Amadou Gueye usually doesn’t get nervous right before a race. But when he stepped on the starting blocks at the Big East championship last weekend, he could feel the nerves churning in his stomach.

This wasn’t just any 60-meter hurdles race for Gueye. The sophomore was running in only his second meet this indoor season since coming back from a hamstring injury. He didn’t know what to expect.

What he got, though, was a second-place finish, crossing the line in 7.92 seconds.

‘He really showed up huge this weekend to come out and (reach two personal records) off of really compromised training and racing for the whole indoor season,’ SU assistant coach Dave Hegland said.

After the race, Gueye called the second-place finish a relief. He knew a top-tier finish was within his range, even dealing with his nagging injury, as long as he performed the way he should. The only hurdler who topped him was Chris Kinney, a two-time All-American from Georgetown.

Coming off a strong freshman campaign, Gueye entered this season with two goals. They are goals even he calls lofty. The sophomore wanted to run a 7.77 in the 60-meter hurdles and make it to the NCAA Indoor championships.

A season of lofty goals quickly turned into a whirlwind of uncertainty for Gueye, though, when he strained his hamstring on Dec. 6, 2009. It’s a date he still remembers vividly.

Instead of working toward his goals, he was sidelined and helpless.

‘It’s real frustrating,’ said long-distance runner Joseph Bubniak, who was out for part of last year because of illness. ‘You work many months, you get into good shape, then get an injury and then you have to take a few months off. It’s a long process, but if you keep working hard, things will come together.’

Hegland wasn’t sure how much Gueye would be able to run following the injury. He said the goals were just delayed a little bit.

But Gueye and Hegland both expected the star runner to go full speed at the beginning of February instead of still trying to feel his way around the track.

In Gueye’s first race back at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 5, he was still hesitant and mindful of his injury. He finished with a time he called disappointing. He said he wasn’t attacking the hurdles aggressively enough, one of the reasons he’s normally so successful.

‘It was good to get a race out of the way,’ Gueye said. ‘But the time wasn’t where I wanted it to be. I don’t know if Coach was happy about it, but I wasn’t satisfied with it.’

Because he was still injured, he didn’t want to aggravate it or make it worse. Gueye had his eyes set on the Big East championship.

Or as he called it, ‘the big fish.’

As a result of Gueye reeling in that big fish with a second-place finish at the Big East championship, he still has a chance to reach both of his goals in a week and a half at the IC4A championship on March 5.

‘He’s got a good chance,’ head coach Chris Fox said of Gueye reaching nationals. ‘If he catches it really good at the (IC4A) in 10 more days, he has a shot for sure.’

Gueye understands the magnitude of this approaching race. He has to run his best to reach the NCAAs.

‘That’s my last chance to hit those goals,’ he said, ‘so it’s going to be a very, very big date for me.’

Though Georgetown’s Kinney, who defeated Gueye this past weekend, is already qualified, Gueye is right on his coattails. If he runs a time within the top 16 in the country, Gueye will have achieved one of his missions set forth before the season, all the more impressive considering where he was in December.

And Gueye said this time around, there won’t be any nerves.

‘I try not to get nervous because I don’t let the moment get to me,’ Gueye said. ‘If I was nervous, that would mean I feel I’m not prepared, and that’s not the case at all. Everybody does a good job at putting me in position to do well and to hit those goals.

‘So, nervous? No. Excited? Absolutely.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

 

Published on February 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm