Sports Ink., June 2013

A magazine focusing on all things sports in northwest Kansas

INK.

June 2013

How

Legends Are made

One-on-one with former running phenom John Mason

The Hays Daily News

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What’s up?

A look inside this issue

6 Work ethic

Norton throwers cap strong careers for

Bluejays.

8

One-one-one with a legend A former world-class runner, John Mason never forgot his roots in Phillipsburg.

15

Showing their stuff

Area athletes put themselves to the

test in athletic combine.

Rough lie TMP-Marian’s Kade Megaffin hits the ball out of the rough during the TMP Invitational earlier this season at Smoky Hill Country Club.

CHAD PILSTER, Sports Ink.

Sports Ink. contributors: Nick McQueen nmcqueen@dailynews.net Conor Nicholl cnicholl@dailynews.net Everett Royer sportsink@dailynews.net Klint Spiller kspiller@dailynews.net Chelsy Lueth clueth@dailynews.net Chad Pilster cpilster@dailynews.net. On the cover: John Mason is pictured at right in the Times Indoor Games in 1971 in Los Angeles. Cover photo and interior photos courtesy of John Mason family.

Volume 3, Issue 4 Sports Ink. is published and distributed by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2013 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Sports Ink. is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News, 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601 (785) 628-1081.

Thankful for the canvas I

was not a sports fanatic in high school.

I followed some national sports, but I wasn’t a sport encyclopedia like some of my classmates were. That is why it shocked so many of my friends and family when they found out I became a sports writer in college.

After all, I always wanted to be a hard news writer. I wanted to go to exotic locations, immerse myself in conflict and delve into volatile issues.

But instead in college, I chose the hardwood over windblown deserts.

I choose the gridiron over flatiron mountains. I chose baseball diamonds over blood diamonds.

And there’s one simple reason why: Sports are the ultimate dramas.

Think about it. There are two consequences in sports, winning and

losing.

It’s black and white. One alternative brings along ultimate bliss, while the other results in complete and utter despair — sometimes even greater than the amount of bliss gained from winning.

Athletes push their bodies to the brink just to have success, and many times, that is not even enough.

As a storyteller, sports provide the perfect mix of paint to create instant art, and for the past six years, Fort Hays State University’s campus newspaper The University Leader, The Hays Daily News and Sports Ink. have provided my canvases.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working in Hays. Athletes at Hays High School, Thomas More PrepMarian, Fort Hays State University and the surrounding high schools

For Starters

Klint

Spiller

have provided some incredible stories to tell.

These athletes are constantly pushing their limits, and at times, they have been able to surpass historical barriers.

It’s in the spirit of these athletes that I realized it was time to leave Hays.

I have lived in this town since I graduated high school in 2007, and it’s time to enter the unknown and push my limits.

So in the true spirit of it, without a job lined up, I plan to continue the next leg of my adventure in Colorado.

There, I plan to reconnect with nature and start running regularly again like I used to when I was in cross country, and professionally, I am confident I will find something that will test me as this job has.

I just would like to thank all the people who have given me this opportunity, and it has been a pleasure telling the stories of northwest Kansas.

Motivation. Dedication. Teamwork.

Like our student athletes, Midwest Energy’s 285 employees live these values every day.

As a team, we work together in all kinds of weather, year-round, to bring you safe, reliable and efficient electric and natural gas services.

We wish all area athletes and teams a safe and successful season!

Nathan N th S Schippers hi Journeyman Lineman, Hays Serving Since 2006

“Making Energy Work for You” 1-800-222-3121 www.mwenergy.com

Who’s That?

Notable performances in northwest Kansas Josh Brungardt

Brungardt, a senior for the Hays High school track and field team, finished the 800-meter run in 1 minute, 57.70 seconds to finish second in the Western Athletic Conference meet earlier in May. Brungardt’s mark was his fourth time this season of two minutes or less. He was a member of last season’s 3,200-meter relay team that won the state title, the third straight for the HHS relay team. He is a key element on this year’s squad, which was searching for its fourth consecutive crown last weekend in Wichita.

Carly Heim

Heim, a sophomore at Hoxie High School, has produced big numbers in the long jump and triple jump in 2013. Heim’s longest mark in the long jump of 17 feet, 1 inch came at the Colby Invitational, and she won the triple jump at the NWKL meet in Oakley with a season-best jump of 35-6.5.

Her long jump of 16-11.5 was good enough for a second NWKL title. Heim was fifth in the state in the long jump as a freshman in Class 1A. Heim also ran on the 1,600- and 400-meter relay teams for the Indians this season.

