2nd To Win

This group of boys - from four high schools in Southwest Michigan - entered the Indoor Track State Finals yesterday with the best time in the state for the Distance Medley Relay. They were the #1 seed.?

They finished 2nd, runner up, in a heart-breakingly close finish (0.77 seconds). Yet if you take a look at the picture, it’s hard to find anything but pure joy on their faces. What gives?

The DMR team of the Explosive Track Club of Niles, Michigan, beat their previous state-best time by nearly 14 seconds yesterday. And in doing so, earned the right - by less than 2 seconds - to run at the National Championships in NYC in March.?

The team that beat them? They pulled a last minute switch-a-roo, substituting a fantastic miler into their team nearly 20 seconds faster than the guy they originally qualified with.?

Each of our boys ran an amazing leg of the DMR (1200m, 400m, 800m & 1600m), personal bests, miraculously shaving 14 seconds off what was the leading time in the state coming into the meet. All that work over the winter. All the cold runs outdoors and painful, frustrating circles on the the indoor "track" at the YMCA. Fourteen seconds better! And it wasn’t good enough for 1st, because another team made a late player swap.

While that's totally legal in relay meets like this, our boys had to deal with the “relative disappointment” of being Runners Up, not CHAMPIONS. Or did they?

Ask the four men in the picture for their version of the story and you’ll hear this:

• "We’re going to Nationals! Can you believe it?!?! New York City, baby!"
• "You know, those guys really brought out our best."
• "We never would have ran that time without that other team out in front."?
• "If not for those other guys, we would have been State Champs, but there's no way we would have ran it fast enough to go to Nationals."

I can learn a lot from them. It would be easy to cry foul at the substitution (I would have!). It would be human to feel disappointed (That would be me!). But not them.

No, they abundantly appreciated the value of a worthy rival making them better. They're pursuing something bigger. They're not competing against the other team as much as they're working on becoming a better version of themselves.

So yes, they're damn proud of that 2nd place finish at the State Finals. And so am I.