Track records made to be broken

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First of all, congratulations to our Champaign County participants in the state track meet last weekend – The West Liberty-Salem girls state title team and the Mechanicsburg boys state placers make our county noted in track and field circles! Speaking of titles, another purpose for this letter is to note that 50 years ago, one of my Graham 1971 classmates, Wally Hale, won the Class AA state shot put title. He still holds the Graham shot put record to this day, which I felt was unique in sports longevity. I was intrigued enough to wonder if any other high schools in the area had decades old track and field records. I did some research, and with the great assistance from Graham Athletic Director Jay Lewis, we had several schools respond (Graham, West Liberty-Salem, Triad, Riverside, Bellefontaine, Tecumseh, Shawnee, Northwestern, Kenton Ridge and Benjamin Logan) with information on the older records for their respective boys and girls teams – the timing ranged from 28 to 61 years that certain records were still in place!

Records are made to be broken, and it is a motivator for high school athletes to chase after. We should be proud of the efforts of all the tracksters who keep competing, and setting new records in the meantime.

Jeff Burroughs

St. Paris

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