contingent from 2003
This is not just any meet, either. In its 25-year history, past champions and top finishers have gone on to achieve success on a grander scale such as the boys’ winner of the inaugural race, a gifted harrier from Westerville North High in Ohio named Bob Kennedy, the former U.S. Olympian and two-time NCAA cross-country champion.
“You could be awfully good and get your head handed to you,” said longtime Pennsylvania coach Rich Ames. “The competition is deep. It is unreal. I look back and see the kids that ran it running at the Penn Relays, the NCAA Championships. It’s an elite meet. That’s the kind of kids it has.”
“Sometimes in the boys’ race,” said assistant meet director Michael Baumer, “you can have 48 guys between 4:45 and 5:05 at the mile mark.”
Along with race director Neal Charske, his former track coach in the mid-1970s at the old Kettering East High (now Kettering-Fairmont), Baumer is one of the key people behind the scenes of the “Middies” with his primary role involving media and promotions for the event.
The reason behind the Mid-East Championships, notes Baumer, was to provide an all-star meet of sorts that would feature 10-member teams of the respective states, comprised entirely of their top senior harriers. The committee wanted something that was comparable to the all-star tournaments that were formed for the football and soccer teams in Ohio.
The original states involved were Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The date of the race didn’t come by accident. With the Kinney Nationals (replaced by the Foot Locker Nationals) taking place in early December, it provided the perfect tune-up leading up to the event.
“The unique thing about this meet,” said Baumer; a track official for the past 15 years and an academic advisor at Wright State University; “It was for seniors only. It gave the opportunity to showcase the seniors. To have a weekend race before they went to Kinney. That was the idea.”
The Mid-East meet not only has two separate boys' and girls' competitions, but it also awards a team championship based on a combined team score of the two races. In 1994, Ohio won the combined title despite Pennsylvania winning the girls' event and Michigan coming home with the boys' plaque.
In his two decades of attending the event, Ames enjoyed watching the friendships that were formed by the runners who a few weeks earlier were rivals at the state meet.
“It was really nice to go to meets and see kids run in their uniforms,” he said. “The meet is for the kids. It's for a bunch of kids that are having fun together. It was just a great experience.
“It was great seeing a whole group of kids coming together and making themselves into a new team.”
Pennsylvania also had a courtship that was formed in 2003 when Upper Dublin runner Matt Lawson met his future wife, Christa Plummer (Photo, below), of Palisades, at the race.
At its peak, the Mid-East meet had six states and 60 boys and 60 girls answer the starter’s gun the third Saturday in November.
This year’s meet will take place on Nov. 19. Four states and 40-plus athletes will vying for individual and team supremacy on the event's 25th anniversary. Concentration of late for senior runners has been on Foot Locker and most-recently the Nike Cross-Country Nationals and their subsequent regional meets.
With the approximate price tag of $4,000 to send a pair of teams to the “Middies”, Pennsylvania was forced to drop out five years ago because its teams weren’t a true representation of the state.
Tim Hickey, who is the current coach at Swenson Arts and Technology, guided the girls’ team, while Upper Dublin coach Ames headed the boys’ squad.
“That’s what killed us,” Hickey said. “The state coaches association didn’t want to fund it if we weren’t sending our best kids.”
“Before Foot Locker the kids begged for this,” Ames said.”We would just get the kids right after the state meet. It was easy because coaches wanted their kids to go. Then Foot Locker (and Nike) made it a problem getting kids to go. The best ones you wanted wasn't the easiest thing.”
“What was frustrating,” added Ames, “We knew the kids that went to both (Foot Locker/Nike and the Mid-East meet), it didn't affect them at all.”
The current course records for the Mid-East Championships were both set in 2007. Michael Fout of Laporte High in Indiana broke the boys’ mark, running 14:59. Claire Durkin of Worthington Kilbourne High in Ohio has run the fastest for girls with her 17:24 clocking, a time that produced a 44-second victory over her closest pursuer. The highlights have been plentiful in the event’s long history, beginning with Kennedy’s christening of the event in 1987. Under horrible conditions with snow covering the ground and the temperature about 20 degrees, he ran 15:07.7.
