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 Meet Honors Former Terp Head Coach Jim Kehoe
VIDEO GALLERY By Scott Silverstein
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 Every current or former Maryland track and field coach since 1970 gathered under the tent, joined by athletes from past Terrapins teams. Sure, they converged in the infield for an alumni function before the Maryland Twilight meet Thursday in College Park, but it wasn’t just a social hour. No, it was a memorial to the man who linked them all together, the man for whom the track was named.
Former Maryland track coach and Jim Kehoe died in January, and the school held a ceremony in his honor. Kehoe coached the Terps from 1947 to 1969 before becoming the school’s athletic director. In the process, he won an unprecedented 16 indoor ACC championships and 18 outdoor conference titles.
“It’s moments like this that you realize how big of an impact [Kehoe] had,” said Maryland coach Andrew Valmon, referring to all those in attendance. “… When we first met, he said some strong words. He said, ‘The first thing you have to do is bring the alumni back.’ So that’s what I’m doing now. And it’s an opportunity for [the alumni] to talk back. Today we had [former coaches Nick Kovalakides, Frank Costello, Stan Pitts and Bill Goodman] in one place. It was quite a think-tank.”
In a lot of respects the Twilight meet, started last year as a last-chance meet and a way to honor the Maryland seniors, was more about the past than the present. Indeed, those four ex-Maryland coaches outnumbered the competitors in several events in a meet that took a little more than three hours. Still, several athletes took advantage of a near-perfect night — and not all of them were collegians.
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Arielle Statham’s impact as a freshman at Maryland is unquestionable. In fact, after the Maryland Twilight meet, it’s quantifiable.
Statham joined Terps teammates Kiani Profit, Alexis Booker and DeAnna Brown in setting a school record of 45.42 in the 400-meter relay. The time qualified the Terps for the Eastern College Athletic Conference championships in the event and might earn them a berth for the NCAA regionals.
It hasn’t been the easiest year for the former Paint Branch standout, at least physically. A bulging disk and a degenerative disk have hampered her all season, keeping her from competing in perhaps her best event, triple jump. And it was clear she was running through pain Thursday, requiring a long time to recover after finishing third in the 400 in 57.05.
“The degenerative disk is genetic; I had some back problems in high school,” said Statham, who already has had one epidural shot and said she is receiving another Friday. “The bulging disk I’ve probably had for a while. It got worse from lifting, and I was training hard, so it kept getting worse and worse.”
Statham attempted the triple jump at Maryland’s first home meet in late March, but the pain kept her from running afterward. That convinced her and her coaches that jumping would have to wait until next year.
“I was hurting myself and my team,” Statham said. “… I’ll rest this summer and lift with my triple jump coach.”
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Natalie Good man remembers when the track office was in Byrd Stadium — that’s pre-upper deck Byrd Stadium. She remembers meeting Costello, the coach at Maryland from 1975 to 1980 — at a barbecue, she thinks. And she remembers when Maryland didn’t even have track.
Perhaps in future years Thursday will be among the days she remembers most vividly, the day her career at Maryland came to an end.
“I really don’t think it’s going to hit me until I’m done practicing,” said Goodman, who will begin a masters program in management and public relations at University of Maryland University College next year. “Right now I just know everything is going to come to an end. I’ll miss practicing at 2 o’clock every day. I’ll miss the travel. Most of all I’ll miss the people I got to see every day.”
Most college athletes spend four or five years on a college campus; for Goodman, it has been much longer. Her father, Bill, was a standout jumper at Maryland before becoming its coach from 1988 to 2003. And Goodman went to school at St. Mark’s just down the road before attending Linganore. As a result, Goodman grew up around the program.
“A lot of people thought because my family’s always been around Maryland so much that I was going to go here, but I actually tried to keep an open mind,” Goodman said. “But it’s always been there in my head. … I’ve always had a passion for Maryland track. I’m happy I’m graduating, but I’m going to be sad to leave.”
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Alisa Harvey can’t find anyone her own age worth racing these days, so she has no problem jumping in against collegiate women.
“At 44, I need competition of my caliber,” said Harvey, who holds the American masters record in the 800 at 2:07.57. “This is the perfect opportunity for me. Women at my age are not as fast. I have to come down to [race the college women].”
Because of an injury to her left arch, Thursday was Harvey’s first race of the season. She sat in the back much of the race but moved up in the last 200 meters to finish fifth in 2:13.51. Still, she said that should put her on track to reach her big goal for the year.
“I’d like to break my American 40 record in the 800,” Harvey said. “I’d like to beat it before I turn 45 in September. This is a good start. Training is one thing, but the races are the most important. I should be [able to do it] if I stay healthy.”
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 Not everyone left Kehoe Track and Field Complex satisfied. Former Atholton star Graham Bazell, running unattached, basically by himself and in front of empty stands, faded to a 15:08.95 in the 5,000, about 40 seconds worse than his goal time. It didn’t help that he forgot to take his inhaler before a race for perhaps the first time in his life.
“On the second lap, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Bazell said. “I expected the first two laps to click off easily, but they were 70s. In my 10K a few weeks ago, I ran two 5Ks faster than this. This is pretty embarrassing.”
Certainly Bazell was more pleased with his 10,000 at Penn Relays last month, when he ran 29:57.34 to finish second among the Olympic Development men. That result had him thinking he could run a fast 5,000 on Thursday even though there were only two other runners in the race and he lapped them both.
“I’m kind of used to running by myself,” Bazell said. “I’m pretty good mentally. I do a lot of tempos, and that’s a pretty similar situation. It’s not an excuse. It just was not a good run.”
Bazell, who took a year off from school when he couldn’t work out things financially with Stanford a year ago, will matriculate to Palo Alto, Calif., in the fall. Before that, however, he will run the 10,000 at the U.S. junior championships in Des Moines, Iowa, in late June.
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