BOULDER, Colo.—Nebraska freshman heptathlete Megan Wheatley has been treading water in an effort to tear up the track.
With a stress fracture in her left foot keeping her off the track most of the season, she kept fit through workouts in the swimming pool.
Wheatley made quite a splash Saturday at the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships, winning the heptathlon title with a final score of 5,643 points, breaking a 15-year-old Potts Field record.
She’s the fourth straight Cornhusker heptathlete to win the conference title.
“It’s quite an honor,” Wheatley said. “It really stamps Nebraska’s dominance in the multi-event.”
Her performance helped the Cornhuskers take the overall women’s team lead heading into the final day of the championships. They’re vying for their first title since 2005, and have a 33 1/2-point cushion on second place Kansas State.
Missouri leads on the men’s side, holding a three-point lead over Colorado. Neither team has won a Big 12 outdoor title.
Wheatley, a native of Perth, Australia, has been hobbled by an assortment of foot ailments over the last few years, and hasn’t competed in a heptathlon event since August 2006.
Wheatley grabbed the overall lead after the second of seven events and gradually pulled away from the field. The 20-year-old won the high jump and shot put as well as the 200 and 800-meter races.
“It’s pretty extraordinary what she’s done,” said Nebraska multi-events coach Kris Grimes. “Her perseverance and motivation is amazing.”
Given her sore foot, Wheatley’s workouts have consisted of resistance work in the pool and riding an exercise bike.
She competed in a handful of individual events late in the season to test out the foot. A second-place finish in the long jump in early May convinced her the foot was on the mend.
However, a recent tumble in the hurdles at practice rattled her confidence.
“She took quite a spill,” Grimes said. “It was a startle. She had to pick herself up and get her head back into it.”
Wheatley didn’t look the least bit rattled by the hurdles during the competition, finishing second in the event to teammate Chantae McMillan.
“This is more than I could’ve asked for,” Wheatley said of her win. “I’m over the moon.”
She was recruited to Nebraska by Grimes, who had her name passed on to him by an acquaintance.
Wheatley came highly recommended. She competed in the heptathlon during the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China, and finished 16th with a score of 5,151 points.
That was the last time she competed in the event—until Saturday.
She’ll compete again at the NCAA tournament after reaching the qualifying standard with her score.
“It’s been a hard, hard year with injuries,” Wheatley said. “Even four weeks ago, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to compete today and was listed as the wild card. The wild card has done it.”
———
GRITTY PERFORMANCE@: Texas decathlete Donovan Kilmartin strained his groin while throwing the javelin in the second-to-last event of the day.
The leader at the time, he wasn’t about to pull out of the competition.
Kilmartin gritted through pain in the closing event, the 1,500-meter run, to wrap up his second Big 12 decathlon title in three years, finishing with 7,675 points. He held off Missouri’s Nick Adcock, who finished 18 points back.
“It bothered me,” Kilmartin said. “But I could hear my teammates yelling for me (in the 1,500), so I put down one foot after the next. I couldn’t have done it without the support of everyone. I definitely pushed it to the limit.”
Kilmartin won the event in 2006 with a score of 7,744 points. However, he redshirted last season to begin work on his master’s degree in petroleum engineering.
“It was a good decision,” said Kilmartin, whose father, Jim, was a quarterback at Oregon State from 1970-71. “Coach (Bubba Thornton) thought this year we’d have a good team, and he thought that by holding me back, I could help out.”
He did at that.
———
KNIGHT’S DAY@: Although Texas Tech junior Patience Knight won the shot put crown with a stadium-record throw of 56 feet, 2 1/2 inches, she wishes she would’ve tossed it a little farther.
“I didn’t get it like I wanted to,” said Knight, who also won the conference’s indoor meet in March. “I still feel blessed that I threw well and finished first—that’s a plus.”
Knight was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor near her heart in March 2007, but still competed as she underwent rounds of chemotherapy.
The San Antonio native is now cancer free.
———
BUSY SCHEDULE@: Colorado tailback Hugh Charles hasn’t had much time to work on the long jump this spring—he’s been busy auditioning for NFL teams.
Still, he managed to finish fourth with a leap of 25 feet, 2 3/4 inches.
“I’ve always been pretty good at the long jump,” Charles said. “It comes natural to me.”
Charles left Colorado as the team’s sixth all-time leading rusher. He recently spent time with the Cleveland Browns in their rookie minicamp, but didn’t get signed.
“I still want to play football,” said Charles, who just graduated with a degree in sociology. “I’m still waiting for that phone call.”
Texas A&M freshman Julian Reid won the event with a leap of 25-6 1/4. He won the indoor conference crown as well.
———
FAST TIME@: Texas A&M sophomore Porscha Lucas tied a Big 12 and school record with a time of 22.49 seconds in a preliminary round of the 200-meter dash Saturday.
It’s the third-fastest time in the world this season.