Kennedy went on to star at Indiana University where he captured two NCAA track titles and also won the cross-country championships his freshmen and senior years. He later became the first non-African runner to crack 13 minutes for 5K, running a then-American record of 12:58.21.
“I remember him running,” Baumer said. “He was in control for most of the race. For all of us in Ohio at the time, you knew he would be someone in college that would be competitive.”
“He was truly amazing,” Hickey recalled. ”We heard a lot about him. It was just great seeing someone that high quality run.”
That same year Laurie Gomez, a senior at Boardman High in Ohio, copped the inaugural girls' crown with a time of 18:14.0. Gomez was a six-time state titlist at Boardman (cross country, track) and led the nation at one point in the 3,200- and 1,600-meter runs. She later achieved success at the University of North Carolina, where she was an eight-time All American.
The course was altered in 1994 when the town constructed its swimming pools for the rec center. What was once a relatively flat terrain, now had a challenging 40-plus foot incline, built from the leftover soil from the pool construction.
The new addition didn't stop fast times from being run, however.
In 1995, a young runner by the name of Amy Yoder of East Noble High in Indiana won the race with a time of 17:37.20. The following year, the University of Arkansas freshman qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 10,000-meter run. She was a 15-time All American at Arkansas.
Other great harriers that trudged the trails at Indian Rifle Park were Tim Broe of East Peoria Community High in Illinois and the late Ryan Shay of Central Lake High in Michigan. Broe, a fourth-place finisher in 1994, is the current American record-holder for 3,000 meters (7:39.23) and a 2004 U.S. Olympian for 5,000 meters.
Before the 2007 event, race officials at the Mid-East meet had a moment of silence for Shay, who suffered a fatal heart attack just five miles into the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City at the beginning of the year. Shay finished tenth overall in the 1996 race and later starred at Notre Dame. He excelled as a top-class marathoner in his post-collegiate career with a best of 2:14:08.
“You are talking about some magnificent kids over the years,” Ames said.
Pennsylvania has had its share of noteworthy runners, too. In 1989, there was Grove City High’s Mike McWilliams, who later achieved All-American status at the University of Notre Dame. There was also Kathy Knabb of Peters Township High in 1990 and Sun Valley's Kim Fisher in 1991.
Fisher was unable to run her state meet due to a suspension at school and took out her frustration at the senior-only event with a fast 18:05.2 clocking.
“That was a memorable one,” Hickey said.
In terms of quality competition, last year's event is certainly near the top. In the girls' race, Ohio won the team title with 30 points with team member Michele Thomas of Glen Este High taking the individual prize with a time of 17:47. Nineteen of the 48 girls in the field dipped under 18:30.'
The men's race was even more crowded as Indiana set a team-record score of 20 points.
Michigan's Austin Whitelaw of Monroe High blazed the terrain with a time of 15:22. Indy secured their low score by taking the next seven placements, separated by a mere six seconds. Half the field of 48 runners were under 16 minutes.
Hickey, the 69-year-old coach who spent most of his years at William Penn (Philadelphia suburbs), misses the annual event and wouldn't mind coming back.
“I loved it,” he said. “I just really loved it. It was a great experience. Rich (Ames) and I would have loved to keep it going.”
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In celebration of its silver anniversary, Co-Meet Director Michael Baumer is inviting anyone who has been involved with the race in its long history (coaches, runners, etc.) to attend this year’s event and join in the festivities. If interested, contact Baumer at 937-848-7081. As usual, the Mid-East meet will begin with registration on Friday, Nov. 18. Participants are also able to preview the course all day. Team pictures will be taken at the starting line before the race on Saturday. The girls are slated to begin at 11 a.m. and the boys will answer the gun at 11:30 a.m. A banquet and awards ceremony will begin at 12:30 p.m. at the recreation complex.