Danie Brinkmann

Brinkmann, a junior on the Fort Hays State University softball team, came up big in a 5-3 win against Emporia State in the first round of the NCAA Division II Central Regional tournament. Brinkmann drove in the go-ahead runs in the sixth inning, pushing FHSU on in the winners’ bracket. Brinkmann batted .317 for the season with 34 RBI and five homers. FHSU eventually lost twice to University of Central Oklahoma, but ended the season with a program-record 47 wins to just 12 losses.

Wyatt Ratzlaff

Ratzlaff, a sophomore on the Phillipsburg boys’ track and field team, won two gold medals at the MCL meet in Hill City in early May. Ratzlaff, a statequalifier in 2012 in the 3,200, won the 1,600 and the 3,200 at MCL. In the 1,600, Ratzlaff finished in 4 minutes, 54.65 seconds to win by nearly three seconds and ran the 3,200 in 10:51.44, nearly 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up finisher.

Got an idea of someone who you think should be included in Who’s That?

Send it to sportsink@dailynews.net with Who’s that? in the subject line, or call (800) 657-6017.

CHAD PILSTER, Sports Ink. Norton senior Alec Melvin competes in the discus at the Goldsmith Relays in April in WaKeeney.

Puttingtheintime Norton throwers have been a key to success for Bluejay track team Page 6

W

hen Bluejay seniors Alec Melvin and Teslee Nickell entered the high school ranks, Norton Community High School track and field coach Jason Jones knew his team was getting a pair of hard workers.

For the last three seasons, that hard work showed up both in the throwing events and away from competition — leadership the coach said his club is likely to miss in the coming years.

That, and the Bluejays will miss the duo’s ability to score points.

The two were looking to cap strong careers for the Bluejays when they entered the Class 3A regional at Holcomb two weeks ago, by qualifying for state for the third straight year in their respective events.

“They have obviously meant a great deal to our girls’ program in terms of performances and points,” Jones said. “But they have meant much more than what may be seen on meet day.

“Since their first day out as freshmen, both of them have been and have remained very focused on doing the absolute best that they can, both for

June 2013

themselves and for the team.”

Melvin, the oldest of six siblings and daughter of Norton head football and assistant track coach Lucas Melvin, qualified for state in two straight seasons in all three throwing events, capturing three state medals.

She was looking to do the same heading into the regional.

“I feel like I’ve grown as an athlete over the past four years,” she said. “I’ve had ups and downs, but I think I’ve gotten better for the most part.”

She warmed up for the SPORTS INK.

regional by throwing an MCL-title winning 38 feet, 6 inches in the shot put and finished third in the discus. She placed sixth in the javelin, her weakest of the three throws.

“I thought my distances would be a little bit further (this year),” Melvin said. “But I still have regionals and state so I just hope they’ll get out there.”

Nickell’s marks have dropped since she was a sophomore and was among the leaders in Class 3A in the shot put.

She threw in the 40s in 2011 and finished third at state in the event in 2012 with a toss of 35-11.25.

Her best throw this season (before regionals) came at the Phillipsburg Invitational (33-1.5).

“She has been and is continuing to work through some technical situations, and this has been, as it is for all athletes who go through it, frustrating for her and for us (for her),” Jones said of Nickell, who was fourth in the state in the event as a sophomore. “She is working very hard, every day, and we believe that, when she can put it all together, her distances will surpass her expectations.

“She has handled it like a true cham-

CHAD PILSTER, Sports Ink. Norton senior Teslee Nickell competes in the shot put at the Goldsmith Relays in April in WaKeeney.

pion, with class and with a positive attitude.”

At the Goldsmith Relays in WaKeeney in April, Melvin and Nickell finished third and fourth in the shot put, respectively. Between each attempt, Melvin and Nickell would go off by themselves in preparation for their next attempt.

Nickell walked quietly away from the pit and pushed the shot put with her foot.

“That’s her way of preparing herself to throw,” Jones said. “Again, she has always been an athlete who focuses well on the task at hand, and that is what she has found that works for her to prepare.”

The senior throwers have done a good job helping each other out as well through the years.

“They are both fierce competitors,” Jones said. “Of course, they push each other, day in and day out, because both of them work to get better day in and

day out.

“Our program is centered around each athlete working to improve his or her best marks; we make it a point, every day and in everything we do, to get better.”

That’s the kind of attitude the Bluejays seniors, both good friends, have brought to the club for four seasons.

They also competed in volleyball, and Melvin played basketball as well.

During the course of her career, Melvin said she would spend three mornings per week — coming in at about 5:45 — in the weight room. She also would spend time in the summer working in the ring and head to the weight room just about every day.

