SEC Outdoor Track Championships 2002 Voices in the Press
Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS),
May 9th-12th, 2002:
Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Saturday, May 11, 2002:
Kleinmann runs through pain, wins race, acclaim
BY MARTY COOK - STARKVILLE, Miss. --
Ladies and gentlemen: Lilli Kleinmann.
Kleinmann, injured, sick and running only out of loyalty for her coach and team, captured the 10,000-meter
run title at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday. Kleinmann hadn't run since the indoor season ended because of a stubborn left
hamstring, but looked like the Kleinmann of old who won the 2000 SEC 3,000-meter steeplechase championship.
"That's beyond description," Arkansas Coach
Lance Harter said of Kleinmann's victory. "I've never seen anyone come off sick bay and run at this level.
"She's just a champion, I have no other way to describe it."
The success surprised even Kleinmann, who thought she might have a shot at second place if everything went perfectly. She trailed teammate Penny Splichal by
about 100 meters with 10 laps remaining but began to reel her in.
Kleinmann trimmed the gap to 25 meters in two laps then needed another to pass Splichal, who
would finish second to give the Lady Razorbacks 18 points. Kleinmann then pushed the lead and cruised to victory in 35:53.44, while Splichal finished in 36:04.32. "
If it was not for the team and for Lance, I wouldn't have run this race ever," Kleinmann said. "I haven't been able to run all year. I had become a 'hobby jogger,' as I
like to call it.
"Lance put no pressure on me. No other coach in the country would have done that. He let me have my space. I ran the race for him."
Harter, when
told of Kleinmann's comments, said Kleinmann did the race for the team, not him.
"She's a co-captain and a team player," Harter said. "This has been so frustrating
for her this year. It has been a constant mental battle."
It was so frustrating that Kleinmann said she seriously considered quitting. Instead, she has decided to stay at
Arkansas and pursue a Ph.D. in marketing.
"It was a crazy year," Kleinmann said. "I will never forget it. I matured so much, I learned so much. Runningwise went
really bad, but it was the best exprience I ever learned."
Kleinmann and Spichal's efforts gave Arkansas 37 points after Friday's up-and-down day. The day had
begun well when Marie LeJour finished a strong second in the hammer throw, but then hit a snag when DeeDee Brown and Loren Leaverton scored just 11 points
in the heptathlon.
Brown, who trailed by 16 points after the first day, couldn't catch Tacita Bass of South Carolina and finished second by 35 points. Leaverton had
a disappointing second day and finished sixth. A year ago, LeJour used a surprising fifth-place finish in the hammer throw as the impetus to win the Commissioner's
Trophy for being the high-point individual scorer. That motivated her less Friday than the memory of the shot put competition in the SEC Indoor Championship
two months ago.
Then, LeJour was ranked No. 3 entering the competition but finished sixth after a lackluster performance. When LeJour felt sluggish in Friday's
warmups, she didn't need to think hard or long to find the wherewithal to pick up her performance. "I didn't feel really snappy in warmups," LeJour said. "I just
went for it. I knew if I didn't, I wasn't going to place. I cleared my mind and said, 'This is over with. This is when it counts.'
"I got in the [indoor] meet and froze. I
choked big time. I had awful deja vu, but I was not going to let that happen again."
Harter expected a second-place finish from LeJour but conservatively counted
on a six-point, third-place finish. LeJour's second-place finish kept Florida from earning the top two spots, but the Lady Gators, the indoor team champions, earned
17 points for finishing 1-3-8.
"Marie rises to the occasion head-to-head," Harter said. "She comes get you in competition. She has that great instinct. That's what
Houston Nutt dreams about because she comes into the huddle and says, 'Give me the ball.' "
That momentum didn't extend to the heptathlon, where Brown
couldn't make up a 16-point, first-day deficit to Tacita Bass of South Carolina. Bass held off Brown to win the heptathlon 5,588-5,553. Leaverton finished sixth
with 4,997 and earned three points. Brown, a graduate of Little Rock Hall, lost 5,704-5,700 to teammate GiGi Miller in 2001 after winning the heptathlon as a
sophomore in 2000. Brown blamed her finish on a poor start Thursday when she scored 3,382 points, roughly 120 points below her normal output, including a
subpar 200-meter run that cost her about 50 points.
Brown ran a personal best in the last event, a 2:22.10 in the 800-meter run. Brown took a little satisfaction in
finishing strong.
"The first day was real tough on me," Brown said. "I don't know if I wasn't focused or if my best just didn't happen. You have to be good in every
event and that's where I lost it.
"That's what I get for waiting for the last event. You learn your lesson. This is not a catch-up game. It's seven events and you have
to stay on top.
"The mind-set was to go for it, but mind and body didn't go together."
