Track and Field Season

As with many other of JMSS’ sports teams, the Track and Field team was back up and running again this year after being cancelled for the last two as a result of the pandemic. All aspiring to make an impactful return to the track, this year’s team consisted of forty energetic athletes — including myself — and four dedicated coaches: Mrs. Dillabaugh, Mrs Corner-Gardiner, Mrs. Bratberg and Mr. Stoodley. Beginning in mid-April and ending in early June, members of this group came together dozens of times, whether it was for an early-morning practice on the school’s track or for a long, hot day racing at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility in Mooney’s Bay Park.

The JMSS Track and Field team attended a total of six meets over the course of the season: the U of Ottawa High School and National Capital Invitational meets, the West Conference Meet, the NCSSAA meet, the East Regionals Meet and finally, the OFSAA meet. As the season progressed, fewer and fewer athletes would qualify for the following meets with the exception of the first two, which were practice meets. The elimination began at the West Conference Meet; if an athlete did not place in the top eight in their event, they didn’t qualify for next time. At the NCSSAA meet, this number was reduced to the top six, and at the East Regionals Meet, to the top four. With every meet, the competition against other schools became more and more of a challenge and it became very difficult to qualify. However, there were a select few JMSS athletes that qualified all the way to OFSAA, but more on that later.

All athletes could choose the events they wanted to compete in out of the lists below and would train accordingly at the two-dozen practices the team had throughout the season.

Track events:

• 100 m

• 200 m

• 400 m

• 800 m

• 1500 m

• 3000 m

• Short-distance Hurdles

• Medium-distance Hurdles

• Steeplechase

• 4x100 m Relay

• 4x400 m Relay

Field events:

• Long Jump

• High Jump

• Triple Jump

• Shot Put

• Discus Throw

• Javelin Throw

At each meet, athletes from all schools were divided into six groups based on their ages and genders: Novice Girls (grade 9 girls), Novice Boys (grade 9 boys), Junior Girls (grade 10 girls), Junior Boys (grade 10 boys), Senior Girls (grade 11 and 12 girls) and Senior Boys (grade 11 and 12 boys). Each athlete ran, jumped or threw against others from their age and gender group, and while an athlete did not always compete directly against everyone in their age group, only those with the fastest time or furthest distance out of everyone from their group would qualify for the next meet. Final times and distances were often very close, which is why times were measured to the hundredth of a second (two decimal places) and distances were measured to the centimetre.

The Disqualification of the Junior Boys 4x100m Relay Team

Anyone who has participated in school-organized sport knows that disqualification happens very rarely and only under serious circumstances. Well, on May 11, the day of the West Conference Meet, the Junior Boys 4x100m relay team, consisting of Edres Babakarkhel, Neal Singh, Mehdi Hadj-Rabia and myself, was disqualified. We ran a time of 49.03, which would have placed us in second (and therefore qualifying us for the next meet) of thirteen teams, but instead, we were given the DQ and automatically placed in last. The craziest part about the whole thing: it was the organizer’s mistake, not ours.

The incident that got us disqualified was during the last baton handoff of the run, from Neal to Mehdi. According to the volunteer coach that observed the handoff, Neal stepped outside of his lane after passing the baton to Mehdi and caused the athlete from Nepean High School in the adjacent lane to trip. At all Track and Field meets, remaining inside your lane during races is required, and had Neal stepped outside of his lane, the disqualification would indeed have been valid. However, Neal never left his lane.

Immediately after the relay run, knowing only that our team had finished in second, Edres, Mehdi and I all met up near the finish line and celebrated. We had worked together and given it all we had and we had succeeded; it was a great feeling. But when Neal showed up a few minutes later telling us what happened, the elation disappeared. The way Neal told the story, he was standing in his own lane when the Nepean athlete ran into it and made them both fall over. After the handoffs were made, the nearby volunteer coach told Neal that he and his team were being disqualified for what happened. And no matter how many times he tried to tell the volunteer coach that he wasn’t the one in the wrong, they ignored him. Edres, Mehdi and I could tell by how passionately Neal was retelling the story that he was telling the truth, so we all set out to find our coach, Mrs. Dillabaugh, to inform her of our version of what had happened and to have her talk to the organizers of the meet to get our team reinstated.