“Track is definitely my favorite sport,” Melvin said. “I try as hard as I can to do my best, individually and team-wise.”

She hopes that will continue to pay off at the next level. Melvin decided to throw at the junior college ranks and likely is headed for Hutchinson Community College in the fall. In college, she plans to major in radiology.

Jones knows the two will be difficult to replace, but they have set a good example for others to follow.

“They have been wonderful leaders by example, when things have gone well for them and when things have not, both in and out of practice and competition,” Jones said. “We will miss both of them greatly.”

- Nick McQueen, Sports Ink.

Legen What

P

HILLIPSBURG — John Mason doesn’t much resemble a photograph of himself when he defeated Olympic great Kip Keino in 1968 in Stockholm, Sweden.

His hair has greyed and his body-fat percentage isn’t close to zero like it was then. He also doesn’t run anymore due to a bad hip.

It’s pretty understandable.

After all, it’s been 45 years since that photo was taken, and time changes people.

Physical peaks don’t last forever, and compared to Mason, most people’s peak looks like a child standing on a phonebook next to Mason’s Mount Everest.

Mason was a world-class runner in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He has raced on three different continents and, from time to time, defeated some of the best long-distance runners in the world. He has run with the likes of Jim Ryun, Marty Liquori and Roscoe Divine. He John Mason received this troeven defeated Steve Prefontaine phy from his father when he was hospitalized at age 11. the one time he raced him.

As far as the great Kansas distance runners go, Mason is to northwest Kansas as Ryun is to Wichita, Archie San Romani was to southPAGE 11 east Kansas and Wes Santee and Glenn Cunningham were to southwest Kansas.

story by Klint

Spiller Page 8

are m

One-on-one with fo phenom John

photo by

Chelsy Lueth June 2013

SPORTS INK.

nds

made of

ormer running

Mason

Sports Ink.

June 2013

Page 9

But in many ways, time hasn’t seemed to change Mason, 67.

No matter how big he got, Mason never forgot his roots.

In his heart, he remained a small-town boy from western Kansas.

When he completed his running career, he returned to Phillipsburg and made a life there, raising his stepchildren and his son and daughter on the same plot of land his father raised him.

“He said it’s the best place on Earth,” said Juanita Mason, recalling how her husband described Phillipsburg when he convinced her to move there.

His humble nature makes him hesitant to say too many positive things about himself and quick to compliment others, but at the same time, he has a hard time containing the excitement and nostalgia when he talks about the glory days.

“Track has been good to our whole family, seeing all this stuff, traveling the world and meeting people,” John said.

COURTESY PHOTO Mason wins one of his national championships while competing for Fort Hays State College in the late 1960s.

“1st in any event” Mason’s running career was in danger before it ever began when he was infected with polio.

He was hospitalized in Lincoln, Neb., when he was 11 years old, and his father, who was a regional champion runner in the 1930s, decided to raise his son’s spirits by bringing him a trophy.

It was a simple gold-colored trophy that had the words, “Sons — 1st in any event — Dad,” engraved onto a plate at the base.

Mason said it inspired him. He never had won a trophy before, and he still has a special place for it in his trophy case alongside numerous other trophies, medals and watches that he’s won in his running career.

Polio didn’t create extreme complications for Mason, but he said his left leg is slightly shorter and harder to stretch because of it. However, his rehabilitation as a child gave him his first dose of training.

“I had to have a lot of therapy for my legs,” Mason said.

In middle school track, he said he was “a little heavier”

and he actually threw discus.

Then at Phillipsburg high school, he tried running. His school didn’t have a track until his junior year, so they ran around the goal posts of the football field.

The night before his first track meet, he said he was being ornery, and if kids were ornery at his home, they had to put on boxing gloves and box. Mason boxed barefoot that night and got his toe stepped on.

The next day, he had to run the mile, and he won despite having what he found out later was a broken toe.

“I ended up with a cast on my foot for the rest of the year,” he said.

Fifty years ago, Mason won his lone prep state championship in the mile in 4:25.6 in Class A as a junior in 1963. He got his second title his senior year in the 880-yard run, winning in 1:57.2.

“I was just out basically to try and win races,” Mason said.

Greatest Fort Hays distance runner Mason attended Fort Hays State College where he was 14-time NAIA All-American and 10-time national champion in cross country and track and field.

Mason ran for a small school, but it wasn’t like he didn’t receive big school offers.

He fielded college offers from across the nation after winning two state championships in high school and running a 4:20 mile and 1:56.5 in the 800-meter run (after conversions), but Mason said his father wanted him to go to a smaller school.

During his senior year at Phillipsburg, Mason decided he wanted to run for DeLoss Dodds at Kansas State University, but his father made a last-minute push to change

COURTESY PHOTO Mason, left, defeated Kenya’s Kip Keino, right, in the 1968 World Games at Stockholm, Sweden. Keino went on to win the 1,500 meter in the ’68 Mexico Olympics.

his son’s mind.

“My dad, I didn’t even know, called (Fort Hays coach) Alex Francis up and said, ‘Alex, you better get down here to Phillipsburg to sign my son up because DeLoss Dodds is coming here Saturday to sign John up,’” Mason said, recalling what happened. “’Manhattan is too big. He’s going to get lost, and I think he should come to Hays.’”

Francis showed up at Mason’s home and asked him to change his mind, which he did. Initially, Mason said he planned for it to be a temporary stop.

“I’ll go to a small city like Hays,” Mason said. “I’ll run there and maybe go to a larger school later.”

The fall of 1964 changed his stance on that.

During the late summer, he ran a hard workout with his new Fort Hays cross country teammates.

The Tigers had won a national title the previous year with a squad led by Don Lakin, and eager to test the new freshman

class, they took some early workouts pretty seriously and tried to break him. Not wanting to back down, Mason ran with them, and to demonstrate his machismo, he claimed he was going to do an extra workout afterward by himself.

He actually just ran over a hill and cooled off by drinking from some sprinklers on the golf course. Soon after, Francis told his runners to avoid drinking the water there because it was contaminated.

That advice came a little late for Mason, who soon became deathly sick with Typhoid fever and was hospitalized. However, Francis cared for him and treated him like he was family.

Mason had to miss his freshman year of cross country due to the illness, but afterward, he said he was a Tiger for life.

“After that, I said there’s no way I’ll ever leave Fort Hays, and I had offers to go all over,” PAGE 12 Mason said. “But I stayed at Fort Hays.”

Mason and Francis were members of the FHSU’s first Hall of Fame class, which included 20 people in 1986.

Mason, who was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2009, still has three records at FHSU: 3:43.04 in the 1,500-meter run (outdoor), 8:48.24 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (outdoor) and 4:03.80 in the mile (indoor).

Those are the oldest individual records still unbroken.

“I’d say he is by far the best athlete to have ever run here,” said FHSU cross country coach Jason McCullough, an allAmerican long-distance runner for FHSU during the late 1990s.

Mason, a diverse runner, also strung together 21 consecutive victories lasting from his junior to senior year in cross country, and his 10 national titles in four years to difficult match. To put that in comparison, the FHSU men’s and women’s cross country and track and field teams have posted 10 individual national champions in the past 16 years combined.

“Most schools are lucky to have one person win even one national title let alone multiple ones like that,” McCullough said.

with the Amateur Athletic Union, and in 1968, Mason recorded one of his greatest victories.

He defeated Kip Keino of Kenya and Mohammed Gammoudi of Tunisia in the 1,500-meter run at the World Games in Stockholm, Sweden.

Mason said he didn’t know who they were at the time, but later that year at the Olympics at Mexico City, Keino defeated Ryun to take first at 1,500 meters, and Gammoudi won gold in the 5,000.

“I had no idea who Kip Keino was when I came back,” Mason said.

Mason’s victories were a sign to many he could compete on the world’s greatest stage, but he never got - John Mason a decent shot at it.

While in Europe, Mason drank from a water hydrant at a stadium and once again got a stomach infection. When he returned to the U.S., he was hospitalized in Denver. He said it felt similar to when he had Typhoid fever his freshman season.

“I don’t know if it was contaminated or what, but it tore my whole body up,” Ma-

“I had no idea who Kip Keino was when I came back.”

World ready While at Fort Hays, Mason toured Europe

son said. “I was so sick with a real, real high temperature. I was hospitalized in Denver for some time.”

It left him little time to train for the Olympic trials in September at Lake Tahoe, Calif.

So after being confined to a hospital bed for a couple weeks and with only a few weeks to train, he had to race in three 1,500s in three days. By the time he got to the final, he was out of gas and couldn’t keep up with Ryun, Liquori and Tom von Ruden.

Despite running 3:46.5 in the 1,500 at the NAIA national championships that spring and 3:45.2 in Los Angeles in late June — two times that would have won the trials — Mason ran a 3:57.0 in the finals and finished in sixth. His time was eight seconds slower than Ryun, the winner.

Mason said missing the Olympics was his greatest disappointment of his running career.

“I still think in the back of my mind I should have made the Olympics,” Mason said. “I was acclimated very well to run at altitude with all the training I had done. ... Kip Keino would have probably beat me and Jim Ryun (as well), but I thought I might have placed.”

