Nelson finally hits his stride
Among the dangers of taking your athletic talents to a distant college is joining the “Whatever happened to…?” club.
But it’s one thing when the home folks lose track. It’s another when the athlete starts to ask the question of himself.
Rich Nelson did, barely more than six months ago.
“It was taking me so long to get back into shape,” said the former Shadle Park distance standout, “I figured I’d just lost it.”
What a surprise, then, to find the 23-year-old Brigham Young University sophomore among the qualifiers this weekend for the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA West Regional track and field championships in Northridge, Calif.
Runner-up at the State 4A cross country meet in 2002, Nelson has been pretty much off the radar since – other than running on BYU’s cross country team in the 2003 NCAA championships, when he was also Mountain West Conference freshman of the year.
After his freshman year, he served a two-year church mission to Vina del Mar, Chile – during which he ran “maybe 10 times, and never for more than 20 minutes.
“Call it trust, call it faith, call it just hope even,” he said, “but something makes you believe you’ll get it back.”
For Nelson, however, even the hope wasn’t being answered – neither through a redshirt year after he’d returned to BYU, nor through the past cross country season. Just running productively for a half-hour was a dubious proposition – until an out-of-the-blue training breakthrough after the most recent winter break.
“I don’t even know what it was,” he said. “After two solid workouts, I was finally up with the guys where I wanted to be. Once you realize you can do it, you just expect it of yourself.”
At the Mt. SAC Relays in April, Nelson got his regional qualifying time – 8 minutes, 58.08 seconds. And at last weekend’s MWC championships, he finished third behind two teammates – despite taking a spill over a hurdle midway through the race.
And while heading for regionals is nice, Nelson feels as if he just cleared the big hurdle.
“Going to conference is a big thing for me,” he admitted. “We’re so competitive and you can only take 28 to the meet – the coach has to leave some people home who have qualified for regionals. I’m just loving this right now.”
Undeclared
Washington State has scratched Princess Joy Griffey from the 100 and 200 at the regionals in Northridge, Calif., for what coach Rick Sloan termed “family issues, personal reasons,” along with teammate LaShawnda Porter-Red – which also took out the Cougars’ 4x400 relay team. Meanwhile, freshman sensation Jeshua Anderson will concentrate on the 400 hurdles as expected, though he also qualified in the highs and flat 400. He’s also on both Cougar relay teams.
Wait ‘til next year?
The Whitworth men’s third-place finish at the NCAA Division III championships in Oshkosh, Wis., was somewhat bittersweet. The Pirates were four points out of first – exactly how many decathlete Ben Spaun would have scored had he been able to duplicate his qualifying placement. But the senior from Wenatchee pulled a hamstring in the 100-meter dash and limped through the competition to finish 13th.
Otherwise, the Pirates were lights out – high jumper Cody Stelzer and half-miler Emmanuel Bofa winning titles and throwers Kory Kemp and Jeff Kintner posting lifetime bests in finishing fourth.
“Our guys not only stood up to the pressure, they excelled,” said coach Toby Schwarz – who will see all five scorers return next season.
Bell lap
Aside from the 61 athletes from Washington State, Idaho and Eastern Washington bound for Northridge, several other former local preps have punched tickets to regionals: UCLA’s Laef Barnes (Mead) in the 1,500, Portland’s Justin Houck (Ferris) in the steeple and Northern Arizona’s Nikki Codd (Mead) in the women’s 800. In the field, there’s Cal’s Craig Kent (Central Valley) in the shot and discus, USC’s Kate Hutchinson (Pullman) in the discus, Idaho State’s Erin Bell (Rathdrum) in the long jump and Air Force’s David Lissy (Sandpoint), who will throw the shot and discus at the Midwest regional in Lincoln, Neb. … WSU discus thrower Matt Lamb redshirted this spring as he battled back problems. Then he entered the Gary Shaw Classic unattached and saw the friendly Salinas winds help carry four throws beyond 200 feet, topped by a 204-0. He’s now training toward the U.S. Olympic Trials. … Cougar sprinter Reny Follett’s PR 47.40 didn’t get him into the 400 finals in the Pac-10 meet, so he turned some heads with a 45.9 relay leg.