Sprinters on men’s track team start to match distance runners by scoring more points in meets

By Maggie Brandenburg

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For years, the distance program has largely been the face of this school’s men’s track team, as longer distance events have played a pivotal role in garnering points during each meet.

And while distance dominance has long been the law of the land for the team, which heads into the State tournament season with its Sectional beginning at home tonight at 5, its sprinters are continuing to close the gap.

Sprinter and junior Justin Batten is one of those sprinters. He scored second in the 100-meter dash and first in the 200-meter dash during the County meet, and was also a member of the winning 4×100-meter relay team.

“In previous years it’s been more the distance program standing out, but this year it’s been a lot more sprinting and distance,” Batten said.

According to Head Coach Will Ellery, the major factor in the distance program’s success on the track is its depth. Decades of having one of the best cross-country programs in the state consistently provides classes of athletes who run all year and compete in track to stay in shape. For example, the men’s cross-country team returned this year as the defending State champions from 2008, and placed fourth in the tournament this season.

“(The distance runners) do cross-country in the fall and track in the spring, so they’re just always running,” Batten said.

Ellery said the school itself is geared toward more endurance and strength-oriented runners, rather than speed competitors, which leads to more dependence on the long distance runners during larger meets.

Tom Ohlman, four-year cross-country and track athlete and senior, said he recognizes the large role the distance runners play in bigger meets. “The distance program plays a pretty big role on the team because we score most of the points in a lot of the meets,” Ohlman said.

However, beginning his second season of being the head coach, Ellery has continued to institute changes on the team to help the sprinting program begin to gain more success throughout the season.
According to Batten, Ellery has been working hard to do just that. He has made improvements to the program this year to help the sprinters on the team. “We have to change the culture of the program,” Ellery said.

By bringing along two new sprinting coaches, James Kiel and Ryan Sarbinoff, who were both Big 10 Conference sprinters, Ellery has given the program more attention this season. This strategy of bringing in more specialized attention has the team now sporting some of the top sprinters in the county, as it has gained even more notoriety this season, and not just for the distance program.

Ellery said he thinks the decision to bring new sprinting coaches onto the team has proven to be successful thus far. “To win top to bottom, we have to score top to bottom (in all events),” Ellery said.
With a history of success in the State tournament, the runners are just treating it as business as usual. Last year, the team placed seventh in the tournament, but Ellery has his hopes set higher this year, as he said the team is aiming at nothing short of a State championship.

With Ellery looking to “advance as many as possible,” the sprinters are attempting to gain even more prestige amongst some of the toughest competition in the state.

Meanwhile, the distance program is just hoping to continue its tradition of excellence tonight. “We’re banking on a lot of points in the State meet this year,” Ohlman said. “We just sort of know that we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.”