Stories Of Success And Hope: MileSplit's Best Writing Of '19

Indelible Mark

And yet, her career hasn't been perfectly designed. Hardships, both mental and physical, have shaped the woman Davies has become on the track. Her coach, Diamond Woolford, knows that.

http://featured.flosports.tv/inside-the-world-of-pennsylvanias-best-sprinter-thelma-davies

A Year Removed

By Cory Mull

Crayton Carrozza has one more lap to go in a race that won't count. Sixty-seven seconds left, in fact. And while that may seem a tad slow for someone like him, an athlete whom some believe will break 4 minutes in the mile in college, you have to remember why he's doing this in the first place, or why it wasn't done earlier, you know, against competition. 

http://featured.flosports.tv/crayton-carrozzas-year-removed-on-the-track

One More Time On The Line For Arria Minor

For the last two years, the teams worked tirelessly to generate the necessary funds for their trip through various fundraisers like operating multiple car washes and bagging groceries at the local Shop-Rite. These student-athletes firmly believed they earned this trip.

But their evening was about to get interesting.

And maybe that's true. Jonathan Schomaker hasn't had a normal life  

It's been more than that.

But then again, it's been a surreal season for Matthew Boling. 

And perhaps nothing epitomized this rapid ascent into the zeitgeist of sports relevance more than in the 30 or so minutes after his heroic finish in the final race of the UIL Track and Field Championships on Saturday at Mike Myers Stadium, in what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime 4x400 meter relay moment. 

Chasing down his competition in his final high school race, the Houston Strake Jesuit senior unleashed an unforgettable 400 meter leg--which included making up a 30-meter deficit--that concluded with a 44.74 second split en route to his team's win in a nation-leading time of 3:10.56. 

"The crowd was crazy," Boling said afterward. "It sounded like thunder."

She had long known that words wouldn't build your reputation in this sport. Results would. And if you took the time to prepare -- if you really dug in and leaned on all the little things -- you could achieve anything you wanted.

She was here, in her fifth and final appearance at Nike Cross Nationals, and history was possible. 

On Thursday, two days before the championship race, she sat down inside Nike's assembly room, next to teammate Haleigh Morales. She listened closer than usual. 

So intensely that the Mount Lebanon senior blew a hole in the toe box of not just one but both of the New Balance spikes that had carried him to victory each time he hit the starting line in 2019. By the time he crossed and then tumbled over the finish line of the 41st Foot Locker National Championship, arguably the greatest cross country season by a Pennsylvania boy was history.

But Starliper clawed her way right in the mix for the win a mile later. Now she had made what she hoped was the race's decisive move. Zofia Dudek from Michigan was the final Midwesterner that Starliper had to break and it appeared she was able to do just that near the top of the course's final hill and into the ensuing steep downhill.

With just over a quarter mile to go, Starliper had space between her and Dudek. She just needed to hold on now to win the national championship.

All Allen knew in that moment was that he had to go. 

"I just told myself, 'If I finish, we'll get it,'" he said.

They did this for their parents, for their coaches, and for their school.

But most of all, they ran for each other!

These great group of young men reside at Hanks High School in El Paso, Texas!

Up in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley is the town of Buena Vista. Home to a whopping 6,650 people, or roughly the same amount of people as Lake Braddock and T.C. Williams High School combined. 

In this town lies Parry McCluer High School, founded in 1920 and home to 336 students. The school is also home to one of the best cross country teams in Class 1 this year. 

This team is chasing history and trying to make history as well. As a school they have made the states podium eight times with only one team title way back in 1980. 

Livers, the jumps coach at Perkiomen Valley, wanted to sure up some of the technical aspects of his star senior pupil's approach in the triple jump. Her PIAA career may be done, but she still has some big summer postseason meets awaiting her.

A state champ in all three seasons. A three-time NXN team champ. A Penn Relays champ. A Manhattan Eastern States Champion. An indoor nationals silver medalist. A Millrose miler. The list goes on.

Walters' ability and her record have pushed her on to a national stage, earned her a scholarship to an Atlantic Coast Conference [ACC] school and made her a favorite to watch anytime she toes the starting line.

But with this in mind, I would also like to say: You have a long way to go. 

You had some initial success in your life, and now everything seems to be clicking. You're running fast, are committed to join an incredible program next year, and have almost forgotten what it feels like to lose. You think that you know what it takes to be successful at the next level. Life is good.

But the result of your race tomorrow is not the part that matters. What's far more important is that afterwards, you will decide that you have things figured out. I mean, you've proven yourself over and over--of course you know what you're doing. People are telling you that you're the man. It feels great. There is nothing left to learn, right?

That was one wicked, crazy run.

How else can you put into context the Seattle Ballard High School sophomore ascending nearly a foot vertically in the pole vault, with two massive personal records sandwiched between three days of action? 

I placed so much of my identity in you, I felt like you defined Brynn Brown. I began to feel valued solely by the records I broke, the number of miles I could run, and lost sight in who I was. 

When you were taken away from me recently I didn't know what to do, completely perplexed at my circumstances. I was left to meander through my thoughts. Who is Brynn Brown? 

