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A Wildcat surprise
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer WESLEY CHAPEL -- After a hard day's work at school, there's nothing that relaxes Angela Medvid more than lining up in the blocks that night to run a 300-meter intermediate hurdles race. Or the 100-meter high hurdles. Either one will do the trick. "It soothes me," Medvid said. "When I'm jumping over things, I'm trying to take my anger out on it. It's my time to fly, like I'm soaring through the air." Soaring. Now there's one way to describe her junior season. At the Sunshine Athletic Conference championships, she won the 300 hurdles (46.19 seconds) and was the runner-up in the 100 hurdles (16.31). At the Class 2A, District 9 meet, Medvid won the 300 hurdles (46.58) and was second in the 100 (16.11). But it was at last week's Class 2A, Region 3 meet at her home track, Wildcat Stadium, when Medvid really shined. She stunned the field by winning the school's first region track titles in the 100 (47.34) and the 300 (47.34) in school-record times to advance to state. Angela Medvid, championship hurdler. It's something she's still getting used to. "I had set myself a goal at the beginning of the season. I told coach I was going to state. I'm just shocked that it came true." Medvid, who also runs a leg for the Wildcats' 4x100 relay, is pretty fast on her own. "I think she impressed a lot of people," coach Annie McGhee said. "I think that it was a little bit more expected in the 300, going in with the times that she's had. But in the 100, she worked really hard and there's a little bit more competition, but that's where she definitely impressed people." Medvid can impress them even more if she comes back from Coral Springs with medals. Among those impressed is Medvid herself, who didn't realize the kind of breakthrough she was about to make at regionals until she ran in the preliminaries. "I didn't feel good in the 100. I didn't think I was ready for it," Medvid said. "But I guess I really was, because I busted out with a 15.5 in the prelims, and I was shocked! I went from a 16.1 to 15.5, and I was like, 'Whoa!' " Not bad for someone who had to be forced to run the 300 hurdles last season. "Last year, when we put her in the 300 hurdles, she didn't like them," McGhee said. "But we told her, 'If you get those 300 hurdles down, you're going to go to state,' and she has." The key to Medvid's success, McGhee said, is what she does between the hurdles. "I think early in the season in the 300 hurdles, she just wasn't attacking really hard," McGhee said. "And now we work on that a lot, especially on getting to the first hurdle."
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From today's Pasco Times |
