Kolpack: The best team nobody can see

By Jeff Kolpack

April 29, 2010 at 11:00 PM

The day at the long jump pit was not up to Whitney Carlson's standards, which are high to begin with. It was her last attempt at the prestigious Drake Relays, so the voice within her got a little louder.

Calm down, she told herself. Loosen up. You're better than this. She said a little prayer and pointed to the sky - something she'll occasional do at the big meets.

"If you're tight, you're using half of your energy just to get moving," she said.

She was moved all right, setting a school record and becoming only the third NDSU athlete to win an event at Drake. She's a big reason the Bison were ranked 34th in the country in the track coaches association rankings.

Repeat: 34th in the country.

In track and field. They are the best team around here that nobody can see this spring.

Does anybody remember back in 2002 when the Division I move was announced, and some predicted the end of the world as they know it for track and field?

"We're up there and it's nice to know we have national caliber Division I athletes," said head coach Ryun Godfrey.

Jumps like the 21 feet, 1½ inches that Carlson hit at Drake are done hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away from home. That's life in the travel lane for the Bison, who in order to reach a No. 34 ranking need to hit the road.

If the lack of local attention does bother the athletes, it is over-ridden by the fact they get to go to big meets in California and Florida.

"That's just the way it is," Carlson said. "Since we're up here in North Dakota, we don't have as consistent of weather as California does so we have to go there to do it."

Thanks to technology, Carlson's family is able to keep a close eye on her performances. Most meets have Web video and several can be viewed on www.flotrack.org , a website dedicated to all things track and field.

"Mom has been able to watch me race live," Carlson said.

It's not cheap sending kids to meets across the country. Walk on the sidewalks of Fargo and ask people if they know NDSU is sixth in the Midwest Region behind Oklahoma, Nebraska, Minnesota, Illinois and Southern Illinois and they would have no idea.

You rarely see them on TV highlights. You don't read about them much.

But they are turning the 2002 thought of the doom of track and field into one huge myth.

"It just shows everyone how much NDSU has come along in Division I," Carlson said.

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546 or jkolpack@forumcomm.com

By Jeff Kolpack

Jeff would like to dispel the notion he was around when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is on his third decade of reporting with Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he's covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU's Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: "Horns Up," "North Dakota Tough" and "Covid Kids." He is the radio host of "The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack" April through August.