By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Many of the greatest runners in history have run at Hayward Field in Oregon, but perhaps it was Steve Prefontaine in the early 1970s that brought the most fame to the track. The University of Oregon has put the historic track to great use since its renovation in 2020, hosting the NCAA Championships, U.S. Championships and Olympic trials, and for the first time ever on American soil, the World Track and Field Championships in 2022. The National Junior Olympic Track and Field wrap up there this weekend, and Ellinwood eighth-grader Eleanor Joiner was among the many in competition.
"It was really cool," Joiner said. "It was really fun to run on the same track that a whole bunch of really good runners ran on. It was really surreal. It's just a big thing, especially in 'TrackTown USA.'"
Joiner joined the Ellinwood Middle School track team because she enjoys running. She enjoyed the 400m dash in elementary school, but the doors opened on a whim one day at practice.
We ran all-out 800s one day just to see who would run the 800 at meets," Joiner said. "I ran the fastest time out of seventh and eighth grade. The 400, I just did in sixth grade for fun. I just decided I was going to do it for middle school. My grandpa said he thought I would be good at the mile. I decided to try it and I really liked it."
The move paid off. Joiner won most of her seventh-grade races and finished second in the ones she did not win. She claimed Central Prairie League championships in the 800m and 1600m runs.
It was at one of those meets that Robert Smith contacted Eleanor's parents, Derek and Stephanie Joiner, and invited her to run on his Kansas Flyers team in the summer. The team includes mostly kids from western Kansas. Smith has nearly four decades of coaching experience, and has coached some of the best to come out of the state, including Stanton County's Chesney Peterson, who holds many state meet records and heads to the University of Tennessee next fall.
With a home in Delphos, Smith usually holds his practices twice a week in nearby Minneapolis. With that track under construction, the Flyers have moved to locations like Tescott and Abilene. As a distance kid, Joiner said those practices usually include 3-4 mile runs, then interval work at 300 and 600 meters.
To get to Oregon, Joiner first had to finish in the top eight at a competition in Kansas City. That qualified her for the regional meet in Jonesboro, Ark., where she again finished in the top eight to qualify for the National Junior Olympics in Eugene.
Joiner had been running on the Flyers' 4x800m relay "A" team. That squad ran a 9:55.50 to win the 13-14 national title by nearly a second. Joiner was a late switch to the "B" team that finished 16th in 10:35.54. By comparison, Ellis won the Class 2A state championship in May with a time of 10:07.
"When I was doing basketball, it shocked my legs so I couldn't workout as much because my legs were all tight," Joiner said. "And I started getting asthma."
High school championships are run at 1600m, and the state championship time in Class 1A last spring was 5:25. Joiner has a personal best of 5:28 in the 1500m run. Thursday morning, she placed 57th in the field of 69 runners in the 1500m prelims in 5:31. Eleven girls ran under 4:51. "I'm not allowed to take my inhaler with me into the track, so it was a bit difficult," she said.
Eleanor traveled to Oregon with her mother, and the visit was more than just track and field. The duo saw the Pacific Ocean and the 1,000-foot-tall Heceta Head Lighthouse which is one of the most photographed along the Pacific coach.
Eleanor has even bigger plans for her eighth-grade year at Ellinwood Middle School, planning to double on the volleyball and cross-country teams this fall. She plans to run track in the spring and has already been invited back to the Flyer team by Coach Smith.