Becki Wells- A Short Profile

If there was to be a discussion about the best distance runners ever produced by North Dakota, there would be absolutely no debate about Becki Wells being on the list. A high school and college champion who ran professionally, she set the bar incredibly high for women's distance running in this state.

Let's start with the high school times, shall we? She went to Dickinson High School in the early 1990s and did some serious damage to the state record books.

In cross country, she won the state meet in both 1991 and 1992. Taking it a step further, she ran at Kinney Nationals (now called Footlocker- the national XC meet), taking 14th her junior year in 1991 and 10th her senior year in 1992.

When she graduated in 1993, she had these state records on the track (which also implies LOTS of state championships):
400: 56.94
800: 2:07.34
1600: 4:42.84
3200: 10:44.94
4x800: 9:21.14 (This is taken from the North Dakota high school track and field website, where a top ten all-time list has this as the top time. I will safely assume that since it is the fastest time in state history and one of the fastest girls in state history was a senior at that school during that year, she was on it)

The 400 still stands 7th in class A
The 800 still stands 2nd in class A (behind Laura Roesler)
The 1600 still stands as the fastest high school time ever by a North Dakota girl. The record is 22 years old now.
The 3200 still stands 5th in class A
The 4x8 still stands #1

The kind of athletes that have ran faster than these times in high school- Laura Roesler, Morgan Milbrath, Carly Emil, Beth Hoge- gives you an idea of how fast we are talking about here.

To finish off a stellar high school career, in 1993 Wells topped it off with a USA Junior National Championship in the 1500 in 4:21.77, the fastest winning time since 1984. So she could, at that time, claim to be the fastest high school girl's miler in the US. Her records in the state were (are) truly incredible, but she was in no way done.

After high school she went to the University of Alabama for her freshman and sophomore years of college from 1993-1995, and then to the University of Florida for the remainder of her collegiate career. This is a complete aside, but I would love to know how hard it was to acclimate to the heat and humidity down there after being in a drier and cooler part of the country before college.

(If you don't care too much about what her times and places were exactly, scroll down to the summary of her college career)

She started off the college running dream pretty spectacularly, winning the SEC Cross Country individual title as a freshman, running a 16:54 in the 5K and helping her Alabama team to 2nd place overall. She then placed 19th overall at the NCAA D1 National Meet, which I believe gathered an all-American status. She then continued to indoor track, where at the national meet she ran the mile in 4:44.28, placing her 7th. I can't find information on the 1994 Outdoor NCAA D1 National Meet, and I do find a 4:30.66 in the 1500 as her best time for her 1994 outdoor season, so it is possible that she didn't run at nationals- I don't know.

Her sophomore year was also pretty great. I do not see her listed in the results for nationals cross country this particular year, and I can't find results for the SEC meet. However, for indoor track she did compete at nationals, and in fact took 2nd place in the mile, running 4:40.07. I again can't find results for outdoor nationals, but she again ran a best time of 4:30 in the 1500 outdoors, so I don't really know why her times in outdoor were that much slower than indoor, unless I can get some information showing otherwise.

The next year things change. Now a junior in 1995-1996, Wells transfers to the University of Florida, but I don't know why. Either way she wins SEC cross country again, and runs at cross country nationals, this time placing 12th in 17:32. During indoor track she again ran the mile at nationals and again was an all-american, placing 7th with a time of 4:46. I can't get outdoor nationals results, but she has a 1500 best of 4:24.32 that season, which is a substantial improvement from the previous years.

Now a senior in 1996-1997, she has a truly breakthrough year. While she did win the SEC cross country meet in 17:04, she did not compete at nationals. However, track is where the big-time happened. At the national indoor meet in Indianapolis, she won the mile in a time of 4:33.04, more than a second ahead of second place, and more than 3 seconds ahead of third, for her first national D1 title. She then backed it up with a national title on the outdoor track, winning the 1500 with a blistering-fast time of 4:12.84!