At Fort Hays and his previous international exploits, Mason got noticed.

In 1969, Mason’s fifth year at Fort Hays , he was invited to represent the United States on a goodwill tour of southeast Asia. He flew to Los Angeles for a briefing, and that’s where he met Tom and Juanita Jennings.

They invited Mason to join the Pacific Coast Club, an elite track and field club that included many of America’s top athletes. The Pacific Coast Club arranged transportation and meets for athletes and helped maintain the athletes’ amateur athletic status in coordination with the Amateur Athletic Union.

Tom was the manager of the club, while Juanita, who later split up with Tom and married Mason, was responsible for the track and field club’s finances.

“I joined the Pacific Coast Club and traveled all over the world with them,” Mason said.

During the summer, he would travel to Long Beach, Calif., where the club was centralized.

On his first trip, Mason said he followed the signs, reached Long Beach and stopped at a filling station.

True to his western Kansas roots, he asked an innocent question.

“I stopped at filling station and asked if they could tell me where Tom Jennings lived,” Mason said with a smile.

In order to survive as an amateur athlete

in the U.S., Mason had to have a source of income, so Jennings arranged for Mason to work at a district office for Crown Life Insurance Company that Jennings managed.

The business coincidentally had four employees who each could run faster than four minutes in the mile: Mason; John Lawson, another Kansas great; Sam Bair of Kent State; and Preston Davis of Texas.

Mason worked in the claims department, delivering insurance policies to customers who just happened to be big track fans.

“We all had to have jobs,” Mason said.

With the Pacific Coast Club, Mason truly reached the pinnacle of his talent. Facing the best runners in the world, Mason managed to crack four minutes in the mile 31 times. He even was ranked No. 1 in the world in the 1,500 in 1969.

While touring Europe, Mason said it wasn’t uncommon to be recognized by passersby.

“In Stuttgart, Germany, I’d walk down the street, and people would know my name and know my times,” he said. “I had probably been to Stuttgart, Germany, more than I had been over to Stuttgart, Kan. (8 miles from Phillipsburg).”

Track and field was treated completely different in Europe than it was in the U.S., he said.

“You go here, and people don’t really

know what track is,” Mason said. “We’d go to Oslo, Norway, and the stadium would be jam packed. People would be trying to get in two hours before competition.”

Mason attempted to train for the 3,000meter steeplechase in the 1972 Munich Olympics, but his knees gave out on him.

“Everybody quits eventually,” said Juanita, a former collegiate miler. “It’s normal to quit.”

There and back again After his running career ended, Mason returned to Phillipsburg and entered the family appliance business with his brother.

They opened a store in Hays, and after time, he decided to return to California and visit his friends from the Pacific Coast Club.

It was then he found out Juanita and Tom had broken up.

“I felt so sorry for them, so I started calling and writing them,” John said.

Over time, Mason established a relationship with Juanita, and he said, “We ended up getting married.”

She brought her kids, Roger and Shannon Jennings, with her to Phillipsburg, and they eventually became collegiate distance runners.

Shannon ran at Barton County Community College, while Roger was a six-time All-American at Emporia State University and won national championships at 1,500 meters in 1988 and the indoor mile in 1989.

Roger also started his own business, Flash Results, which is responsible for timing races across the nation.

He was actually at the center of national attention in 2012 when two U.S. sprinters tied for third place in the women’s 100meter finals.

John and Juanita had two children together: Michael and Tara.

Michael died of cancer at age 5, and now, the family gives an award out to a studentathlete in his honor. Tara wanted nothing to do with running in high school, but now as an adult, she also got drawn into it and has competed in several half marathons.

“I think she had lot of pressure on her in school, because a lot of us were runners,” John said.

Professionally, Mason moved on from his appliance business and became a wholesale distributor, selling waterbeds and spas.

Four years ago, he retired, and Juanita said he was driving her crazy so she asked him to pick PAGE 14 up a hobby or find a job.

Tara suggested he apply to Phillipsburg High School, which was looking for a custodian.

Without telling his wife, John applied and shocked his wife with the news.

“They put me on the night shift, so I see the kids practice and I go to the games,” he said. “I watch all these young kids growing up, and I tell you, honestly, I’ve never had so much fun in my whole life.”

Juanita said John turned his job into a competition.

“He’d say, ‘I can clean toilets faster than this,’ and tell me this and this,” she said. “It was like it was a competitive event. He was so excited.”

John doesn’t run anymore, so he had to turn his attention to other endeavors, such as his homestead — a spectacularly maintained piece of land with a dark green lawn

and kaleidoscopic flowers lining the property. In the backyard, there’s a gazebo built atop a hill with steps leading up to it.

