Visually impaired students involved in track meet

It wasn't just the season that gave it away: This was a track meet unlike any other.Red, plastic-coated cables stretched waist-high down the 100-meter straightaway Wednesday. The cables helped the sightless find their way down the track.Some didn't need the cables and sped around the oval.

Others hobbled on braced legs or managed to fly just a few inches into the long-jump pit.For all that, it was a track meet much like any other. The official in his black-and-white stripes fired blanks to start races. The visiting Illinois Warriors distinguished themselves from the home-team Wisconsin Badgers by their school colors.

Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped student Brian Boknevitz, 16, holds onto a guide rope during the 60-meter race at the school’s track and field meet against the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired in Janesville on Wednesday afternoon.No, not the UW Badgers. These were the kids from the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped in Janesville.

Athletes helped sing the national anthem in three-part harmony, conducted by WSVH music teacher Kathleen Hudziak, who doubled as the announcer.The weather turned from overcast to misty to downpours over the next two hours, but the meet went on at the track behind the Janesville school.

Ninth-grade Badger Tauri Ramsey said the 60-meter run is her favorite, "because it's fast." She showed how fast when she took first in that event at a triangular meet with Illinois and Missouri recently. She placed first again Wednesday.

Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped coach Pat Baker cheers on her team during the 400-meter run.

WSVH is part of a conference that includes more than a dozen state schools for the visually handicapped from the country's midsection, from Arkansas in the south to Minnesota in the north. They also compete in wrestling, swimming, cheerleading, forensics and goal ball.The Badgers wind up their track season next Wednesday and Thursday, when they compete in their conference meet in Tennessee.

Badger head coach Pat Baker said the students are in grades seven through 12. They're not divided by age, but rather by their degree of sight. Class A is blind. Class C has quite a bit of sight, and Class B is in the middle.Class A athletes run with the guide wires. They slide a hand along the wire to keep them going in the right direction. Bits of tape wrapped around the cables tell them when to stop or turn for another lap.

From left, Carlton Freeman, 20, Tauri Ramsey, 14, and Emily Bauer, 15, from the Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped compete in the 400-meter run.At the long-jump pit, someone tells athletes if their feet go over the board."You were over," someone called out as Dominic Sheridan warmed up."I know this; I can feel it," he responded with an adolescent growl.Eighth-grader Dominic's favorite event is the 1,600 meters."Because I'm more of an endurance runner; it's more of a challenge," he said.

Illinois coach Dawn Chambers, a graduate of the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired herself, said the competition is good for the kids."It gives them a chance to compete in athletics that a lot of times they wouldn't get in the public schools," she said.They also get to travel and meet visually impaired students from other states, she said.

Wisconsin School for the Visually Handicapped student Kris White puts the shot during the meet.Dominic said he likes WSVH because of such opportunities, which he didn't have at his former school, the Milwaukee Education Center.While Dominic seemed to revel in the competition, he was among the many who wanted it to end as the rain lashed down hard late in the afternoon. He jumped up and down to fight off the goose bumps at the starting line."Come on, just shoot the gun," he called to the official.Illinois lost, by the way, 135-92.