So let's summarize her collegiate career briefly:
Cross country: 2-time All-American, 3-time SEC Champion, 1996 SEC Athlete of the Year
Indoor Track: National Champion in the mile (1997), 4-time All-American in the mile, 2-time All-American as a member of Florida's Distance Medley Relay
Outdoor Track: National Champion in the 1500 (1997)
Ranked #38 on the list of University of Florida's Greatest Female Athletes

Not too bad, eh? Well, there's more! She went on to run professionally after college, for Nike ('97-'99), Reebok ('99-00'), and NASC ('99-'00). What's NASC? The Native American Sports Council. Becki Wells, from what I understand, was member of the Blood Tribe, which is a name for the Kainai Nation, a nation currently found in Alberta (which is not too far away from western North Dakota). I've found it incredibly difficult to find how well she ran a professional distance runner. She did compete at the 2000 Olympic Trials, but in what was surely a disappointment, she ran 4:59 in the 1500 and did not move on past the first preliminary round.

Early in the 2000s she accepted a coaching job at the United Tribes Technical College, which is a tribal-affiliated college located in Bismarck, North Dakota. She coached track and cross country there briefly before moving to Tennessee to go back to training for professionally for the 2004 Olympic Trials, which she didn't compete at.

She comes from a pretty fast family too, with her Dad having ran with her when she was young, her sister a successful collegiate runner at Bowling Green State University (and a coach there later), and her brother having competed in cross country and track at BGSU.

While competing throughout her post-collegiate years, Wells was able to get some good travel time in, competing at meets such as the Milrose Games and the Drake Relays. With all the above having been said, it's safe to say that she is one of (if not THE) best distance runners that has come out of this state. Her accomplishments are truly incredible to view, even 15 years later. As I've said in previous posts, there have been so few runners from ND who have went on to be as successful at the D1 level as they were at the high school level, but Becki Wells was one them. Bravo to all of her accomplishments, and may you take encouragement from them when trying to move forward with your own goals.

Have a Great Day!

Website I used to help me:
http://www2.bhs.bismarck.k12.nd.us/athletics/bhsboystrack/alltimelist/top10agirls.htm
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2003/12/22/olympic-hopeful-running-down-her-dreams-89732
http://nd.milesplit.com/athletes/insider/3133305-becki-wells#.VT6RgSFViko
http://www.gatorzone.com/misc.php?p=title-ix-top-40
http://www.gatorzone.com/trackfield/stats/notes/pre.pdf
http://www.usatf.org/statistics/USA-Champions/USAJuniorOutdoorTF/women/1500m.aspx
http://ndrunner.tripod.com/id80.htm
http://www.gatorzone.com/crosscountry/tour/sec/2013/files/record_book_women.pdf
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19931031&id=Ij4dAAAAIBAJ&sjid=N6YEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6564,9700455&hl=en
http://www.ustfccca.org/infozone/public-meet-alltime.php?meetno=515947585
http://www.footlockercc.com/history/resultsgirls.php?year=1991
http://www.footlockercc.com/history/finals.php?year=1992&Button1=Go
http://www.usctrackandfield.com/1994i.pdf
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2003/09/21/running-talent-hits-trail-89340

Striving for the Same Goal

You know, here at UND we are having a pretty good year. Records are falling left and right, including women’s and men’s hammer throw, women’s and men’s weight throw, women’s javelin, women’s 100 and 200, men’s 400, men’s 5k, and relays. We are competing as well as a team as we have in a long time. What makes it even better is how many athletes we have from nearby cities and states. Yet, we are still not the best track team in the state. 

Anybody following local track can see that NDSU is doing really well right now. To be a UND student-athlete and admit this is hard, but the facts pretty much speak for themselves. Their track teams are showing up in the regional rankings ahead of some powerhouse schools simply because they have highly ranked sprinters, jumpers, throwers, and distance runners. They have All-Americans and people winning big events at big meets. They have a pretty accomplished coaching staff too.

Now, I would like to argue why I think these are both important and worth cheering for, no matter what school  you come from (it’s a good thing my coach probably won’t see this, because he’s not a big NDSU fan).

