Boulder Running Company/Colorado Track XC Athletes of the Week

Gavin McHenry - Chaparral

Kiah Hicks - Falcon

Special to Colorado Track XC by Phil Latter

Week 8

There’s an old adage in the world of sports that says you can’t teach speed.

Gavin McHenry might disagree.

The Chaparral junior blazed a nationally-ranked 21.21 in the 200m last Friday at the Liberty Bell Invitational, then followed it with a 10.65 in the 100m finals on Monday, earning this week’s Boulder Running Company Male Track Athlete of the Week. This from a runner who came in with sophomore times of 22.81 and 11.1, and for whom qualifying for state was once considered a reach. All of which begs the question: Where did this guy come from?

“It all started over the summer and winter this year, just mainly bulking up for football,” McHenry says. “I put on probably 15 pounds. Mainly that’s all muscle. I got taller. I’ve pretty much been living in the weight room. During practices I’ve been hitting it hard and pushing it as much as I can. We got a new coach for sprints. So it’s all just coming together.”

New sprint coach Ryan Harris deserves much of the credit for that “togetherness.” 

“Ryan really works on the finer points of sprinting with Gavin,” says Brian Seppala, Chaparral’s head boys coach. “He has a great relationship with him, and he really knows how to get the best out of Gavin in practice, which translates to fast times at meets.”

Those times were never faster than this weekend. After scorching the prelim sheets on Friday, McHenry found a bull’s eye squarely on his back as three of the state’s most established sprinters took aim: Ray Bozmans of Fort Collins, Markesh Woodson of Fountain-Fort Carson, and Marcus Harris of Eaglecrest. In the 100m, a mere .10 seconds separated the winner (Bozmans) from fourth place (Harris), with Woodson and McHenry battling for second. In the 200m, a strong curve by Bozmans ended up being too much for McHenry to overtake in the homestretch. The quality of the races was revealed in the state-leading and nationally-ranked times each produced.

Winning Liberty Bell and winning state are two different things, however.  It is for this reason that the athlete best known for his prowess on the football field will continue to plug away at Coach Harris’s training that emphasizes “fine tuning my starts, helping me come out low [of the blocks], arm drive, leg pump, all of that.”

It won’t hurt his football prospects, either.

“I’ll be [quicker] and more explosive,” he says of the coming football season in which he hopes be recruited by a Division I school, “being able to go left and right, changing directions on kick returns, running fast out of my stance, and just breaking free.”

In the meantime, McHenry will focus on breaking free of the close-knit group of 5A short sprinters all vying for state titles, a group that is poised to offer some of the highest drama come May 19th. The drama won’t end there, however; all four return to the track in 2012.

While McHenry dreams of state titles, this week’s female Athlete of the Week already has a shelf full of hardware. The defending 4A champion in both the shot and discus, Kiah Hicks upped the ante even more by setting a 4A all-time record in the discus with a throw of 156-3 at the Coronado Cougar Classic. It was a mark that Hicks had been patiently waiting for all season.

“Early in the season I was doing a lot of hard workouts, and we trained through a lot of the meets,” she says. “Last week we took a really light week. My legs were super fresh. Everything was really fresh, relaxed, and rested for the meet that day.”

Yet even more than her body’s renewed sense of freshness, it was the top-flight throwing competition that brought out such an exceptional mark.

“I knew that Krystal [Martinez of Pueblo Central] and Alexis Cooks [of Doherty] were going to be there, and I always feel I want to do really good against them.  But ‘good’ is always dependent on the day and what the meet is, so I wasn’t really sure what I was up for yet.”

A personal best throw by almost 14 feet, and now ranked 7th nationally, showed that Hicks was up for more than she had ever imagined in the discus. But setting the state meet record remains a major goal. And that requires the assistance of Martinez and Cooks.

“I’m not so good at pushing myself,” says Hicks. “Having the great competition keeps you motivated.”

While the Falcon senior is sure to miss the superlative 4A throwing competition, bigger challenges loom just up I-25, where Hicks has committed to CSU. And for those who know Hicks as a starting forward on the varsity basketball team who happens to also do track, the prospect of her devoting the next four years to only throwing is beyond intriguing.

“I think it’s going to be kind of crazy,” Hicks says of throwing at CSU. “Until next year, I’ve done basketball year round except for one summer where I did track.  I’ve always been a basketball player. It’s going to be crazy focusing all my time on track. I’m also really excited, though. My basketball coach always said, ‘Think how good you could be in track if that’s the only sport you played.’  That could be cool.”

Mountain West Conference, consider yourself warned.