“If I can’t go out and run 20 miles down the road, I can take my stress out on the lawn,” Mason said.

So it should be no surprise that when Mason channels his long distance running into landscaping, his estate would look like paradise.

Skills

Test Area athletes show their stuff in annual program

S

ABOVE: High Plains Sports Medicine’s Shawn Landers measures a jump by one of the athletes to participate in the 2013 Athletic Testing Combine at the Center for Health Improvement in Hays. TOP RIGHT: La Crosse’s Sheldon Schmidt participates in the vertical jump.

CHELSY LUETH, Sports Ink.

Sports Ink.

June 2013

hawn Landers is in his 13th year of athletic training in the Hays area. Landers works for High Plains Sports Medicine, but is also the head trainer for La Crosse and Thomas More Prep-Marian. Throughout the seasons, Landers hears athletes and coaches talk about their 40-yard dash time.

Sometimes, Landers will hear someone say, ‘Oh, I ran a 4.4.’ However, Landers knows that’s incorrect. Often, the timing done at schools is handtimed, which isn’t as accurate as electronic timing PAGE 16 systems.

Page 15

Each spring, though, Landers runs the Athletic Testing Combine at the Center for Health Improvement in Hays for local and area athletes.

The combine, partly based off the NFL Scouting Combine, started in 2000 and has tested more than 3,600 athletes.

It features seated shot put, standing broad jump, vertical jump, pro agility, 10-yard and 40-yard dash and bench press.

This year, approximately 150 athletes from 22 high schools that included Hays High, La Crosse, Ellis, Natoma, Russell, WaKeeneyTrego and Lindsborg-Smoky Valley came to the combine. Among other benefits, the combine provides athletes with a printout and picture for colleges, national averages and percentiles, an overall athletic rating and electronic timing equipment to give a true measure of speed.

“Electronic timing is so much different and there is so many skewed perceptions of how fast kids actually are,” Landers said.

As well, many programs can use the combine results to set their summer weight program. The combine purposefully tests in five categories: power, explosiveness, agility, speed and strength. Many times, Landers will see one athlete that excels in one or two areas, but not others. The combine helps to identify the strengths and weaknesses.

“We like to do it in the spring, because all of the coaches get this information, and it kinds of helps set their summer weight program,” Landers said. “Man, we were really weak in agility or our strength is not very good. We need to really beef that up.’

“The schools that bring more or less their whole team, I think it’s a good measuring stick for what they need to work on over the summer,” he added. “It’s also nice to get it to the colleges so they have the summer to kind of plan for the football season on who they may want to target or what they want to get out to see.”

La Crosse head football/track coach Jon Webster has a place in the Leopards’ weight room where Leopard athletes are ranked based on their combine score.

This year, he noticed the Leopards needed to work on their starts when he watched the 10- and 40-yard dashes. Hays High head football/track coach Ryan Cornelsen brought several dozen athletes to the combine.

“Shawn ranks them and everything,” Cornelsen said. “We give them what Shawn (does).”

Myron Flax, formerly the WaKeeney-Trego football and weights coach, has told the Golden Eagle athletes about the combine.

Page 16

Running

myself through the test

Outside of the major sporting events such as March Madness, golf’s majors, the Super Bowl and some college football, I watch very little sports on television. However, throughout the years, I consistently have watched most of the NFL Draft, including the later round selections. I find it fascinating how teams chose players off a variety of factors, including the results of the NFL Scouting Combine. I grew up in St. Louis, and, while we tested in the vertical jump and the main core lifts, we never had a combine.

Because of my interest in the draft, I always wanted to see how I would do with an actual combine — and I received my chance through Shawn Landers and his High Plains Sports Combine. I competed in the events approximately half an hour before the first athletes started. Landers gave me a complete printout that compared me to other high school athletes.

I competed in every combine event, and was amazed at simply how fast everything goes. You can complete the entire circuit in 12-15 minutes.

You focus for a few, quick seconds, take a quick break and then go again. I was surprised by how I did in certain events, especially the seated shot put and 10-yard dash. One thing that coaches have always said is “focus on the little things.”

That’s so true in the short, quick events of the combine where fractions matter. At the verti-

Last year, senior Bailee Fritts went for the first time and attended again this year. She enjoyed meeting people from around the area and improving her marks. Fritts called the 40-yard dash her favorite event. Fritts also liked the intensity of the scouting combine as athletes competed in the events, looked at times and cheered on others. Multiple athletes and coaches surrounded the bench press and exuded excitement as lifters tried for more reps and weight.