Let’s back up and have a short history lesson. The first mass settlement of North Dakota began in the late 1800s and peaked around the year 1930. Almost every person who came here realized the same thing: life is a lot harder here than most other places. Winters are colder and summers are warmer than out east. Trees and precipitation paled in comparison to the countries they came from. Crop failures from locusts, drought, and other natural events ruined people. Out-migration started about the moment people first came here, and it never really stopped. Even in the early 2000s state officials were trying to figure out how they could possibly keep young people from leaving the state, because studies showed that if they did they wouldn’t come back.

 

Well doesn’t that sound inviting? Ok now to bring it back to present. Stereotypes about North Dakota exist, and while some of them are obviously false, some are obviously true. You know what? It IS pretty windy here. And cold. So North Dakota isn’t really seen as the place to settle down and do much of anything. The general idea is this: if you want to be successful at something other than farming or energy development, you need to go somewhere else- and it’s no different with athletics. Let’s imagine this scenario between a rising young athletic star and a potential coach/agent:

Coach/Agent: So where did you do your training?

Athlete: In North Dakota
Coach/Agent: Really? Wow it’s impressive that you were able to accomplish that much while training there!

Don’t even pretend like that isn’t a realistic conversation excerpt. Because it is. And even if the coach/agent wouldn’t say that out loud, it would be in his/her head.  This idea has bothered me for years. Who says that athletes from North Dakota can’t be good? Who says that athletes can’t be good training in North Dakota? I definitely don’t.

Instead of hammering my point home, consider this quote from the NDSU Track and Field twitter this weekend. An athlete of theirs, Maddie Van Beek, won the steeplechase at the Drake Relays, which is a big deal. The meet is highly competitive, drawing from talent all over the country. She (a Perham, MN native, which is not too far away from Fargo) had this to say:  “I think it really puts us on the map and gives us a name. Sometimes the rest of the nation doesn’t realize that we can compete at that level, and we can. It’s pretty cool to come in here and show that we can do that.”

…PREACH!

Ok, so that quote was a reference to NDSU competing well at big meets, and I don't want to imply that anybody other than NDSU had a part in their success, but NDSU is an attachment of the great State of North Dakota. The whole state can be proud when they have success. Don’t believe me that we’re connected in the eyes of the nation? Well, when we (UND track) travel by air, sometimes people will approach us and ask us questions about who we are and where we’re from. Amazingly, people have difficulty distinguishing NDSU from UND. Fargo and Grand Forks are basically the same thing they claim- I mean, they’re both in North Dakota, are they not?

Ok I’m rambling now, but my point is this: UND and NDSU competing well isn’t just good for UND and NDSU, but also for the state as a whole. We are by no means seen as a track state, and the idea is that to be good at track you must go somewhere better. Having athletes go to big meets with lots of those ‘better’ teams and compete well and win events raises our status. It gives kids in North Dakota a reason to want to stay here. It allows them to believe that they can be great even if they stay here. It gives them athletic role models to look up to in person, not in the paper in reference to a school across the country (I’m not dissing anyone, I promise).

People have always needed to reason to stay in this state, track athletes included. And for decades, the reasons for staying have been few and far between. That can change. The first thing that needs to go is the mentality that being a successful track athlete and training in North Dakota are mutually exclusive. When we are at a meet in California, I have literally heard teammates say "think of how good we good be if we trained here!" I've always had a problem with that. 

Wind? An excuse. It makes you stronger.
Cold? An excuse. Put on another layer.
No altitude? An excuse. Eugene, Oregon is not at altitude and the U of Oregon seems to do fine.
No hills? You’re not looking hard enough. Try western North Dakota.
No facilities? You’re not looking hard enough. NDSU has a new track facility, and UND has one on the way.
Lack of good athletes to train with? Check the results this year. You may be surprised.

So here’s my pitch: let’s keep up the good work, UND. And NDSU- you keep doing incredibly well. It helps this state and the next generation of North Dakota tracksters who want something to convince them that you can still be good- heck great!- if you train in North Dakota. It's a way for track to give back. 

As the saying goes: You can do anything if you put your mind to it!

Have a Great Day!

