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Best Of DyeStat: Photos Of The Year 2020

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DyeStat.com   Dec 27th 2020, 2:40pm
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Images That Told The Story Of A Year Like No Other

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

The DyeStat photo archives took a hit in 2020. The cancellations of events on the roads, tracks and cross country courses diminished the live event coverage that we are all accustomed to. Even when events did happen, our photographers had to be careful and weigh the risks of attending in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yet, by the end of the year, DyeStat photo archives include nearly 14,000 images and the bulk of them were captured by John Nepolitan, Laura Duffy and Chuck Utash. Nepo shot indoor meets at The Armory and Ocean Breeze in NYC, the Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta, and hit bunch of the pop-up cross country/track action in the fall. 

Duffy was working indoor meets in Illinois when the sport was shuttered and made some contributions with her camera in the fall, notably at the XC Town Meet of Champions cross country meet in Indiana. 

In California, events were few and far between for Utash. But he shot pop-up pole vault events, worked the Sunset Tour events, the Sound Running Track Meet and the Marathon Project. 

Over the course of the year, DyeStat also got important photo contributions from Kim Spir, Phil Yearian, H. Michael Roberts, Tim Healy, Bert Richardson, Joe Hale, Richie Bertrand, Arthur L. Mack, Chad Veal and Ka'Deem Wynn.

Here is a look at some of our favorite images from 2020.

Pre-Pandemic
Purrier

Remember January and February? They seem like the good 'ol days now, in hindsight. The death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter and other passengers in that helicopter crash near Los Angeles dominated the news cycle for a while and seemed to point toward a difficult year. But we still had no idea what was to come. John Nepolitan @johnnepolitan captured this photo of Elle Purrier breaking the American record in the indoor women's mile at the NYRR Millrose Games in New York, among many fantastic images in his gallery that day

Up until March 12, indoor track and field came off without a hitch. Mondo Duplantis even broke the pole vault world record -- twice. (He did that in Europe. We figured we'd get his picture later). 

4by8

Laura Duffy @duffys.lens snapped this photo at the Mustang Relays in Illinois. These guys had no idea what lay in store in the weeks after this race. Come to think of it, when was the last time someone ran a 4x800 relay? You don't really know what you miss until it's gone. 

bu

This photo from Phil Yearian @philyearianpghotography was taken at the BU Indoor Last Chance meet in Boston. It's an uncommon angle that bursts with promise and expectation and desire. As it turned out, "last chance" meets were merely a dead end. Inside of two weeks, the season was halted.

sander"Doc" Sander was formally recognized in a big way with New York City renaming Fort Washington Avenue in his honor. Sander, who resurrected the Amory building in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan as a venue for track and field, died in 2017. Photo by John Nepolitan.

ThorvaldsonSydney Thorvaldson made a brave effort to break 10 minutes in the 3,200 meters at the Simplot Games (elevation 4,460 feet). She finished to a standing ovation at 10:06.58. Photo by H. Michael Roberts.

Seidel

Feb. 29 brought one of the most anticipated road races in U.S. history as the nation's best distance runners sought berths on the Olympic team in Atlanta in particularly cold, windy conditions. Nepolitan captured a fun moment with women's second place finisher Molly Seidel. And also, below, a heat-felt moment between men's champion Galen Rupp and disappointed former teammate and friend, Jordan Hasay. The image captures how triumph and heartbreak, in this sport, is separated by the ethereal dividing line between third and fourth place. 

galenhug

And then March 12 came. You remember. The NBA season was canceled and then the dominoes fell quickly. No New Balance Nationals Indoor. No NCAA Indoor Championships. Everybody go home. Shelter in place. The virus was here and nobody really knew, yet, how bad it was or how to stop it. 

ncaaThis photo won't win any awards. But the athletes who are visible could be refreshing the news feeds on their phones, possibly re-reading the tweets from NCAA's leadership that canceled the indoor championships just as they were set to begin in Albuquerque, N.M. Yearian was on the scene. The dead space in the arena became a morgue for championship dreams.

POST-PANDEMIC

The last half of March 2020 saw the sporting world grind to a halt. The news of the day was cancellation. No Penn Relays. No Boston Marathon. No Olympics. No College or High School Spring Sports. 

And then George Floyd's death (on top of the Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery and others) tore at the fabric of a pent-up country and released an outpouring of emotions from coast to coast, and around the world. Some of the demonstrations were violent, most were peaceful, and athletes of all stripes used the opportunity to express their feelings like never before. That all broke loose at the end of May and consumed much of June. Without events to cover, we at DyeStat devoted our attention to Zoom interviews and conversations about race relations, the "new normal," and state-by-state decisions about what to do next. 

closed

 protest

Duffy shot the two photos above, among many that she took during the break in the action on the track. A resident and teacher in Downers Grove, Ill., she was nice enough to send some of what she was seeing in her community while also lining up cooking videos with Katelynne Hart and Darrell Hill, a coloring video with Taylor Ewert and a jewelry-making video with Tori Franklin (and others).  

