Two Missouri seniors will make their returns at this weekend’s Missouri Relays.
Until recently, there have been holes in the Missouri track and field team’s roster. Seniors Amanda Bales and Tim Ross were injured early in the cross country season and have not competed. However, today’s Missouri Relays will give them a chance to test their legs and prepare for the rest of the outdoor track season.
Ross, who holds the school record in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters, won the Missouri Cross Country Challenge for the third time in his collegiate career to start the season. But later, while practicing at A.L. Gustin golf course, he stepped in a hole, spraining a tendon in his pelvis, and he was forced to sit out the rest of the cross-country season and the entire indoor track season.
“It was kind of a freak accident, and I didn’t notice that I had really hurt something until the following week,” said Ross whose sore hip made running more painful every day.
“You just aren’t going to be able to prevent that stuff from happening,” Jared Wilmes, the men’s distance coach, said. “That’s just part of the sport. It’s part of any sport.”
For Ross, suffering a season-ending injury during his senior year was especially hard.
“It wasn’t the way I imagined my senior year would start off,” Ross said. “My coach and I had made some changes to my training over the summer, and felt that I was coming into the season in the best shape of my life. We were really excited about the upcoming cross country season, and the injury really put that excitement on hold.”
He added that the worst part of having to sit out was not being able to share in a final season with his friends.
“What really hurt was not being able to finish my cross country career with my two roommates and fellow seniors, Matt Noonan and Chase Hall,” Ross said. “We had run the past three seasons together, and were really excited about racing together one last time.”
Ross said he and his friends, who call themselves the “Senior Trio”, would push each other to the limit in practices and meets.
“I’m so proud of the way those two guys ran during cross country,” Ross said. “The hardest thing about the injury was not being able to help my team.”
Although Ross has completed a long rehabilitation process, it is unclear if he will run outdoor track this season.
“With a distance runner, it takes a while to build your base back up, and your aerobic capacity back up,” Wilmes said. “He has gone basically two and a half months without running, and that’s a lot of time to take off and still really be at full tilt, even by the time we get to the outdoor season.”
Wilmes said that even if Ross is at “full tilt” by the end of the outdoor season, much of the NCAA qualifying opportunities will have passed. Thus, Ross will not be competing at the Missouri Relays as a Tiger. He will run unattached so he can make a decision on whether to redshirt for the outdoor season.
“We haven’t officially made that decision yet, but that’s the direction we’re heading right now,” Wilmes said.
Amanda Bales, though, will open her outdoor season at the Missouri Relays decidedly as a Tiger. Because she was out of eligibility in the indoor track season, and stress fractures in her legs ended her cross country season early, she was left with considerable down time.
In the most recent home meet she ran in, the Missouri Cross Country Challenge, a fall might have contributed to her injury.
“She fell at our home meet pretty significantly,” Rebecca Wilmes, the women’s distance coach, said. “We believe (the stress fractures) could have been compromised at this time. It may have been broken (while) running at this point, but who knows. Stress fractures can be caused by all sorts of things, even stress in life. You just never know.”
As with Ross, Bales said having to sit out was hard, but missing her teammates was even worse.
“I had trained all summer and things were going pretty well,” she said. “A lot of these girls I had run with before this, my senior year or culminating season. So, to not be able to finish it out with them was really disappointing.”
The road back to running has been filled with obstacles. In addition to the stress fractures, she had problems with her iliotibial band, the ligament that runs down the outer leg. Her workouts had to be planned accordingly.
“We had to work out some things where we’d cut back then try to add more,” Bales said. “It has kind of been a battle the whole time, trying to stay healthy and get it all back together. I’ve been doing a lot of base stuff, but haven’t really hit any speed workouts.”
She said her first couple of races will be focused on getting back into her stride.
“She’s not real sharp right now, as far as race ready, and that’s intentional,” Rebecca Wilmes said. “She’s very very strong and everything is geared towards her running fast late April through May, and you know, making it to the NCAA meet.”
Bales’ main event is the 1,500 meters. Last outdoor season she placed fifth in the event at the Drake Relays, second at the Big 12 meet, second at the NCAA Mideast Regional and 13th in the NCAA Championships. A four-time Big 12 runner of the week, Bales said she is excited to finally return to competition, but had trouble being specific about her goals.
“I would really like to just, as always, try to give it everything I have every race and, like always, to keep improving the entire season,” she said. “By the end of the season, I will hopefully be at nationals competing with some of the best.”