Success Brings Bourne A Positive ID
As unidentified flying objects go, Cheryl Bourne (New Straitsville, Ohio/Miller) was pretty standard in one regard. She caught those entrusted with watching the radar off guard.
Here's where the AU senior differs from your standard meteor or never-seen-before-or-since space ship. Bourne was a shot in the dark who didn't disappear, she's stood the test of time. As her numbers show, she's never burnt and crashed either. As the latest NCAA Division II track and field performance lists reveal, she's never come down to earth.
Bourne is second in the country (NCAA Division II) in the pentathlon. Her total of 3885 points trails only Lindsay Lettow of Central Missouri, the defending NCAA Division II champion, who has 4019 points. Bourne also has provisional qualifications for nationals in the triple jump (39-2.5, sixth in the country), long jump (18-7.75, 14th) and 60 hurdles (8.71/15th). Her mark in the pentathlon is an automatic qualifier.
Last week, at the University of Akron Invitational, Bourne finished first in the pentathlon, finishing ahead of former teammate Abby Kacsandi, who was one of the first AU athletes to give Bourne a primer on the sport and college track in general. Kacsandi is a former All-American and a Division II national champ. At that competition, Bourne set her personal best in the hurdles (8.71).
No one talked about personal bests or multiple events when Bourne first came to AU. Ask her about the recruiting process and she laughs and shakes her head.
"I actually found them, they didn't find me," she explains.
Bourne attended AU's track and field camps, directed by head coach Jud Logan. She met Joey Brightbill,who was then an assistant coach (jumps) and they talked about the program and where she might fit. She was offered the chance to join the Eagles as a walk-on.
"The first practice almost killed me," said Bourne. "Abby Kacsandi tried to sell me on it (pentathlon) and the whole team. In the weight room, she talked to me about the team, how exciting it was and how much fun it is. I had never hurdled before college. I had never run over 200 meters before college."
"You pull out the book of clichés and you look up, 'diamond in the rough,' and you see her picture," said Logan.
It's not hard to see how Bourne came to the Eagles as an unknown. Today, she competes in about as many events as she had teammates in high school. In the pentathlon, Bourne participates in the hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and the 800. At Miller High School most years, the track team would start with under 10 athletes and the roster would dwindle down to five or six athletes as the season progressed.
"I had 73 people in my class," said Bourne. "We'd start out with six athletes and people would quit and not come back."
As that background shows, Bourne's schooling in track and field was rudimentary. It took time to figure out where she should compete.
"After that first year, we still didn't know what we had," admitted Logan. "We had no idea. She wasn't good enough in any one event. She ended up being good in them all."
It took Bourne some time to find herself and settle into a program that constantly ranks among the nation's best (the AU men are currently ranked second in the country and the women are ranked fifth). Because of her background and the uncertainty over where she would compete, Bourne may have felt like she didn't belong. She admits to having issues with low confidence, even as late as last year. Slowly, though, all those doubts have evaporated.
"I think the key for her was staying here last summer," said Logan. "In the past, she'd go home and rest and recover. This year, she trained. When she set a PR by 10 seconds in the 800, that was it. That gave her all the confidence in the world."
"We run 600 meter time trials in practice," explained Bourne. "Jud told me to pretend I was running the 600 and then hold on. That changed everything."
Bourne's qualifying total came on Dec. 9 at Kent State's Golden Flash Invitational. Securing the automatic berth so early has allowed her to experiment in some events and compete without pressure.
In the pentathlon, Bourne considers her best event the hurdles and her weakest event the shot. Logan begs to differ, pointing out that she really doesn't have a weak event. AU has a deep and talented group of throwers that includes senior Kelly Ash (Coshocton, Ohio), who has the fifth best throw in the nation and freshman Jessica Bridenthal (Akron, Ohio/St. Vincent-St. Mary), who has the eighth best throw in the country. Maybe Bourne's throws don't measure up to those two, but they are good enough to get her points against most people she competes against.
"She has the second best throw in the shot put," said Logan, referring to how Bourne stacks up against other women in the pentathlon.
The 2012 NCAA indoor national championships will be Bourne's fourth trip to nationals. She owns an All-American citation in the distance medley. Bourne admits that in her first three trips to nationals she was a bundle of nerves, at one point she cried before competing because she was anxiety ridden. Those days would appear to be over.
"Cheryl doesn't give herself enough credit," said AU assistant coach Dana Freeman, who works with Bourne on the jumps. "She's worked hard to get where she is. Once she does something once, that gives her confidence to do it again. It's getting over that first hurdle."
Because she's involved in a number of events, Bourne gets coaching from three coaches – Logan, Freeman and assistant coach Dave Smalley. That's a lot of different voices and it takes some practice to keep everything straight.
"Coach Smalley has done an unbelievable job," said Logan. "She came here with really no technique but that's not necessarily a bad thing, there are no bad habits to break. Joey Brightbill did a lot of work with her in the long jump and Dana has worked with her in the high jump and long jump. She'll tell you that Coach Smalley did this, Coach Freeman did that, but I think she's done this on her own. The bottom line is the credit goes to her."
"I had a talk with Cheryl," said Freeman. "You have to take one event at a time. Focus on the hurdles and move on. The hardest thing is learning to move on. In the pentathlon you have four other opportunities to get the points."
The Eagles believe that they can confidently count on Bourne for points in March at the national championship meet. Both the AU men and women insist they can make it to the awards stand. For the women to get there, they need major contributions from Bourne. She doesn't shrink away from those expectations.
"In the past I worked hard, but didn't have confidence in myself," Bourne said. "Then I scored 26 points at the conference meet. If I did that, maybe I had something to compete with people. If I don't have confidence, I'll lose. Being in this program has given me confidence."
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