A  simple state gold might not sound like a big deal to some people, but for me and my coach it was, and being together for the past four years helped us create a bond and a reward that was far more meaningful than the medal itself. It was a symbol of hope -- not only for me, but for all those runners in the RGV, and all the future generations ahead of us. 

So I have to thank you. I've had the opportunity to meet many runners from different parts of the U.S. that have the same goals as me, and because of you I've created friendships that will last a life time. 

"It's different every time," she said. "If I'm feeling nervous, 'Man, I'm nervous. Help me out.' Before I walk on the track I talk to God. But when I'm on the track, I talk to my sister and brother.

"At the line, if you see me looking up or looking down with my eyes closed, I'm talking to them."

Another way Nowling says she honors the memory of her siblings: "I run."

It all started in June, a year after her father's profession in the oil industry moved the family from Alaska to Katy, Texas that Addison Stevenson hung up her leotard and picked up distance running.

Once a dedicated gymnast, she used to spend up to five hours a day for six days a week in a gym tumbling on mats, jumping on balance beams, and swinging on the high bars.

Gymnastics is a sport where there can often times be a serious mood. It provides a strong competitive atmosphere consisting of hours and hours of training for six to seven days a week. That atmosphere creates a strong work ethic.

And the St. Benedict's Prep senior is quick to pay homage to it, because it opened up doors that led him to where he is now. 

But roads are meant to be exited, and by now Chawonza is starting to realizing that history and legacy are two different things. 

One way or another, students had met him at the Crossroads Alternative Technology School within the Alief ISD system. He was a PE teacher and had been there since 2006. Many had found him comforting. He had an easy smile, was generous with his time, and truly valued his job as a teacher. He cared about your future. 

Beyond that, Karla and others saw Mike's story as one of inspiration. 

He was never shy about his past. In fact, he often led with it. He would tell students how his life was struck with pitfalls before it actually really started going. He talked about his second chance, his two degrees from Prairie View A & M and now, at 36, his full life. 

A native of Perham, Minnesota, Grunewald (née Anderson) was diagnosed with adenoid cystic carcinoma at 22 years old while competing collegiately for the Gophers in 2009, but that didn't stop her from continuing to excel as a runner. As history would eventually prove, not much could.

Despite undergoing radiation and surgery to remove her salivary gland, Grunewald continued to train and compete, only to receive another cancer diagnosis in 2010--this time, in her thyroid gland, which would eventually require another surgery and radioactive iodine therapy. 

Grunewald, who first started at Minnesota as a walk-on, remained undeterred. She finished runner-up in the 1500m at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships by kicking hard to pass Jordan Hasay just a few meters before the line. She went pro later that year, signing with Brooks. 

As the 100m finalists got into the blocks on the opposite side of the track, University of Southern California sophomore Chanel Brissett, fresh off a runner-up finish in the 100m hurdles, emerged from the mixed zone to catch one of the most anticipated races of the finale to the 2019 Division I NCAA Outdoor Championships.

"I have been going through a whole train of emotions," the 16-year-old said Thursday by phone.

The consensus she's reached isn't anger, as it might be for someone who had a personal 5K record wiped away. Nor is it spite, over a supposed rule targeting religious attire. 

Those two things would disguise the real issue at hand. 

It's that of understanding.

That's what happened to Abby Loveys this past weekend at the New Balance Nationals at the New Balance Track and Field Center in New York when the senior at Randolph pulled off a stunning distance double, one that will go down in NJ history as a performance for the ages. 

Amazing in itself and even more so considering Grover's struggles at the end of his junior season. 

There's both a consistency and a joy about her as she and those with her churn through lap after lap, first on the wet track and later on the outer edge of the synthetic field. 

Wikstrom, a junior, has an easy smile with warming and confident brown eyes. Behind that welcoming demeanor is a 16-year-old beyond her years who knows where she's headed. 

Once again, they are the best team in the state of Texas this year. But is it possible that we just saw the best team of all-time? Yes, it is possible. In fact, we did just witness the best high school girls track and field team ever.

Each lap around her local track earned her a new pendant to put on it, so every week the Polish-born student-athlete kept running and logging victories. Soon enough that necklace was perfect, shiny and colorful, the perfect representation of her hard work. 

On Saturday, roughly nine years after earning her first pendant on that track at Tampa Palms Elementary School, and maybe just a few hundred meters from the finish line on Saturday at Foot Locker Nationals, she was reminded of what it would take to win another prize. 

But while Abbes was dealing with a stress fracture that soon turned into an achilles issue, he knew that he was still a captain. And all his life, he had felt like he had this innate ability to lead, to encourage others with positivity, to lift his brothers up around him. 

"We knew how fast we are, we knew how talented we are," second leg Eric Kirk said. "We just had to execute our handoffs."

And the handoffs were pretty. Very pretty.

Now Malone, who has 20/600 vision, is on a path toward doing something else remarkable. He could join a very rare list of visually impaired track and field athletes -- and could become one of the first sprinters in the T12 classification -- to earn a scholarship to a Division I university. 

But there's something to be said about solving a complex equation like the long jump, even if it was just one attempt.