By Chuck Landis, Marion Chronicle-Tribune
10/30/2008
MIER — An injury just before the start of the season may have helped Oak Hill junior Cameron Balser become a better cross country runner.
Balser injured a foot playing pick-up soccer in early August and missed the start of the cross country season. In the past two weeks, though, Balser has run better than ever.
At Saturday’s New Prairie Semistate, Balser ran a personal best 15 minutes, 56 seconds and was second overall in the meet. An incident late in the race prevented him from taking top individual honors in his third consecutive postseason race.
Balser qualified for his third consecutive IHSAA state finals and competes Saturday at the Wabash Valley Sports Center, Terre Haute. He’s vying for at least a top 25 finish to earn all-state honors.
“I have so many different goals,” Balser said after practice Wednesday afternoon. “I definitely want top 25 and, if I feel good, the top 15. I also want to be the top junior runner and the top in my (2A) class.”
Last year, Balser ran a disappointing race and finished 38th overall in 16:36. It was only a two-second improvement from his freshman year when he finished in 52nd place.
Still, Balser was firmly established as one of the best small-school distance runners in Indiana and expecting to build on his success.
But the foot injury delayed the start of his season about 3½ weeks, and he was in danger of falling behind in his conditioning.
Although he couldn’t run, Balser continued to train in the swimming pool and weight room and on the stationary bike. Oak Hill coach Paige Brunner said Balser worked so hard he blew out one stationary bike.
The laps in the pool and weight training developed muscles in the arms and upper body he never had, and riding the bike developed more power in his legs. Brunner said Balser’s newfound strength and power was evident as he broke away from the pack in each of the three postseason races.
“After three weeks of swimming twice a day, I built up my body and I was breathing better,” Balser said. “I was starting to like it.”
Brunner said Balser isn’t a strong swimmer and always had a disdain for training in the pool. Yet, Brunner was impressed at how Balser attacked his rehabilitation.
“His legs may be fresher than others who have run the entire season, that’s a distinct possibility,” Brunner said. “You worry that he missed 3½ weeks of (cross country) training, but now others who ran fantastic times early are coming back to Cameron, and he’s still climbing up the boards.”
Balser said he’s noticed how the improved strength and power have helped him pull away in the final 1,000 meters of a race. Brunner said it’s not always about who the fastest runner is, but who has the mental and physical toughness to break through at the end of a race.
In the sectional, regional and semistate races Balser was able to match strides with the lead pack and then make a late move. At the state meet, the lead pack will be much deeper and stronger.
“There’s a top group of four runners who are pretty much untouchable,” Balser said. “But there’s a second group of runners I can hop in with and hopefully finish with them. A lot will depend on what pace is set in the first (kilometer).”
Brunner said Balser’s prominently in the second tier of runners that are about 20 to 25 strong and he could finish anywhere at the top or bottom of that group.
“I felt like he should have been top 25 last year but he had a bad race,” Brunner said of Balser. “This year, he is one of the top 25 runners in Indiana and I hope he gets to show that Saturday.”
Besides improved strength, Balser said he has a growing confidence in his ability.
“When I went to state in track I looked around and saw this was some pretty big competition,” he said. “But I felt like I belonged there and that I wasn’t just some small-school runner.
“When I was injured I wondered if I would ever get back in shape,” Balser added. “But in the last two weeks I’m starting to put down good positions and times and this is when it counts.”
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IHSAA - BOYS XCOUNTRY
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