Netters:
        The history of our sport is replete with athletes who missed opportunities for great in certain events either because they feared them or, frankly, were too lazy to do thje necessary work.
 
        Our prime example from NJ was Wendy Vereen, who did pretty well in the sprints, though she was simply too small to challenge the top runners there.
 
        She had several possibilities which never materialized:
 
        1) She was also a top 100MH in HS with a smooth stride that enabled her to approach each hurdle in perfect position. Her hurdling form, however, was never polished as she dropped the event after HS.
 
        2) She could have been a world class 400M runner. Once, in a major relay meet, she ran a winning 53.0 or so anchor in this fastion: 30 seconds for the first 200, 23 for the second.
 
        3) She never ran the 400H, but obviously had the tools there--the speed, the ability to run a fast 400 and that stride which would have made getting the steps in properly a cinch.
 
 
        On a completely different tack, the question of whether good walkers make good runners and vice versa, NJ is now providing another positive example. Shannon Gillespie, who has won at least three National JO walk titles by huge margins. is now a freshman at Red Bank Catholic and it running in the top five on one of our state's best teams this fall. Word is that she will drop running during the spring season to concentrate on her walking. Our two previous walk-runners, Greg Diebold of Delbarton and Boston College (who retired from walking much too soon) and Sean Albert of Paramus HS and St. Peter's College walked and ran all year around without any harm to either. Greg, oddly, was not a distance runners, but a 400/800 man, whose HS coach greatly encouraged his walking because he felt it made him a better runner.
                                                    Ed Grant

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