BlueJeanWho could have imagined Johnny Gregorek's Blue Jean Mile (a 4:06.3 world record) would be the biggest news in the sport during the first week of June? John Nepolitan photo.

desert

A bit later in June, Dave Shapiro organized the first real-life track meet on Earth in three months with the help of local public health officials in Arizona. The Desert Dream meet was literally an oasis in a vast desert as the sport grappled with how to operate in a safe manner. This photo of Gavin Schurr seems to suggest "taking off" off again after being grounded. Outside of some virtual events and the international "garden" pole vaulting exhibitions, there was very little going on. Behind the scenes, some were beginning to figure it out. Credit to Shapiro for being the first to pull it off. Credit to Chuck Utash @chuckutash for being there to capture a gathering of athletes who wanted nothing more than live competition. 

nico

On a weirdly quiet night in Portland, Oregon, Newbury Park CA's super-talented senior Nico Young tried to take down Galen Rupp's national high school record in the 5,000 meters. It proved too tall an order, and the pacing didn't hold together, but Young elevated to No. 4 on the all-time list. Photo by Kim Spir. Another pop-up secret meet in California produced a sub-four mile for Leo Daschbach

hayward

Meanwhile, in Eugene, the brand new Hayward Field sat idle as the dates that were supposed to hold the U.S. Olympic Team Trials came and went. The new stadium, completed in May, is expected to open sometime in 2021. 

 friendly

One of the best attempts at live track was the series of "Big Friendly" meets put on by the folks at Portland Track, including a mid-July meet at the McKenzie River Community Track. Shannon Rowbury ran one of the fastest women's 3,000-meter times in the world this year on the track, which is bordered by a forest. This photo comes from Tim Healy @tgh_pdx_photos. For one night, this remote destination in the mountains between Eugene and Bend, Oregon became the epicenter of track and field

Sadly, it wasn't the last time that this location made the international news. In September, the area was devastated by a wildfire that wiped out swaths of the surrounding communities and left the track singed (but not destroyed).

KTTape

NAZ Elite coach Ben Rosario's first attempt at staging an event for distance runners was the KT Tape St. George 5,000 Meter Showdown in Utah. Here, Kellyn Taylor and Stephanie Bruce sprint to the finish of an inspiring effort in the women's race. Chuck Utash's photo captures the determination to make the most of a rare opportunity.

prairie

tripleThere were a few events for professional athletes in the sprints and jumps, mostly for the sake of checking off boxes on contracts, and held without spectators. Access was also hard to come by for DyeStat. Fortunately, Bert Richardson @bert_richardson made the effort to go and shoot one of the Back To Track meets at Prairie View A&M in Texas and shot the two images above. 

sunsetThe first live meet in California in a long while was the Sunset Tour event held in ... who knows where? The first rule of Pop Up track meets is apparently don't tell anyone (besides the athletes) where you are. As fall approached, there was a smattering of socially-distanced meets in Europe as well as a few in the U.S. The fans were almost entirely shut out in order to allow it to happen. 

Lo and behold, some college and high school cross country took place in the fall. Very little college cross country it turned out. As university athletic departments sorted through a financial crisis and even cut some track and field programs, there were only a handful of meaningful college cross country meets, like this dual meet between Syracuse and Army, attended by Nepolitan. It is hoped that a full season will happen in early 2021. 

mist

Duffy made it to the Louisville Cross Country Classic and got a cool image of the steamy head of this Tennessee runner. 

xc

More than 30 states managed to put something similar to real cross country seasons together for high schools, and meets like this one in New Jersey had compelling storylines. But 2020 was the year of social distancing, masked spectators (and sometimes runners), canceled meets, wave starts, and no Foot Locker or Nike Cross Nationals. Nepo photo. 

xctown

The XC Town USA Meet of Champions was held on Nov. 15 at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in Indiana as the fall uptick in COVID-19 cases raged in the Midwest. The NSAF managed to hold the meet after earlier cancellations of the indoor and outdoor high school championships, which was a shot in the arm for the organization. If the meet had been held a day or two later, it might not have happened due to the worsening pandemic. Duffy bravely shot both days of the meet. 

floridafloridagirlThe two photos above and the one below were shot by Ka'Deem Wynn @kadeemwynn in Florida. The two state meet photos above capture moments never seen before at the FHSAA Championships. A championship team in masks. And Caroline Wells bursting into a patch of light as she crosses the finish line in meet record time.

Below, Wynn took this photo of the Satellite High boys during their run to the top of the standings in the Nike Cross Virtual event, which offered an opportunity to compete in a new-age way. 

satellite

houlihaAt the Sound Running Track Meet, Utash was on the scene both nights in California to document the 10,000s and 5,000s. Shelby Houlihan, even in the pandemic, showed the world that she is a force to be reckoned with the next time a global championships comes around. Hopefully, that's in Japan next summer. 

hock

A new generation is pushing up into relevance at the highest levels of track and field and this photo by Utash shows Oregon sophomore Cole Hocker trying to hold off Olympic 1,500 meters champion, and Oregon alum, Matthew Centrowitz, in the second section of the men's 5,000 meters at the Sound Running Track Meet. 

hallFor the first time since February, marathon racing returned to the United States in a real way with the elites-only Marathon Project, a brainchild of Rosario and agent Josh Cox. Utash was there, once again, on Dec. 20 to collect images of an event that so few got to see in person. Sara Hall, above, ran the second-fastest marathon ever by a U.S. woman. And Marty Hehir, in the red gloves below, showed great promise for the future with a sub-2:09 win. Hehir, studying to be an anesthesiologist, qualifies as a front-line hero for working in an ICU ward during a stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic.

hrhir

Somehow this shot of North Rockland's Emanuel Joseph at the Energice Hall of Fame Invitational manages to bring together many of the 2020 elements that defined track and field. Resilient. Focused. Masked. Another great shot by Nepo.

joseph



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