Post by rainman on Jun 23, 2008 7:15:01 GMT -5
WVU distance runners making their move
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN June 22, 2008 11:18 pm
— West Virginia University is known for its running game.
No news there, you say?
Well, what if I told you I wasn’t talking about football.
We’re not talking running 10 yards, 20 yards or 80 yards. We’re talking about real running, running until your breath comes heavily, until your muscles are drained of their last drop of energy.
We’re talking running 1,500 meters or 5,000 meters or 10,000 meters.
We’re talking about the running game that is coached by Sean Cleary and that has featured some of the nation’s finest women’s distance runners.
Cleary turns out star distance runners the way Toyota turns out automobiles.
There was Kate Vermuelen and Megan Metcalfe and Rebecca Stallwood and Heather Bury from his days as assistant coach.
And, he now, as head coach, has the makings of a powerhouse of a team built around West Virginians Keri Bland, of Fairview; Clara Grandt, of West Union; and Kaylyn Christopher, of Kingwood.
This past week, Bland and Grandt took long strides toward informing the world that they would be forces with which to deal in the future at the NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Bland, in particular, turned her first trip to the nationals into a showcase as she became the first woman in WVU history to earn All-American honors in three sports — cross country, indoor and outdoor track — when she finished 10th in the 1,500 meters.
“When I got to WVU, I didn’t know how you make All-American. I guess I learned quick,” she said with a laugh the other day after her return from Des Moines, Iowa.
Bland was the sixth American runner to cross the finish line. Think of that for a moment. Of all the college 1,500-meter runners in Division I-A, only five were able to beat her and she didn’t run her best race.
The NCAAs were a new experience for her, having missed going during her freshman year by a fraction of a second in the Regionals. That worked to push her toward making the event this year.
Distance running is a grueling, lonely existence, with much time spent alone on the road or on the track, pushing yourself, deep in your thoughts. There’s pain and suffering that requires a special person to overcome.
“The day before the race I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’” Bland said.
But by race time, she was geared up to run, maybe too much so.
Her goal was to run a personal best, which was 4:17.02. In the prelims she ran 4:17.9, not far off and not pushing herself too hard as she only wanted to qualify.
But the finals played out all wrong for her. The pace was furious, forcing her to run the fastest 800 she had ever run at 2:13.
“We went out smoking that first 800,” she said. “I wanted to be in the lead pack, so at 800 meters I made my move. I should have waited. I moved too soon.”
She faded in the stretch and wound up laid out on the track, exhausted, her time 4:18.18.
Grandt finished 11th in the 10,000 meters, which capped an amazing season for her.
If Bland was a well-known runner out of high school, having dueled the record-shattering Christopher of Preston High, and over and over during her senior year, Grandt was something of an unknown out of a Class A school.
“I was hardly known outside my hometown and the state, and there I was a year later in the Nationals,” she marveled. “There were more spectators there than I’ve ever seen, and I got to see some of the best college runners in the nation.”
She was a raw talent who Cleary helped shape into a fast developing runner capable of competing on a national level.
“When I first came to WVU, I had a stress fracture in my knee so I talked with Sean a lot. He motivated me, made me believe in myself more,” Grandt said. “After talking to him, you believe you are the best runner in the world.”
Cleary’s approach to distance runners is to try and develop each one individually. His is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
“He likes to look at us as individuals and gives us individual workouts,” Grandt said.
Looking at the way things went with his distance runners this year, one could say that Cleary is on the right track toward building a group of distance runners who will be heard from nationally for the next couple of years.
By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
MORGANTOWN June 22, 2008 11:18 pm
— West Virginia University is known for its running game.
No news there, you say?
Well, what if I told you I wasn’t talking about football.
We’re not talking running 10 yards, 20 yards or 80 yards. We’re talking about real running, running until your breath comes heavily, until your muscles are drained of their last drop of energy.
We’re talking running 1,500 meters or 5,000 meters or 10,000 meters.
We’re talking about the running game that is coached by Sean Cleary and that has featured some of the nation’s finest women’s distance runners.
Cleary turns out star distance runners the way Toyota turns out automobiles.
There was Kate Vermuelen and Megan Metcalfe and Rebecca Stallwood and Heather Bury from his days as assistant coach.
And, he now, as head coach, has the makings of a powerhouse of a team built around West Virginians Keri Bland, of Fairview; Clara Grandt, of West Union; and Kaylyn Christopher, of Kingwood.
This past week, Bland and Grandt took long strides toward informing the world that they would be forces with which to deal in the future at the NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Bland, in particular, turned her first trip to the nationals into a showcase as she became the first woman in WVU history to earn All-American honors in three sports — cross country, indoor and outdoor track — when she finished 10th in the 1,500 meters.
“When I got to WVU, I didn’t know how you make All-American. I guess I learned quick,” she said with a laugh the other day after her return from Des Moines, Iowa.
Bland was the sixth American runner to cross the finish line. Think of that for a moment. Of all the college 1,500-meter runners in Division I-A, only five were able to beat her and she didn’t run her best race.
The NCAAs were a new experience for her, having missed going during her freshman year by a fraction of a second in the Regionals. That worked to push her toward making the event this year.
Distance running is a grueling, lonely existence, with much time spent alone on the road or on the track, pushing yourself, deep in your thoughts. There’s pain and suffering that requires a special person to overcome.
“The day before the race I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’” Bland said.
But by race time, she was geared up to run, maybe too much so.
Her goal was to run a personal best, which was 4:17.02. In the prelims she ran 4:17.9, not far off and not pushing herself too hard as she only wanted to qualify.
But the finals played out all wrong for her. The pace was furious, forcing her to run the fastest 800 she had ever run at 2:13.
“We went out smoking that first 800,” she said. “I wanted to be in the lead pack, so at 800 meters I made my move. I should have waited. I moved too soon.”
She faded in the stretch and wound up laid out on the track, exhausted, her time 4:18.18.
Grandt finished 11th in the 10,000 meters, which capped an amazing season for her.
If Bland was a well-known runner out of high school, having dueled the record-shattering Christopher of Preston High, and over and over during her senior year, Grandt was something of an unknown out of a Class A school.
“I was hardly known outside my hometown and the state, and there I was a year later in the Nationals,” she marveled. “There were more spectators there than I’ve ever seen, and I got to see some of the best college runners in the nation.”
She was a raw talent who Cleary helped shape into a fast developing runner capable of competing on a national level.
“When I first came to WVU, I had a stress fracture in my knee so I talked with Sean a lot. He motivated me, made me believe in myself more,” Grandt said. “After talking to him, you believe you are the best runner in the world.”
Cleary’s approach to distance runners is to try and develop each one individually. His is not a one-size-fits-all approach.
“He likes to look at us as individuals and gives us individual workouts,” Grandt said.
Looking at the way things went with his distance runners this year, one could say that Cleary is on the right track toward building a group of distance runners who will be heard from nationally for the next couple of years.
