Wings of a different sort

If there’s one thing a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy looks forward to it’s graduation, for obvious reasons.

But Erik Schmidt is looking forward to missing it. That is to say, he’s looking forward to something else.

On May 28 when his fellow graduating first classmates are tossing their caps into the air, Schmidt will be a few hours from toeing the line for his heat in the 1,500 meters at the NCAA East Regional.

“I have some teammates who’ve qualified who have decided not to go to the regional meet because they’d rather go to graduation,” said Schmidt, a 2000 graduate of University High School. “I certainly respect their decision, but before I celebrate I have more to do.”

Run the regionals. Make it to nationals. Qualify for the Olympic Trials.

The things a Midshipman does and doesn’t have time for have always made for a delicate balancing act, and especially so for Schmidt – and never more so in his four years at the academy than this spring.

Barely a month ago, before the Penn Relays, Navy’s distance medley relay quartet was fine tuning its handoffs on the Annapolis track.

“We had a couple of guys on the track to simulate the hectic conditions,” Schmidt explained. “At Penn, it’s absolutely a madhouse when you’re trying to pass off. I remember taking a spill at a previous Penn Relays and landing on top of a three-man pile of bodies. One of our guys had never run there before so we wanted to show him what it was like and we did too good of a job. A teammate stepped in front of me and it was like hitting a speed bump at 55.”

Schmidt crashed to the track, breaking his collarbone. He was looking at surgery and ending his season in a sling – yet somehow was back running within a week and a half.

“A lot of prayers were said for me and they worked,” he said. “There was something bigger than modern medicine at work here.”

Problem was, Schmidt had missed two weeks of prime training and racing, and still didn’t have an NCAA qualifying time. So he jumped into a race at nearby Towson just two weeks ago – but came up .19 of a second short of a qualifier. That meant a retry last weekend at a meet in Haverford, Pa., where he dipped under the standard in 3 minutes, 46.95 seconds.

As these things go, it could be a good omen.

Just this past winter, Schmidt hadn’t made the standard for the NCAA indoor nationals mile until blasting a 4:01.56 – fastest by a Spokane runner since the Gerry Lindgren-Rick Riley era – a week before the meet. That was the beginning of a dizzying week, which ended with Schmidt placing fifth and earning his first All-America honor.

Having run 4:01 the week before, you might have thought Schmidt had sub-4 tunnel vision when he took to the track at the University of Arkansas.

“I was too busy looking around at the 30 national title banners,” he laughed, “and looking at the guys I was racing and thinking, ‘Hmm, I’ve read about him.’ I was 12th of the 14 people accepted to the race and pretty much a nobody. When I showed up for the prelims, they go down the line and the announcer is talking about these different runners with incredible resumes.

“Well, I already knew them. I was a little intimidated. Then it comes to ‘Erik Schmidt, U.S. Naval Academy,’ and you can almost hear the people thinking, ‘Who is this guy?’ “

Not an easy question.

Erik Schmidt is his given name, but he went by Max at U-Hi and answers to “more nicknames than I know what to do with” – including “Hot Wheels” for his week in a wheelchair after suffering stress fractures in both femurs last year.

Schmidt admits that when he was accepted to the academy he wasn’t sure he wanted to go “but I went anyway because I felt it was what God wanted for me.” Now he plans to be a Marine corps pilot and is looking at a military commitment that could stretch to 10 years – because the clock doesn’t start until he gets his wings, and Schmidt plans to keep his feet in motion for a while.

“I’m looking at delaying going to those schools so I can continue running,” he said. “The Navy and Marine corps have track teams – they’re teams of ‘convenience,’ as long as you’re not needed overseas. And seeing what’s going on overseas, well, that’s another one of those things you have to give up to God’s hands.”