“Around the Oval’’
Historian/official Keith Lawton, record-keeper Larry Byrne are on the job
By BOB LEDDY (TAFWA)
R.I. Track & Field Foundation
20 JULY – – Track and field is a sport of schedules and performances. Dates for the meets, be it regular-season dual-meet competition or championship events, must be set, and schedules issued. Athlete performances are measured objectively in a sport that’s predicated on numbers; times in running events recorded on stopwatches or an automatic system; measurements in field events calculated in feet and inches (or in the standard language of results, metrically).
Among all the sports offered by the R.I. Interscholastic League, track and field is alone in posting numerical statistics that stand on their own; a time or a measurement cannot be argued with. Records – Rhode Island state, New England and national – are diligently kept. Track (and cross country) are unique in local prep sports in publishing records and historic information.
But who are the people largely behind the dissemination of this information? They are Keith Lawton, and national Track & Field News records guru Larry Byrne.
Lawton, of Cumberland, has been associated with RIIL cross country and track as an administrator and official for three decades. He’s been league director of cross country and track in various capacities. He’s currently the boys’ and girls’ cross country co-director. In his position over the last three ywars as president of the R.I. Track & Field Officials’ Guild (RITFOG), Lawton assigns officials to meets. The recruitment process for new officials is ongoing.
He also serves as de facto historian. “Back in the ‘80s, I was trying to find past [cross country] class and state champions; no one kept that stuff. I started to research to find out who won these meets. It started out as a curiosity.’’
In putting together his history tomes over a period of three decades, Lawton culled information from miles of microfilm files and newspaper clippings. His project is ongoing.
Maintaining state records “in my blood’’
Up until roughly 25 years ago, indoor and outdoor track records were based on times and measurements taken only at the State High School Championships. Performances by local high schoolers at out-of-state events were not generally accepted as records. But that changed with the arrival on the local track scene of Larry Byrne.
Somewhere in the early 1990s Byrne, a retired U.S. Marine and U.S. track official living in Warwick, sought to promulgate all-inclusive R.I. state records; they would bear the national imprimatur of Track & Field News Magazine. In other words, the criteria for records consideration was expanded beyond state borders to include performances at any legitimate track event, held anywhere in the world. Since then, the record lists have been an invaluable resource for media, coaches, athletes and parents.
“I was always interested in records,’’ said Byrne, a regular figure at national meets such as New Balance National championships, the Penn Relays and IC4A and NCAA Championships. “It’s just something in my blood.’’ Byrne is also official record guru for New York State and the Catholic Schools League
With the assent of T&F News’s national record-keeper Jack Shepard of California, Byrne is chief gatekeeper for state and regional marks. The records hew to criteria set by USA Track & Field (USATF), and the international body, the IAAF. ( i.e. wind gauge readings in the dashes and horizontal jumps.) “I get calls from people [out of state] who ask me ‘What is the record for such-and-such,’ ’’ Byrne said. “And college coaches from around the country [interested in local track prospects] want to know what [local athletes] did in-state.’’
In tandem with veteran Massachusetts track official Larry Newman, Byrne also maintains New England outdoor and indoor track records.
COLANTONIO 5TH IN WORLD YOUTH HAMMER
On Friday, Barrington High junior Bobby Colantonio placed fifth in the 5-kilogram (11 pound) hammer event at the IAAF World Youth Championships in Cali, Columbia. His throw was 242 feet, 1 inch (73.79 meters). Colantonio’s mark was the second-best by an American in the nine-year history of the meet. He qualified for the finals on the strength of a 238-6 (72.69) toss.