Also, if you disagree with the whole premise of this post, let me know! 

Who Inspires Who?

Before I get into this post I just want to give a big shoutout to a couple of former North Dakota high school runners who have just in the last couple of days ran some impressive college times.

Cody Christ runs for MSUM. He's originally from Dazey, ND and competed for Barnes County North in high school. At the Mt. SAC Relays this weekend he ran the 10k in 30:05, breaking the school record at MSUM.

Alissa Mears also runs for MSUM. She's originally from West Fargo, ND, and competed for West Fargo High School. At the Azusa Pacific Bryan Clay Invitational she ran the 800 in 2:11.47, another impressive time!

But I digress. On to the post.

With each passing day I become more and more in-tune with the kind of runners who truly inspire me. Contrary to what people may find to be inspirational to them in athletics, for me it isn't the fastest athletes. Mo Farah's double Olympic gold doesn't inspire me like this does. Seeing the many dozen sub-4 miles run in the US this last winter doesn't inspire me like this does. Hearing of people logging in 100+ mile weeks doesn't inspire me like this does. It can't. No, this runner was the complete opposite of these stories.

I would like to introduce a guy named Alex Krieg. You may not know him because he doesn't run for a team in college, but he did run in high school. I raced him quite a bit, being that we were in the same conference and a mere 30 minutes separated our respective schools. At many meets I would run the 3200 and he would as well. Our similarities would diverge from there, because we raced differently. I would lap him. Multiple times. At multiple meets. He was the runner trying to go under 12 minutes and I was trying to go under 9:45. I thought nothing of it then- it was simply racing. Now I look back and some things really stand out to me.

I don't know if any of you have lapped somebody or have been lapped by somebody in a race before, but it can be either humbling or rejuvenating (if you detect bias, be assured that I have been lapped before too). I distinctly recall a meet at West Fargo where I was lapping Alex, and he cheered for me. He actually audibly wished for me to race well. I WAS LAPPING HIM. And all he could do was wish me well. Before races Alex would come up to me, shake my hand, and say "Good luck Peterson" every time. I specifically remember a time where he followed that up with "I wonder how many times you will lap me today haha"...

I remember that. His selflessness. His joy for running, even when not expecting to win. His kindness.

I guess that I haven't been in too many situations like his, and that's why it may be hard for me to understand (I'm not being as selfish as I'm sure this post sounds- I promise), but I spent some time trying to figure out why I could remember those little situations, whereas I can't remember much else about the race. This year when I went to meets that had literally every track program in the Midwest in attendance, I figured it out- running can be fun! If there are 150 people in an event, 1 person wins, a few are likely close to that person, and then the other 130+ people are left in the results. That's reality. The people at the bottom of those 130 are the people who inspire me: they keep going even though they know they won't win.

Let me explain further. Distance running isn't easy. You don't just show up and start running the 2 mile or the 5k. Distance running gets a bad rap. Why run 8 laps around a track when you can run 1? It seems so much easier! I ask myself sometimes if people in the far back of distance races ask themselves the same question: wouldn't a 100 be easier? I don't claim to know their thoughts, but what I do know is that they stick with it. They run the race. They get the sympathy clap. They get ushered off the track quickly so the next race can start. They are down the list in the results where people don't scan as thoroughly. But they stay with it.

That's how Alex inspired me now in college. I realized that he had a drive. He knew he wasn't going to win, but not only did he stick with it, but he encouraged others! It reminded me of a time a few years back when I ran the 10k at the Fargo Marathon. I had been injured all spring during track (big surprise right?) and I decided to run this race before running (pun intended) off to Bible Camp for the summer. Coming in on only easy runs, I stupidly went out in a 4:50 first mile and struggled home to a dismal 35:00. I was ashamed. But I took 5th. Out of 7000 people. And during the second half of the race I couldn't believe what people did. I was passing by mile 4 and the enormous mass of people was passing by mile 2, filling up the entire street as far as I could see. I had nobody around me. People started cheering me on! They had no idea who I was or how fast I was running, but they cheered me on. It blew my mind.