“Just the atmosphere of everybody going hard, it makes me want to go harder,” Fritts said.

Landers, from Iowa, started to see more strength and conditioning programs for athletes about 12 years ago. However, the combines were mainly in the bigger cities.

Landers wanted to bring something to western Kansas for the smaller schools. The first combine had between 30 and 40 kids.

When the schedule allows, Landers has taken the combine to other places, including Hugoton, Meade, Phillipsburg and Norton.

Athletes from seventh grade through high school seniors can participate for a minimal fee. As well, Landers has helped run Athletic Edge, a program for kids 10 and up that started when the CHI opened in 2002. The first one had two kids. Last year, they had almost 70.

JUne 2013

Conor Nicholl cal jump, you have three attempts. I jumped 21 inches on my first leap and then tried to get slightly lower and higher on each of my next leaps. I couldn’t go any higher, but wanted to do all that I could.

In the pro agility, the turn of a shoe or placement of the hand makes a key difference. I saw one athlete post a solid time in the pro agility. On the second time, his foot stuck for a split second more on the turn, and he finished with a slower time. On my 40-yard dash, I told myself to stay down as I sprinted. I ran faster on my second attempt. I found out I didn’t have NFL speed (though I knew that already), but it was a great experience. Next year, I hope to compete again and see if I can improve “on those little things” for better marks.

–C.N.

“Everything is growing well,” Landers said.

“Sports training is big right now.”

Throughout the years, the combine has featured some of the area’s top athletes, including Ashland’s Walt Woolwine and Hays High’s Marcus Watts, each NCAA Division I football players. Russell graduate Peyton Weiss, now an all-conference long jumper at Emporia State University, holds several of the girls’ combine records. Landers said one of the most impressive feats he has seen came several years ago at a combine in Nebraska. Hastings’ Brandon Reeves went 3.85 seconds in the pro agility, an NFLesque time.

This year, La Crosse’s Levi Morss won the vertical jump and 40-yard dash, finished second in the broad jump and pro agility, third in the bench press and first in the overall athletic rating again. Last spring, Morss set several marks, including overall rating (4,245 points) and 40-yard dash (4.53 seconds). The average 40-yard dash for running backs at this year’s NFL Combine was 4.60 seconds.

“When you put the laser on them, it’s a whole different story,” Landers said. “So a lot of colleges are wanting to see that you have done the electronic timing when you put your numbers in to recruit.”

- Conor Nicholl, Sports Ink. SPORTS INK.

Just a Minute with Nick McQueen

Cole

Pfeifer

Ellis High School senior/Kansas Wesleyan signee

Dylan Pfeifer Brother

Shawn Lewick Coach

Cadyn McCoy Teammate

What’s one thing you think he wouldn’t be able to live without?

St. Benedict Necklace

Cadyn McCoy

His truck

What professional baseball player is he most like?

Cal Ripken Jr.

Tim Lincecum — got the hair

Zach Greinke

If he had his own TV show, what would it be called?

Trash Talkers

Mr. Talk-A-Lot

Q: How amazing is what your baseball team has been able to do with just 10 guys?

A: We put a lot of work in during the offseason, and in other sports. We really have to go to practice every day working our hardest and getting better, not screwing around. We have to get better every day as a player in the spot we’re playing.

Q: How did you first get in to playing baseball?

A: I was a young kid. It comes from my dad and brother — outside playing catch every day, and hitting baseballs as a little kid with the little plastic bats in the back yard. … Just played with my brother every day and grew to love the sport.

Q: What made you decide on playing baseball at Kansas Wesleyan?

A: I had a lot of schools looking — some junior colleges to some other private schools. I went to Colby, and they said ‘come out, we’ll see what you got’ maybe not play right away. At Kansas Wesleyan, they saw me a couple times, and they want me to come and start right away. I took that opportunity.

What are they looking at having you do?

A: Right now, third base. I feel like I can play pretty much everywhere. It could change, if need be.

Q: What are some things you think you’ll have to improve on to take your game to the college level?

A: Hitting is going to be the biggest thing. Now, we see kids that throw mid-70s. Rare occasion, we’ll see — like at state my freshman year against PittColgan — a kid throw mid-80s. In college, you might see guys that throw low-90s, upper-80s. Another transition is seeing the ball come out of the pitcher’s

Page 17

Where is he going to be 15 years from now

hand a bit different.

Q: What kind of attitude has coach (Shawn Lewick) brought to the baseball program?

A: He’s brought a mentality of not messing around.

You have to come to practice 100 percent and no screwing around. Just because of the number of players we have, we really don’t have the time to mess around. We have to be healthy and take care of our bodies. Get what we need to get done and get out of there?

