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Hey Pittfa . . oops, I mean WPIAL-Titan,

There are a number of schools in D5-D6 without tracks that still put out good track athletes. I'm surprised that there are any in D7 without tracks. Are there others besides Aliquippa?

Quippa is one I know of. Also, most of the Pitts City teams have no track.

Actually, when I ran in HS I'll let you in on a secret: Penn Cambria had a horrendous CINDER track and I actually LIKED training on it. There are several advantages to training on a dirt/cinder track:

-It's easier on the legs and you have less pounding, thus, it kept your legs more fresh than if we were pounding away on a harder surface (like the mecatum-like surface at the old tracks and Westy and Mansion Park)

-You feel REALLY fast when you get on an artificial surface after training on dirt--I think that training in those crappy conditions made me mentally and physically tougher--The track at PC was about 444 yards.

-For home meets, it gave you and the home team a great advantage because we were used to running on cinders and most other teams were not

WT

I've never actually seen a cinder track. Is it composed of cinders that have been crushed down to a sand-like texture, or are there really big chunks (1" diameter or more) of cinder still in the surface?

There's actually one in your own county, Jolly! Take a little drive to Rockwood's high school and there's one there. Its the one they actually use for meets, complete with rubber rollouts and asphalt for the jump runways and a tennis court for the high jump pit. It was most certainly a better facility than what Berlin had to train with when I ran, but cripes...it was still horrible. Its consistancy is basically kitty litter. I remember at one meet it had rained all morning and the end of the first turn near the start of the 300 hurdles was REALLY soggy and they used actual kitty litter to put over the puddles. That's high tech right there.

Isn't Meyersdale's track made of cinder as well?

Meyersdale now has an all weather track, as well at Con. Twp. I also believe Shade is scheduled to an all weather track as well. That leaves on Rockwood in Somerset county with a cinder track and Berlin without a track.

There is no doubt that having a track helps, but I'll take great athletes with no track over mediocre athletes with state of the art facilicities any day.

Meyersdale is really impressing everyone...i mean...they had that podlesnik in the 800 and sanner in the 2 mile and the 3200 relay as well all in states! They also have and all weather field.

Yeah, Meyersdale had an asphalt track up until two years ago, when they upgraded to an all-weather facility. Shade had a cinder track until two years ago, also, and had theirs paved. And Conemaugh Township got itself an all-weather track after having a cinder track or no track in the past.

And it has been said by some sources at the high school that in 2007 Berlin will have an all-weather track facility. But then again, I've never really trusted a word that has come out of Tom Vent's mouth or the administration's. So................I wouldn't count on it so soon.

The old cinder track at PC looked like black dirt, much like you'd find along railroad tracks. The cinder particles are like very small stones.

Most non-artificial tracks are like clay based or crushed limestone. Actually, Bellwood-Antis had a pretty fast crushed limestone track for years until they put in an artificial track about 8-10 years ago, I think that it was about 5-6 yards short of a 440, because I saw some pretty fast times there.

Tyrone used to have a dirt track, as did Juniata Valley. Mount Union had a cinder track as well. I also know that Portage had a cinder track that was only about 330 yards long for years until they built their new facility a few years back.

soccerchick, i completely agree with you closing statement