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Young runners get chance to strut their stuff By GREG STILES The late Bob Newland would have had a soft spot in his heart for a runner like South Medford senior Perry Custance. Newland's Medford teams won nine state track and field championship in a 10-year period ending in 1957. He had an affinity for hard-charging quarter- and half-milers. Custance is a gutty runner, ranked among the state leaders in the present half-mile incarnation, the 800 meters. He's also been meet organizer/promoter/director for Friday night's inaugural Bob Newland Classic. Field events for the eight-team meet on the oval honoring Newland at Spiegelberg Stadium start at 4 p.m. with running events at 5. Friday's meet culminates months of preparation by Custance, the meet's founder. The inspiration for the meet came in the remote wilds of southeastern Oregon last summer. Custance was at the arduous Steens Mountain Running Camp, chatting about senior projects with North Medford's Simon Driskell when the idea surfaced. "Simon talked about maybe putting on a track meet," Custance says. "I thought more about it after the camp and approached Mr. (Bill) Rowan before the start of school." It so happened Rowan and assistant coach Tim Rupp were looking for a way to give younger athletes an opportunity to compete in a big meet without going head-to-head against juniors and seniors. "A lot of our junior varsity and freshmen kids don't go to big invitational meets," Custance says. They'll get their turn Friday as athletes from Ashland, Crater, Grants Pass, Klamath Union, North Medford, Rogue River, St. Mary's and South Medford converge for the first invitational meet put on by South Medford. Once Custance got clearance to make the meet his senior project in November he began lining up teams and sponsors for the meet with a budget of $2,500. Providence Health System and the Mail Tribune signed on as sponsors. The Rotary Club is lending assistance to judge and time as well. Lining up the field wasn't as easy as it might appear. "We wanted to invite more teams from out of the area, like Marshfield and South Eugene, but they weren't able to come," Custance says. When Eagle Point wasn't able to come, Custance scrambled and came up with Rogue River as a replacement. "I've had a tough time contacting all the coaches, because they've had busy schedules," Custance says. "I've played phone tag with a lot of people." Custance had South art teacher Ray Foster design a black, blue and gold logo -- featuring a panther -- that was reproduced on 350 shirts to be distributed to competitors. "I got the idea from the Lava Bear Invitational cross country meet in Bend," Custance says. "They gave all the varsity runners T-shirts." Even though he's lined up plenty of community volunteers to help out, Custance is getting a little help from his friends as well. "To be on the safe side," he says, "I organized several track seniors to help." Custance plans to videotape parts of the meet in preparation for his senior boards presentation next month. "I just hope it doesn't rain," Custance says. "That would be a bad omen." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA