Fast track
The agony of defeat, you’ve heard about more than enough. The agony of victory, probably not so often.
You’ll hear about it, though, during a conversation with North Central High School sprinter J.T. Washington, whose trip to the 2005 3A Star Track state meet in Pasco came at the expense of teammate and close friend Shane Thomas, in whose shadow Washington had run all season.
“Last year,” the NC senior said, “I wasn’t running as well as I wanted to be until the end of the season. I barely qualified for regionals, and when Shane took himself off the 4x100 relay team with a tweaked hamstring, I thought I’d never get to state.
“I was kind of discouraged, but at regionals it was crazy. I was expecting to get fourth or fifth (two qualify for state), but I finished second, behind Brandon Sears from West Valley-Yakima and just ahead of Shane. I was excited for me, but I was crying for him. I love him like a brother,” he said.
Washington ran 11.33 in the regionals but didn’t make it out of his heat at state and is eager for a return trip.
“My expectations have changed this year,” he said. “When I go out there now, I don’t get butterflies the way I did the first three years. I’m confident, and when I run, I expect to win.”
Washington’s among the state sprint leaders this spring, but it’s been an uphill struggle to get there after he suffered a hip flexor injury during his sophomore year that still bothers him occasionally and also created some issues in his lower back.
“I remember when it happened, in a race at East Valley,” he said. “It was just a horrible pain in my upper left leg. I ran the relay after that and thought I’d be able to come back by the next week, but there was no way.
“Instead, I had to go to physical therapy four times a week, and I had three cortisone shots, but my sophomore year was pretty much done.”
What NC coach Kelly Walters remembers is Washington’s tenacity during his recovery.
“It was frustrating for him, but he stuck with it,” Walters said. “I think what’s most impressive is his mental toughness. If I were him, I might have mentally checked out. An injury like that affects your confidence, and especially in a high-octane event like the 100, you have to believe you can be there.”
Washington’s PR is a wind-aided 10.7 last season, tying the school record set 89 years earlier by Evan Pearson. The kicker, though? The 10.7 came on a day when Thomas ran a 10.6.
And about that rivalry between Thomas and Washington?
“J.T. and Shane have been friendly competitors ever since they came to NC,” Walters said. “They’re good friends and used to be neighbors.”
Thomas has been on the sidelines much of this season with mononucleosis, but is healthier now, a recovery that Washington’s glad to see.
“I know what it’s like not to be able to run, and I hated seeing that happen to Shane,” he said. “We have a friendly rivalry and do lots of things together, and our parents are good friends.”
Walters calls Washington the poster child for earning success by sticking with it. He remembers when Washington was a 5-foot-3 freshman running in the mid-12’s and long-jumping 16 feet.
“He came out because his friends and I talked him into it,” the coach said. “We thought he could be pretty fast, but at the time he wasn’t. He showed steady improvement, but we never would have believed that he’d run this well. In the second race of his sophomore year, he PR’d by a whole second. I’d never seen anyone make such a huge jump.”