Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame celebrates 25 years

The 25th annual Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame Banquet will be held Tuesday, Nov. 20, at Cavaliers Country Club in Newark. This year’s inductees include Jim Fischer, Kevin Kelly, Lynn Harris Hernandez, Tamara L. Stoner Shirley, and John S. Yasik. Brief biographies appear below.  

Jim Fischer  

Over 30 years as track and cross country coach at the University of Delaware, Jim Fischer has guided more than 100 athletes to individual championships, helped countless others to superior college achievement, and broadened access to the sport throughout Delaware and elsewhere. Becoming the Blue Hens coach in 1982, he was named America East Conference Coach of the Year five times, winning the award for indoor track in 1993 and 1999, and for outdoor track in 1993, 1994 and 2000. His indoor teams went 121-36-1 in dual meets and went undefeated from 1987 to 1991. Five of his teams won conference titles; another 12 finished second. Many of those champions were not high school stars but blossomed under his mentoring. In all, 119 of his athletes won individual conference championships. Now the coach at Ursuline Academy, he has also coached at Sanford School and Delaware Technical Community College, where he served as athletic director for a short period. Jim founded the Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1994 and served as its president until 2015.

Kevin S. Kelly

In a span of 43 years coaching, officiating and working to help build running sport programs in four states, Kevin Kelly helped develop elite performers at the high school and D1, D2, and D3 college levels.

Upon graduation from Mount Saint Mary’s College in 1973, he coached at Immaculate Heart of Mary School (1973-74), North East (Md.) High School (1974-79), and St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) High School (1979-84); assisted as academic advisor and coach at the University of Kentucky while earning a master’s degree in sports psychology (1984-86); and assisted coaching sprinters and hurdlers at the University of Florida (1986-88). In the following year, he worked with the Governor’s Council on Sports and as a manager for the TAC National Championships of Track & Field in Tampa, Fla. (1988).

He returned to Delaware and coached cross country and track & field at William Penn High School (1989-98), and assisted at the University of Delaware coaching sprinters, hurdlers and pole vaulters for the men’s and women’s teams (1997-99) and at Wilmington Charter (2001-09).

Lynn Harris Hernandez

A standout sprinter for Christiana High School and a key member of the record-breaking relay teams, Lynn Harris Hernandez started out as a sprinter, then took up jumping as a junior and soon became the best in state history. In 1999, as a senior, she jumped 19-feet-5-1/2-inches at the Penn Relays Championship of America, smashing the state record by 10 inches and setting a record that would stand for 19 years. Her 19-feet-10-3/4-inch jump during the 1999 indoor season was the second best in the nation, but due to being contested outdoors, it is not considered an indoor state record but remains the N5TCA meet record. She was the first and only female long jumper in the state to surpass the 19-foot mark until Kayla Woods in 2018, an athlete whom she coached.

Lynn continued her career at the University of Maryland where she was named ACC All-Conference, tied the school long jump record and qualified for the NCAA Championships by her sophomore year. In 2004, she broke the school’s long jump record. Lynn became a collegiate Division I All-American in the long jump her senior year and earned All-ACC Academic. Her long jump and 200-meter times remain second on the all-time list in Maryland Track & Field History.

Tamara L. Stoner Shirley

At Delcastle, Tamara Stoner Shirley set the state indoor record of 56.19 in 1990, a record that still stands. It was the nation’s fastest time to that point that winter. She repeated as indoor 400 champion in 1991, and added another title in 300. Outdoors, she was a Division 1 champion in the 200 and 400 in 1991, with the state’s best time in each. She finished fourth in the 400 in the New Balance Indoor Nationals in 1990. She was the 1991 State MVP.

At West Virginia University, she was the Atlantic 10 indoor champion in the 500 in 1995 (1:14.35), a performance that is still the third-fastest time in WVU history, and she anchored the Mountaineers’ A-10 indoor championship team in the 4-by-400 (3:41.74) at the same meet, a performance that is still the second-fastest indoor time in West Virginia history. She ran the third leg on the 4-by-200 (1:36.94) that was second-best in school history, still fifth in school annals.

John S. Yasik

John Yasik attended Archmere Academy, where he earned 4 track & field letters as a runner and pole vaulter. He established a school record, which still stands, of 4:16.8 in the 1,500 meters at the 1976 New Castle County T&F Championships. That year, he ran anchor on the school’s record-setting team in the 2-mile relay. Also, in 1976, John was the state of Delaware Junior Olympic Champion in the mile run and was named to the Coach & Athlete Prep Track & Field Athlete of the Year team. As a junior, John won 9 of 10 dual meets. He was runner-up in the New Castle County XC Championships in 1975, 1976, and earned the bronze medal at the 1975 State XC Championships. He was named to All-Catholic teams from 1975 through 1977. John was inducted into the Archmere Academy Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

After graduating from UD, John won many road races while representing the Pike Creek Valley Running Club. However, his greatest accomplishments include being the top Delaware finisher at the 1981 NYC Marathon and again at the 1983 and 1985 Boston Marathons. He set his PR at the 1984 Philadelphia Marathon with a time of 2:30, still among the Top 10 fastest by a Delawarean, ranking John as the 353rd fastest in the United States, just short of the qualifying standard for invitation to the 1984 Men’s Marathon Olympic Trials. In 1985, John ran one of the top five fastest 10,000-meter times ever run by a Delawarean at 31:31.

Cape Henlopen-connected coaches and athletes in the Delaware Track & Field Hall of Fame include coaches Bill Degnan, Dave Frederick and Tom Hickman. Athletes are Emory Howell, Kai Maull, Willie Savage and Lance White.