While searching for her around the track, we came across Darius Isaacs, a fellow JMSS athlete, who had recorded a video of the whole race and agreed with us about what happened. The video was recorded from a distance, but it was something. A couple minutes later, we found the very athlete from Nepean High School that was allegedly the victim of the situation, and he admitted to us that it was he who stepped in Neal’s lane, not the contrary. With this confession, we knew we would be able to convince the organizers to have our relay team reinstated for the next meet. When we found Mrs. Dillabaugh some time after, we filled her in on everything and she went directly to the official’s trailer to plead our case with the video proof and the confession of the implicated athlete from Nepean High School. After waiting anxiously outside the trailer with Edres, Mehdi, Neal and Darius for what felt like forever, Mrs. Dillabaugh finally came out and told us that we didn’t get back in. The officials claimed that the video wasn’t definitive enough and they were taking the volunteer coach’s word over that of the Nepean athlete, even though the former had seen the incident from the side of the track while the latter was actually the one involved. We were outraged and we could tell that Mrs. Dillabaugh was feeling the same way, but we had to accept it. That day, the whole JMSS Track and Field team had taken a hard loss, and we rode in the bus ride home dispirited.

A couple of days later, we discovered that a photographer at the event, Julia Maina, had taken a picture at the exact moment after the baton handoff between Neal and Mehdi that showed as clearly as the day itself that Neal was where he was supposed to be in his own lane and that both Nepean athletes had actually ran into his lane during their baton handoff. This was presumably because the one receiving the baton looked behind as he was running and took his focus away from staying in his lane while doing so. In the picture, the collision is clearly visible, with both Nepean athletes stepping inside our team’s lane, lane five, while both of Neal’s feet are nowhere near their lane, lane four. Mrs. Dillabaugh then emailed the picture to the officials as proof and a couple days later, the Junior Boys 4x100 relay team was officially reinstated for the NCSSAA meet. This proved what we all already knew all along: that Neal really was telling the truth and that it wasn’t his fault.

Unfortunately, Neal then went on vacation and Mehdi injured his hip so they both had to be replaced on the team. But there were no JMSS Junior Boys as fast as them, and although our relay team did get to run in the NCSSAA Meet, we did not qualify for East Regionals.

OFSAA Finalists

At the beginning of the season, the JMSS Track and Field team consisted of forty athletes, and at the end of the season at the OFSAA meet, there were only five of us left that qualified to compete: Nolan Legare, Shayla McQuinn, Cora McQuinn, Andie Harris and Rachel Hertz. These five John McCrae athletes trained hard and earned their places at the OFSAA meet in Toronto. At this final meet, Nolan Legare placed 8th in Senior Boys 400 m with a time of 49.47 and 14th in Senior Boys 800 m with a time of 1.59.70. Cora McQuinn placed 22nd in Senior Girls 200 m with a time of 26.81 and 12th in Senior Girls 400 m with a time of 1.00.34. Rachel Hertz placed 23rd in Junior Girls long jump with a distance of 4.34 m. Finally, Shayla McQuinn, Cora McQuinn, Andie Harris and Rachel Hertz placed 5th in the Varsity Girls 4x400 m relay with a time of 4.08.09.

The entire JMSS Track and Field team, especially our OFSAA finalists, trained hard, encouraged each other and always displayed a positive attitude throughout the season. For that, all of John McCrae thanks them for bringing honour to our school. Next year’s season is looking more promising than ever before.

For a full list of this season’s results, visit this website: https://www.ottawalions.com/results/2022-results/