Q: What are you going to remember most about your time in Ellis?

A: Our program was built from the bottom up.

Five years ago, we didn’t have a team with the high school. It has to be fund-raised every year to keep it part of the high school. Freshman year, seeing the program go to state and come as far as we have — showing people this baseball team is here to stay.

End up workin’ at the Co-op

Living with McCoy

Q: What do you think you would rather do?

Pitch in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series — or hit a game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series?

A: Game-winning home run. You watch the ball fly off the bat. You know it’s the greatest flight the ball has ever taken, and that feeling you get when you come around to home plate and your teammates are waiting for you.

SPORTS INK.

Physician’s Assistant.

If he went on American Idol, what song would he sing?

“Ice, Ice, Baby”“Ice, Ice, Baby”

“Cruise”

by Florida Georgia Line

What actor would play him in a movie?

Owen Wilson

Owen Wilson

Q: So, what are you going to college for — other than playing ball?

A: I am majoring in biology. After four years, I’m going to transfer to Wichita State and become a phsyician’s assistant.

June 2013

I’ve got swag.

ON

Brad Pitt

E

Weiss turns it around

mporia State University sophomore Peyton Weiss wore a big smile as she celebrated her runner-up finish in the MIAA championships on May 4 at Fort Hays State University’s Lewis Field Stadium. Weiss took pictures with her teammates, sophomore Carmen King, the event’s champion, and junior Nikki Wetstein, the sixth-place finisher. King jumped 5.82 meters, while Weiss finished at 5.80, and Wetstein jumped 5.70.

“This is everything I could have asked for,” Weiss said.

The moment punctuated an outstanding track season and turnaround for Weiss, one of area’s top athletes in recent memory and a two-time Class 4A long jump champion from Russell High School.

The perpetually smiling Weiss narrowly missed qualifying for nationals in the long jump, but was expected to comWeiss pete on the 400- and 1,600-meter relays at the NCAA Division II outdoor national championships.

“I obviously thought about coming to Fort Hays and being close to home, but I am really glad that I picked Emporia,” Weiss said. “Nothing against Fort Hays, but we are a family there. I have never had a team like that. I fit in. I couldn’t be happier with that decision either. It was a great choice for me.”

Weiss went through a difficult freshman season where and said she “gained a lot of weight” because of some medication.

She went just 5.24 meters in the 2012 indoor season and 5.44 meters in the outdoor season last year. For her sophomore season, Weiss focused more, lost the weight, changed her diet “a lot” and kept the weight off.

“People don’t realize, but changing your diet, it makes you feel so much better,” she said. “It makes a lot bigger difference than people realize. I think

it’s a lot of that.”

In the indoor season, Weiss went 5.66 meters.

Then on March 14 at the ESU Spring Twilight, she uncorked a leap of 5.84 meters that provisionally qualified her for nationals. She saw the conference meet was going to be at FHSU. King narrowly defeated Weiss on a cold and windy day. The duo stood on the medal podium in one corner of Lewis Field Stadium with big, proud smiles. While the area has produced dozens of talented track athletes in the last several years, only Weiss and FHSU sophomore pole vaulter Brady Tien (Logan) placed in the top three in an MIAA event.

“Like I was back in high school again, and all of our family and friends were going to come watch,” Weiss said of competing at Fort Hays.

THE CLOSER

conor

NICHOLL

ACIDIZING

“Be around people that I know in a setting that is familiar. ... This has always been a dream of mine to get on the podium at conference. There is no shame in taking second to Carmen.

She is a great jumper. She is my teammate.”

Weiss and King had one final chance to qualify for nationals in the long jump at Emporia’s Twilight Qualifier last Saturday.

King improved and made nationals as the No. 14 seed. Weiss went 5.78 meters, just short of her season-best.

She finished 30th in Division II, four inches away from national qualification. Still, Weiss is one of 18 Hornets headed to nationals.

“The first year was a struggle,” she said.

“I gained some weight with the medication that I was on. I had to battle with that, definitely didn’t have the kind of year that I wanted to have. This year, got back in it. ... It’s the greatest thing ever, because it’s been a total turnaround from last year.”

CEMENT

TOOL RENTAL

CADE SHARP HHS senior

Sharp, the Indians’ top thrower and defending 5A champion in the discus and shot put, helped Hays High to its fourth consecutive Western Athletic Conference championship earlier this month. Sharp won the shot put and was second in the discus, though he threw a seasonbest 158 feet, 8 inches. His season-best in the shot put came a week earlier at the Salina Central Invitational, where he threw 562.75 to win the event, helping the Indians to the team title.

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