 About Us
The Fort Wayne Express Track
Club is a non-profit organization and a proud member of USA Track &
Field. We provide kids from ages 6 to 18 in the Fort Wayne community an
opportunity to participate in a competitive track and field program locally,
regionally, and on the national level.
Boys and girls receive
instruction on proper techniques and mechanics for: Midsdle Distance, Sprints, Hurdles, Relays, Throwing Events, (including discus, javelin, and shot put) and Jumping events (including high jump, long jump and triple
jump). But more than that, we are committed to the overall growth of the
youth of Fort Wayne Physically, Mentally, Socially, Spiritually, and
Emotionally. Through the sport of track and field and a variety of other
educational and social experiences, we are “preparing the youth of today
for the world tomorrow”.
Registration Information
Registration fees cover the costs of USATF membership,
a t-shirt, insurance, meet and event fees, and other associated costs needed
to operate the program such as transportation, accommodations, uniforms,
equipment, etc.
NOTE: Becoming a member of USATF is a requirement in order to
compete in any sanctioned USATF track and field event.
The total cost to join the Fort Wayne Express Track
Club is $225 for 1 child and $150 for each additional child. (Must
be a sibling) A non-refundable
fee of $50.00 per participant is required at the time of registration.
Developmental
Program:
Fort Wayne Express also offers a developmental fee of
$75 for those who would like to receive training and instruction, but do not
wish to participate in USATF sanctioned events.
Participants in the developmental program will not
be allowed to participate in the USATF State, Regional or National Meets
SPECIAL
NOTICE: We are now practicing Monday through Friday starting May 30th
at Bishop Lures High School from 5:30 to 7:00 until further notice.
 You may register at any practice.
Beginning June 5th all team members should attend.
There are three major meets this year. Click
here for Calendar of Events
There are three major meets this year.
All registered athletes (Except Developmental) are eligible to participate in the USATF
Indiana State Meet on June 17th.
·
The top 6 athletes
from each event in the State Meet, will advance to the Regional meet in Lyle.
Illinois, on July 8th and 9th.
The top 3 athletes from the Regional in each event will
advance to the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championship
in Baltimore, Maryland, July 25th -30th.
* Athletes advancing to the National meet may be
required to pay additional fees to cover travel expenses.
June’s
Athletes of Month
Wims takes two
Northrop’s Scott Wims looked
unbeatable in every meet this season and the state finals proved to be no
exception. The senior and soon-to-be Nebraska sprinter won the
100 and 200 at the state meet, the only double individual winner. “I wasn’t
supposed to win the 100,” Wims said. “I wasn’t seeded to win or expected to
win by people who ‘know’ track, so that’s all exciting for me.”
After the 100, Wims anchored the Bruins’
fifth-place 400-relay team before shifting his focus to the 200, where he was
the reigning state champion.
“I know I’m good (to win) in the
200,” Wims said after his 100 win. “But you’ve still got to focus. You can’t
just let one race determine the rest of the meet.”
Wims would go on to defend his 200
title.
The 100-200 double meant a lot. He
won the 100 in 10.46 seconds and the 200 in 21.15.
“It’s really nice to go out when
you’re undisputed,” Wims said.
He wasn’t as happy with the relay
finishes, anchoring Northrop’s 1,600 relay that placed third, but said going
home with four medals —including two state titles — wasn’t a bad way to end
his high school career.
“He had to miss graduation today to
come down here and compete,” Bruins coach Bob Shank said. “But for him to
come away with two individual state championships was huge. “He’s been our
man all year long and I think he showed some of the people in the state and
in the nation that he is the man.”
BLOOMINGTON — Wayne’s Chris Brautzsch had one thing on his mind going
into the 110 high hurdle finals — winning.
He thought about it as he warmed up,
as they called the runners to the line, as he got into the set position, as
he cleared each of the 10 hurdles and leaned at the finish, crossing the line
in first place with a time of 13.82 seconds.
That was followed by a tumble.
“I was so excited about winning the
race I pumped my fist and just kind of lost my focus,” Brautzsch said.
With his focus went his balance.
Brautzsch stumbled and fell. The runner in the next lane tried to miss him,
but ended up kicking Brautzsch in the head. None of that mattered though.
Brautzsch was the state champion.
“It’s unbelievable,” Brautzsch said.
“It’s amazing to win against the state’s states best hurdlers. … It’s an
excellent way to go out as a senior. It’s just what I wanted.”
It was after he got up that the pain
started to set in. He couldn’t move his left wrist.
“I think I broke my wrist,” Brautzsch
said. “I stuck my hand out to break my fall and now it really hurts.”
 But not bad
enough to keep him from running the leadoff leg in Wayne’s 400 relay.
