Indoor keeps athletes on track

By Joe Scalzo

More than 50 area athletes will compete in Saturday’s state indoor track meet.

BOARDMAN — Considering Boardman senior Corey Linsley already has a football scholarship to Ohio State, and considering he’s already an outdoor All-Ohioan in the shot put, you’d think he’d be more inclined to spend Saturday mornings in January in his warm bed, rather than getting up at 6:30 a.m. to compete in day-long track and field meets in cities at least an hour away.

Well, you’d be wrong.

“I love competing in track,” said Linsley, now in his fourth year of indoor track. “It’s just a great sport. I love throwing, I like to PR [throw a personal record] and I like to win.”

Linsley will join more than a dozen teammates, more than 50 Valley athletes and hundreds more across Ohio at Saturday’s state indoor track and field meet at the University of Akron. The meet, in its fourth year, is not sanctioned by the OHSAA. It’s conducted by the Ohio Association of Track and Cross Country Coaches.

Athletes from 226 teams will compete this weekend in a sport that has quickly become more than just a precursor to the outdoor season.

Ohio’s first indoor state meet was held in Findlay in 2006 and has “doubled in size since,” said Spartans boys coach Dave Pavlansky.

About 400 teams compete in indoor track, compared to more than 700 in the outdoor season.

“The vast majority who think track is important and want to be good in track participate [in indoors],” said Pavlansky.

Boardman is sending close to two dozen athletes to Saturday’s meet, including two (Linsley and senior Caleb Matthews) who earned All-America status at last weekend’s Nike Indoor National Track & Field Championships in Boston.

Matthews, an All-Ohioan in the 300-meter hurdles last spring, isn’t quite as gung-ho about the Saturday morning wake-up call — “Sometimes it’s tough, but you know you have to do it,” he said — but understands the value of winter training.

“I want to get better at what I do,” he said. “It allows you to continue to build on what you’ve done, rather than have a resting period.

“You go into outdoor already conditioned and ready to start.”

Because Ohio’s winter weather is, well, terrible, there’s often an emphasis on the word “indoor” during indoor track practices. Fortunately for Boardman, the high school’s hallways are extremely long, allowing the sprinters a chance to train — somewhat — normally.

The distance runners don’t have it quite as good. They generally have to choose between a treadmill or trudging through the snow.

“For track, we never use running as punishment,” said Pavlansky. “Distance runners think it’s fun.

“All our guys generally understand that there’s some delayed gratification with being an athlete. You put the work in before you’re rewarded.”

Junior Sam Deskin, an All-Ohioan in cross country last fall who competed in the 4x800 relay in Boston last weekend, said indoor track can break up the monotony of the winter training season.

“It’s something to do in the winter instead of getting all lazy and fat,” he said. “The snow can get on your nerves after awhile, but it’s kind of nice after a summer of 80-degree weather with the hot sun pulsing on you.”

Still, there are drawbacks, particularly for distance runners who need to limit their races so they can peak at the right times.

“Sometimes I need a break from racing,” Deskin admitted. “It takes a lot out of you and sometimes just going without racing for a month or two with nothing on your mind but running is kind of nice.

“But then again, that can leave you stale if you haven’t raced for awhile.”

Deskin said he races at a half-dozen meets during the indoor season. The OATCCC designates specific indoor meets as qualifiers for the state meet. Athletes with the best times and distances at those meets are arranged in a top 25 list, which is pared down to the top 16.

If someone in the top 16 declines to participate (which happens in distance races especially), athletes on the 17-25 list can slide in.

Saturday’s meet aside, there isn’t much glory in indoor track. Pavlansky and his assistants work as volunteers and the athletes and coaches rely on donations and fundraisers to cover their costs.

Is it worth it?

“I’m continually amazed when I drag my butt out of bed at 6:30 on a Saturday morning to go open a locker room at 7,” said Pavlansky. “I’ll go into my office to do paperwork and by the time I come out at 7:30, there are 25 guys in the locker room who think this is the most fun thing in the world.

“That’s all the payment I need.”

scalzo@vindy.com