Published: July 03, 2008 11:59 pm         

Robinette running in regional

9-year-old competing for chance to go to Hershey Park

Margot Robinette has run faster in three consecutive one-mile performances with the Queen City Junior Striders summer racing series.

But after placing 11th overall in the 12-and-under division in the mile Tuesday at Frankfort High School, Robinette, 9, was quick to hit the nearby track for some light stretching and plyometrics.

“Can I do 100s now?” Margot asked her mother, Anita Robinette, after the race.

The answer was no — for now. After all, there’s a time and place for the junior sprinter to contest the shorter distances. Margot, a fourth-grade student at West Side Elementary School in Cumberland, was one of 11 local athletes to qualify for the Hershey’s Track and Field Games regional championship. Competition begins at 4 p.m. Saturday at Winston Churchill High School in Potomac.

Margot qualified in three separate events, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes as well as the standing long jump last week at Greenway Avenue Stadium. She entered that meet “only so I can go to Hershey Park.”

Winners of regional competition events qualify for the Hershey’s Track and Field Games North American Final meet at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pa. One of the four days competitors enjoy there is an entire day devoted to the famously sweet amusement park.

“My friends say it’s cool, but I’ve never been there,” Margot said.

There is a concern among some that many young athletes who might be able to run, jump or throw better than the rest never get the chance. Participation in the meet, both on a local and state level, has dropped considerably in recent years. At the Cumberland meet last week, there wasn’t a single athlete in the 11-12 and 13-14-year-old age groups.

It’s a volunteer-based program, said B. Eugene Neal, coordinator for Region 7, which includes Maryland. While many local meets are sponsored by city recreation departments — such as last week’s was by the Cumberland Parks and Recreation Department — “they all have their prorities.”

“Some of them don’t even bother with track and field at all,” Neal said. “It’s pretty much a common thing. There are so many different activities that you can get involved in. Some areas push soccer, some areas push basketball. Some of the schools in the state ... cut out the track programs.”

A former Montgomery County parks official, Neal said even close, urban schools have cut out interscholastic track meets. He points to Allegany County as being one of the first and longest counties holding the track meets, even though other counties have higher levels of participation.

A child “could be the next Olympic champion in your community not getting that training,” Neal said.

That’s not to say people like Carol Brown and Diane Johnson, of the Cumberland parks department, don’t try.

“It’s just not a big draw,” Brown said. “It’s vacation time, it’s everything.”

Kids in the summertime, she said, are “booked up” with other interests.

“The public doesn’t really respond like they should,” Brown said. “They’re in to other things. At one time, I think we did have a pretty big turnout. Now, it’s just dwindling and dwindling.”

Brown said no more than 20 athletes showed up to last week’s event at Greenway Avenue Stadium — most of them from the summer camp she helps conduct with the city of Cumberland. Brown points to the fact that the top two athletes in each event qualify for the regional meet as a sign the lack of participation is a widespread problem. It used to be that only event winners were eligible to move on.

Due to the low numbers, Margot Robinette found herself last week in a position which has become quite familiar – racing against boys. And that, Margot said, adds a bit of spice to her friendships on and off the track.

“My friends that are boys don’t like to get beat by a girl,” she said.

Margot also enjoys soccer and hip-hop dance. Her father, Glenn Robinette, said from an early age Margot was “always doing cartwheels (and other) things in the yard,” and has a swingset with rings and a pull-up bar for strength training.

“She swims,” added Anita Robinette. “We try not to push her and let her do what she wants to do as a kid. Because she still is a kid.”

But, said Glenn Robinette, “if they had a local pull-up competition, she would kill everybody.”

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.