That's why you inspire me Alex. You blew my mind with your passion. And if you get a chance to read this, I thank you for giving me and others a reason to tell people to keep going- even when the going gets tough.

To everybody: cheer people on- even if it's uncomfortable. I really can't put into words what it can mean for a person.

Have a Great Day!

The Rudiments of Running

This past weekend I was able to attend the Concordia University Day of Percussion. I haven't had the opportunity to be at this event since high school when I went every year, and so it was a blast into the past. Oddly enough, I was an all-state musician in high school and for quite some time I wanted to be a music major in college. When the decision was presented to me that I had to choose between athletics and music, it was a very tough process of priorities in which I eventually chose athletics. While that decision has turned out to be a good one for me personally, I still miss the days of concerts and playing and listening to some incredibly beautiful music.

Anyway- this Day of Percussion, as always, featured some of the greatest musicians in the world, and one of them was named Alex Acuna. Acuna is a famous drummer who currently is a studio musician in Los Angeles and just finished playing the drums for the soundtrack for the new 'Jurassic World' movie. He was giving clinics on the drumset and Latin instruments for this event, and some of things he said I found to be not only really important but also relevant to just about anything, including running.

The first thing I'd like to bring up was his insistence on rudiments. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with percussion (specifically drumming), rudiments are the basic elements found in every kind of playing on a drum. The ones he pointed to were the single-stroke, double-stroke roll, the buzz roll, the flam, and the paradiddle. Now, I'm not going into wha those are exactly, but the point is that anything you play on the drum will come from that list- no matter what. You can try to do something different, but it will fit on that list anyway. He also spent quite a bit of time lamenting the fact that drumset players these days focus too much on being loud and fast and less time focusing on the techniques, such as being well coordinated between your hands and feet.

I agreed with everything that he said. It kind of fit the narrative of our generation: eager to get results immediately without as much work (whether that stereotype is true or not is another debate). But my question is this: isn't running much the same? Runners know how to push themselves- they've likely been doing it for years. They know how to sacrifice to log in big miles or do incredibly difficult workouts- but what about our rudiments? What about those essential tools that everything we do is made up of? People debate whether dynamic or static stretching is the more useful tool, but don't we all agree that stretching of some kind is necessary? What about core and light weights work? What about proper warm-up and cooldown? What about nutrition and getting enough sleep? What about wearing the right kind of shoes and knowing when to switch shoes?

I spend way too much time reading about elite athletes, watching videos of them, and learning about how they became as good as they are. One thing almost all of them have in common is a hardcore focus on the fundamentals- eating right, sleeping enough, stretching, getting proper treatment, working the right muscles, ...the list goes on. It's completely obvious that this approach to training is beneficial. As I've stated in previous posts, injuries are actually good for you in a sense, because it forces you to take a step back and re-focus on the fundamentals- the rudiments of running.

Consider a concert or performance to be much like a race- anybody can play fast or loud, just like anybody can run to the front of a race by sprinting the start. However, the truly talented musicians that stun crowds are the one who are technically sound and rudimentally smart. So the question becomes this: are you rudimentally smart with your running?

The second (and final because I don't want this post to be as long as I probably could make it!) thing that Alex Acuna told us was about how much he loves music. He told us that at that moment he had tendinitis in his arm (a crucial injury for a percussionist), and he was stressed out and tired from only getting a couple hours of sleep on the flight the night before. However, he told us that when he sat down and played music, his pain disappeared and his worries were no more. He talked about how his love for music runs so deep that he can turn away from the complaints and worries of the world and instead be absorbed by the beauty of music.

To me this sounds a lot like running. I could be having a pretty crappy day, but once I throw on the shoes and go out for a run, my thoughts slowly drift away from those things and towards the running. I can finish a run feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off of my chest. And while it may be true that the weights of the world are still waiting for me when I get back, at least for that short time I can have some peace.

And to finish up my post I'd like to mention what he said to me after the clinic. I was actually washing my hands in the bathroom and he came in to wash his. I mentioned to him how much I had enjoyed his performance and I how I had taken to heart what he had told us about his passion for music. I told him that I felt the same way about running- having that passion that leads to worries just disappearing. He told me this: "ah, but that's the difference between passion and love- passions can go up and down and go away and come back, but love is forever. I love music".

Don't we all?

Have a Great Day!

Curt Bacon- A Short Profile

There were all sorts of fast mid-distance runners in the 1970s and 1980s in North Dakota, and this is a short background on one of them.

In the 1970s running was beginning to gain serious momentum, and North Dakota was no exception. In 1971, for example, the 2 mile run was added to the list of events run at high school track meets in the state, with the mile and the 880-yard run already being there. Running participation increased, and records started falling left and right. This was the environment for a runner from Minot, ND to come forward and become one of the faster mid-distance runners we've seen around here.

The first signs of success that I come across are in 1974 and 1975 when Bacon was running for Minot Ryan (a private catholic school in Minot). In 1974 he won the WDA mile and then the state mile, in 4:25.4 and 4:26.5 respectively. Also that year he placed 3rd at state in the 880-yd run with a time of 1:59.5. In 1975 he won the State mile in 4:18.6 and placed second in the two mile with a time of 9:35.7. From the ND Runner website listed below, it seems as if the mile time in 1975 was tied for the state record then. So a pretty successful high school career.

Then he went to NDSU and continued to improve. As of right now, he is still in NDSU's top ten in a bunch of events:
3rd in the outdoor 1500 with a time of 3:47.81
2nd in the outdoor 3k Steeple with a time of 8:48.84
1st in the outdoor 4x1600 relay (time of 16:48)
2nd and 3rd in the outdoor DMR (distance medley relay) with times of 9:43.65 and 9:45.96.
1st in the indoor 1500 with a time of 3:49.02
He also held (may still hold?) the meet record in the mile at the NW Open at the University of Minnesota with a time of 4:04.00.

That's pretty impressive. Naturally this garnered him significant accolades. This is from the NDSU website describing their Hall-of-Fame inductee:

"Bacon was a two-time NCAA national steeplechase champion and four-time North Central Conference champion in the late 1970s and 1980 for the Bison.

The first NCAA Division II national track and field champion for the Bison, he won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 1979 and 1980. [Emphasis Mine] His four NCC championships came in the steeplechase in 1979 and 1980, the indoor 2-mile in 1977, and the indoor 1,500-meter run in 1979. His 8:56.8 time in the NCC steeplechase in 1980 remains the league record. He still holds NDSU school records in the indoor 1,500 meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

A 1979 graduate in business and economics from NDSU, he earned a master's degree in business administration at NDSU in 1981, a master's degree in finance from the University of Oregon in 1987, and completed his doctorate in finance at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1996."

From the ND Runner website, he also has PR's of 14:41 5k, 25:25 8k, 30:30 10k, 1:11.30 Half Marathon, and 2:35 Full Marathon. Now he is working as the School of Business Study Abroad Coordinator for Southern Oregon University. While he's no loner tearing it up on the track, it's still really cool to look back and see how successful some of these runners from ND were. Any of you ND kids out there wondering if you can be fast AND be in North Dakota at the same time, look no further than here. Remember, the cold and wind can only make you stronger!

An aside, Bacon has apparently gotten really into cycling in the post-running years; check this out!
http://app.strava.com/athletes/1709524

As usual, if there's any mistakes let me know!

Links I used to assist me:
http://www.wdasports.org/track-year-by-year-results--boys-.html
http://www.bhs.bismarckschools.org/uploads/resources/21810/1974-class-a-boys.pdf
http://www.bhs.bismarckschools.org/uploads/resources/21809/1975-class-a-boys.pdf
http://www.sou.edu/business/faculty/bacon.html
http://www2.bhs.bismarck.k12.nd.us/athletics/bhsboystrack/alltimelist/distancechamps.htm
http://www.gobison.com/sports/2013/5/6/944861710.aspx?path=mtrack
http://www.gobison.com/hof.aspx?hof=102&path=&kiosk=
http://ndrunner.tripod.com/id107.htm