 |
NHS defense shines in jamboree
George Fox women go 1-1 in Minnesota
tourney
NHS grad Brandon Hazenberg is back
in action
| Headed
east to WSU |
Newberg High School's Meghan Leonard receives a track and cross country
scholarship to Washington State University |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
 It’s finally over for Newberg High School’s Meghan Leonard.
After trying to figure out which college she wanted to attend, she signed a
letter of intent to go to Washington State University on a partial scholarship for cross
country and track.
“It’s such a relief,” said Leonard, who hasn’t decided on
a major yet. “I was so overwhelmed so it’s really nice to get college out of the
way.”
Leonard had contemplated attending the University of Oregon and the
University of Portland but said the town in which WSU resides in, Pullman, was a nice fit
for her.
“I really liked how small the town was,” she said. “It was a
college town and it was pretty cool.”
Leonard holds several cross country records. She is second all-time for cross
country as a sophomore and holds the junior and senior records and the school record in
the 5k with a time of 18 minutes, 27 seconds. In track, Leonard is second in school
history in the 1,500 (4:47), 800 (2:17) and 3,000 (10:21).
Leonard ran in a tough Pac-9 Conference, one with Megan Armstrong of Tualatin
who won the district meet this past season and placed second at the state meet this year,
and won the 1,500 and 3,000 in track last year.
Leonard said she didn’t think her times would have been much different
if Armstrong hadn’t been in the same league.
“I think my times would have stayed the same because she was up there
all the time and I didn’t really try to stay with her,” Leonard said. “I
didn’t really race against her that much, though. I ran against her at state and at
districts because during cross country, I don’t think I ran any Tualatin meets
because it conflicted (with soccer).”
That’s what makes Leonard’s scholarship even more impressive —
she never trained for the cross country season. Leonard played two sports during the fall
season, soccer and cross country. When the soccer team didn’t have a game, she would
run at the once-a-week meets for the cross country team. Otherwise, she’d be
practicing soccer.
Not many people would practice for a sport that they didn’t have a huge
chance of playing in college while giving up training time for a sport in which their
likelihood of continuing after high school.
“That’s what my commitment was to,” Leonard said of
soccer. “I made that first and I wasn’t going to let down my team and quit on
them. Plus, I really enjoyed it.”
But in a weird way, Leonard’s lack of training helped her because her
times were above average for someone who didn’t train much. That gave coaches the
idea that with more training, Leonard could be even better.
“(Washington State coaches) recruited me and they gave me more money
than they should have just because I don’t train because they said I have more
potential,” Leonard said.
At this past season’s cross country meet, Leonard said she wasn’t
happy with how she performed, despite her 13th-place finish with a time of 19:03.
“I just didn’t run the way I wanted to,” she said.
But a lot of her finish had to do with the knee injury she suffered while
playing soccer. The injury is still an unanswered question, though. Leonard has received
an MRI on it and visited a knee specialist but results were inconclusive. She said she can
run for approximately 90 minutes before the pain starts to set in. The pain comes into
play when she’s practicing on Newberg’s basketball team for nearly three hours
each day, another sport she enjoys. As a guard on the team, she’s looking forward to
the season.
“I’m excited,” she said. “The seven seniors on the team
have all been playing since sixth grade and so we’ve all grown up on a team together.
It’ll be really neat to see how far we go this year.” |
|
From Dec. 3,
2003, Newberg Graphic
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