“I take the handoff in my right hand
so I’ll be fine,” Brautzsch said.
He had to start a little awkwardly
since he couldn’t put his hand down properly with his wrist throbbing. The
relay finished seventh.
The hurdle win accomplished a goal
that Brautzsch felt he fell short of achieving last season.
He came into the 2005 state meet with
one of the fastest times in the state, but failed to make it to the finals.
That pushed him in the off season, along with encouragement from his
teammates and coaches.
“He just had to believe in himself,
especially going against last year’s champion and overcoming last year,”
Wayne assistant coach Mark Camack said. “We constantly told him he could win,
but that he had to believe in himself and he proved that today.”
Brautzsch also received the IHSAA’s
mental attitude award to finish his day at Bloomington. He then headed back
to Fort Wayne to get X-rays.
Disappointing end can’t dim Adams’ run
BLOOMINGTON – Forget how it ended, with the stumble and the
fall, with the track coming up to meet her and the math suddenly against her,
the math cruel and remorseless and final, so terribly final, for all the kids
in Northrop orange.
Remember how it began instead.
Remember Tamara Adams beginning the evening where she ended it,
down on the track, and then how she rose. Remember how she won the 100 high
hurdles, upsetting the defending state champion, and then sitting flat on the
coarse red surface, gathering her strength to fly again. A handful of seconds
later, and the tape parted before her again.
A handful of minutes after that, she was standing on the top
step of the podium, climbing down, climbing up to the top again.
Two individual state championships in 10 minutes, for Tamara
Adams. Remember that.
Remember the burst at the end to part the tape in the 100
meters, and a time – 11.85 seconds – that would have been a state record had
the wind not been stirring.
Remember the lead she staked the Bruins to with those two
victories, and how they clung to it all night, and how it didn’t go away
until the end, until finally circumstance and fortune and maybe the sheer
odds of the thing caught up to them.
Six state championships in a row demanded much of fate, after
all. Seven, it turned out, was asking it one favor too many.
And, no, that’s probably no consolation now, not for the Bruins
who knew instantly what Adams’ fall on the second leg in that final relay
meant, and so dissolved immediately into tears. And, no, especially not for
Adams, who finished her night in the first-aid tent, holding an ice bag
against her banged-up side and clinging to her mother with the other.
You can’t win ’em all wasn’t gonna work at that moment. Even if
it’s true.
“If it wasn’t for a couple of miscues, it would have been No.
7,” assistant coach Terry Milton mused a few feet away, watching Adams sob.
“But these things are really hard to come by. We have been in seven battles,
and won every year. But we’ve had to fight for these championships.”
And Adams?
Milton shook his head.
“Going into the state tournament series, actually, we weren’t
really sure if she was going to be able to pull (the 100 hurdles and 100)
off,” he said. “We were basically hoping she’d be in the top three in both
events.
“But to come back to win both? It’s just pretty phenomenal.”
And if it went sour for her after that  … well, again: Forget
that. Forget the stumble in the 300 low hurdles, because stumbles happen.
Forget that it was zero points where as many as eight might have been
possible, because Adams was seeded second. Forget that there were other
points that slipped away, points that hadn’t slipped away in previous years,
but did this night.
Forget, finally, the slip and the hard fall over there in the
third turn in the 1,600-meter relay, the end of Tamara Adams’ night of
triumph and pain, the end of state title No. 7.
“Tamara just kind of got caught up in there and bumped,”
Northrop head coach Matt Miller said later, as, ghouls that we are, we sought
him out. “I feel really sorry for her. I really do. She wanted it so bad, and
she wanted to go out with a bang, and we were very close today, it’s just
that we got caught up …”
He stared into the TV lights.
“Things happen. Things happen all the time.”
What happened for Tamara Adams was four years, three state
championships, two individual state titles in her senior year, the only
double winner of the night.
What happened was her smile after the 100, her laughter, her
sunny acknowledgment that two hard races in 10 minutes is no leisurely
evening stroll, but, you know, it’s what you’ve got to do, because it’s the
state meet, and “the state meet is where it counts.”
What happened was a misstep over a hurdle in the 300, and then
the flash of a baton and a ground-eating stride in the evening shadows, and
then, seconds later, a gasp from the crowd.
Around came the runners, batons whipping the air. No one in
orange was among them.
Thirty minutes later, maybe less, here came Tamara Adams, icebag
still jammed into her side, Mom still her firm and steady crutch.
“What happened over there?” you ask her gently.
“I got tripped,” she whispers. “I got tripped and I just fell.”
“What was your first thought when you hit the track?”
“That we were gonna lose,” she whispers again.
Her head dips. Mom leans close, gives her a squeeze.
“You did a wonderful job,” she says.
And don’t ever forget that.
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