When the 200-meter sprinters were ordered to the track last weekend at the All-Ohio Championships, no Bobcat lined up at the starting blocks.
With no sprinter on the roster able to race on a competitive basis, Ohio coach Clay Calkins had no one lined up for the race.
After already not scoring in the 100-meter, 100-meter hurdle or 400-meter race, the lack of sprinters caused the Bobcats to fall from first to fifth place. Once again, the 67.50 points the distance team and the throwers scored weren’t enough to hold on to a good placement.
For years, the story for the track and field team has seemed to repeat itself. The distance team and the throwers succeed, while the sprinters miss out on scoring. In the past four years, only one sprinter scored at the Mid-American Conference Championships. Ohio had only seven champions in the sprint events in school history — all back in the 1980s and 1990s.
Without any competitive sprinters on hand again this season, the question arises: Why has Ohio recruited good distance runners but not sprinters?
“We can’t recruit a high caliber sprinter because we don’t have an indoor facility,” Calkins said. “Every time a high caliber recruit is on campus, (he or she asks), ‘Where do we train in the winter?’ — we don’t have any answer for that.”
Without an indoor facility, the recruits choose to go to Akron, Kent or Eastern Michigan, all of which have appropriate indoor facilities, said Calkins.
“It puts us at a great disadvantage. If you’re asking a 400-meter sprinter to run a 26-27-second 200 in the snow, it is impossible,” he said.
The same problem arises with the field events, as high and long jumpers need an indoor facility.
“You’re asking a jumper to come down here and not being able to train in November, December, January, February and some of March,” Calkins said, adding that the only chance for these athletes to get better is competing at indoor meets once a week.
Consequently, Ohio has never had a MAC champion in either event.
Calkins hopes that the recruiting problems in both areas disappear with the construction of the new multipurpose center, which, according to a previous Post article, is expected to break ground this summer.
“You need an indoor facility to be competitive in this conference,” Calkins said, adding that the facility will still be an improvement to the team although it won’t be able to host meets.
Still, distance coach Mitch Bentley sees the financial situation as another disadvantage when it comes to recruiting.
“We have to split up our scholarships,” Bentley said. “We can’t offer every student a full ride. A lot of the (possible athletes) choose a school in a large city and live at home.”
Calkins said that all members of the distance squad are at least partially funded and that 30 percent of the team consists of walk-ons.
Unlike MAC powerhouses Kent State and Akron, Calkins also doesn’t have a sprinting or explicit jump coach on staff, reducing the time they can use to train their athletes.
“It doesn’t only take more time for us to coach the athletes (without an assistant coach in those areas),” he said. “But also more time to recruit.”
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