May 12, 2008

There is an "I" in "Team"? : Rochelle High School track standout Bonnie Richardson wins the state track title, the TEAM TRACK TITLE, all by herself.

read story | posted by Chargdres to Other at 9:49 AM CDT (16 comments total)

Obviously Richardson is one hell of an athlete. It's worth pointing out, however, that in the typical high school meet, it is impossible to compete in five events. Even if the rules allow it, which they generally don't -- I believe the rules here are three max, of which a max of two can be in one area (track OR field OR relay) -- a typical meet isn't stretched out over two days, and too many events run simultaneously.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:56 AM CDT on May 12

Sorry, thought this thread was going to be about Kobe's 4th quarter and OT performance in game 4.

posted by whitedog65 at 11:03 AM CDT on May 12

This isn't a typical high school meet, though. It's the state finals which has more athletes competing, which means they'll need to spread things out over a couple of days. I know California & Ohio run their state meets over two days, but don't know what their event limits are.*

* When I was in high school in the late 80s-early 90s, we were limited to 4 events for a single meet, but don't remember what the restrictions were for the regional & state meets. (I never qualified for enough events for regionals for the limit to ever be an issue :) )

posted by Jeffwa at 12:05 PM CDT on May 12

Maybe they just do things bigger in Texas, lbb. What a cool accomplishment and an impressive display of athleticism. I wasn't aware that it was possible. Looks like Bonnie pwns those teams.

posted by THX-1138 at 12:06 PM CDT on May 12

Jeffwa, the problem that you'd have is qualifying. Even if the state meet allows you to enter a gazillion events, and it's spread over two days to make that possible, you'd have to qualify at the regional championship...and to do that, you'd have to qualify for the regional at a standard dual meet, where you would be limited to a certain number of events (four is a lot). Unless Texas is very different, dual meets are still an after-school affair, meaning you'd have to complete all events in a few hours at most. I've known athletes who were good enough for a podium in half a dozen events -- it's just that given the way meets run, they could never enter them all.

posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:42 PM CDT on May 12

In New Hampshire, athletes who qualify "automatically" are limited to 4 individual events and any number of relays. Automatic qualification for an event is based on the athlete's best performance during the season exceeding a standard set by NHIAA (for example, the girls' standard for 200 Meters is 26.8 seconds). If there are not enough automatic qualifiers to fill out the field in an event, then "provisional" qualifiers may be selected. These have to meet a lesser standard (27.3 for the girls 200 Meters). In this case, athletes who are in 4 automatic events may also be entered into any number of provisional events plus relays. The State Meet in NH runs in one day, with the throwers and jumpers competing at the same time as the running events. Competing in 5 individual events would be awfully difficult.

posted by Howard_T at 1:47 PM CDT on May 12

Whatever the rules, I just think its prett amazing that she could be awesome at both discus and sprinting. The 100 and 200, along with even the long and high jumps are fairly similar, but the discus uses a totally different muscle group, and generally sprinters and throwers are of totally different sizes. That she could be state championship quality in two totally different events is amazing to me.

posted by Chargdres at 1:51 PM CDT on May 12

Wow! Not only did she win, it wasn't even close as she had 1/6 more points than the second place team!

posted by billsaysthis at 2:53 PM CDT on May 12

While in an Alabama HS (class A very small school) we went to the state 1a-4a championships 2 years in a row.

I participated in the
100
200
400-relay
800-relay
Triple Jump and
Shotput

Earning myself 2 silvers in the process (ah the good 'ol days)

That said and the understanding that I have no idea about HS rules concerning T&F thats 6 events in one day. The same six events I entered in every meet both seasons. Maybe the rules are different depending on the schools clasification.

So I say congrats to Ms Bonnie Richardson on an amazing feat.

posted by Folkways at 5:05 PM CDT on May 12

Richardson was the only Rochelle athlete to qualify for the state meet and stunningly won the team title

So I would say in this instance yes there is an I in team. Good for her.

posted by steelergirl at 6:07 PM CDT on May 12

Oh now that's just showing off!

Way to go Rochelle. Man her opponents must have been humbled, old country way.

That's awesome!

posted by Drood at 7:03 PM CDT on May 12

Did she thank her teammates, like is required of all athletes in victory speeches? She certainly could have.

posted by Bonkers at 7:18 PM CDT on May 12

Anyone find a picture of this athlete? Or a video of her competing? This is the sort of story that is enhanced for me when I can see some of it.

Presumably, she's the leader in this shot, but its not very clear.

posted by Joey Michaels at 7:21 PM CDT on May 12

I love her line about wanting to play football..."not quarterback, defense"

This girl obviously wants to take somebody out!

Quite the athlete.

posted by dviking at 7:40 PM CDT on May 12

@lbb: IIRC, qualifying for regionals only required a qualifying time/distance/height, which you only needed to get one time, so you didn't have to participate in all the events you did throughout the season, just at least once during the season. I actually qualified* my freshman year in the varsity 400m by running one race.

* Purely by accident. My coach thought he was throwing me into the 400m JV race to give me 4 events and to try and get points since there was only 3 entries. Turns out it was the varsity race (he made a mistake when reading the time schedule). My time was good enough to qualify for regionals, but I didn't know that until ~1wk before, and I didn't run that event again all season (or train for it) so I passed.

posted by Jeffwa at 10:42 AM CDT on May 13

Article with picture of her and her medal. An impressive feat, made even more impressive by the fact that Texas has a whole lot of schools competing in this. I mean, it would be impressive if it was in, say, Delaware, too, but there aren't as many high schools there.

posted by Joey Michaels at 2:28 PM CDT on May 13

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