The University of Minnesota’s spring sports don’t get the same media attention as others usually do. As a result and in the interest of seasonal balance, this week’s AV spotlights four springtime participants.
Hassan Mead: back on track health-wise
As a freshman and sophomore, Hassan Mead was virtually unbeatable as a runner. However, beginning with his third year, the injury bug finally caught up with the young man.
“I was running on East River Road,” recalls Mead, when he experienced pain in his back. Later, doctors told him that his right lung had collapsed, and he underwent an emergency procedure.
“My lung had crumpled like a pop in a balloon,” he continues. “I was in the hospital for 17 days.”
Because of his lean body type, doctors informed him that there was no way to prevent the collapsed lung, claims Mead. “It just happened.”
It has been a long road back from first an Achilles tendon injury and then a collapsed lung, but Mead believes he has regained his stride. He set a career-best 29 minutes, 4.79 seconds when he won his second 10,000-meter run crown in this spring’s Big Ten championships in Iowa
City, Iowa May 13.
This weekend Mead is a member of a school-record 24 track athletes headed to the NCAA Preliminary Meet at the University of Oregon May 26-28. He expects to compete in the 5,000-meters event.
Although he graduates this spring with a communications degree, Mead has one more year of eligibility — he was a medical red shirt last season — and plans to run next winter and spring while he studies sports management in graduate school.
“I’m very healthy,” he proclaims. “My body is 100 percent.”
Todea-Kay Willis:relaxed jumper
Sophomore Todea-Kay Willis is among 16 Gophers heading to this weekend’s NCAA Preliminary Meet at the University of Oregon. She will be entered in two events: the long jump and the 4×100 meters relay.
Willis in April broke the Minnesota long jump record at LSU with a leap of 21 feet, 1 ½ inches. “I was pretty confident going into that meet. I knew it was going to be a warm day, and I really prepared myself mentally,” she recalls. “I didn’t know I set the record until our team meeting later.”
She admits that relaxation is the key to her long jumping success. “My mental state has to be relaxed. When I’m relaxed, I think of things that I’m supposed to do, and they come naturally when I’m more relaxed. It’s focusing and doing things the right way, and being consistent.”
Although Willis jumps both indoors and out, “I really prefer the outdoors because there is so much more excitement, the weather is nice, and people are cheering,” she points out. “It takes some time to get used to indoors.”
The Jamaica native says being an athlete of color at Minnesota “is another point where I can stand out and make a difference, and show others that I do what I do and do it well.” Willis plans to graduate next year with a degree in marketing.
Alex Davis: standing out in her sport
Sophomore Alex Davis started all 54 games for the Gophers this spring — the softball team recorded its highest win total since 2004 with a 31-24 overall record.
“The team effort [this season] was totally different than last year,” notes Davis. “This team came out ready to work when we found out our new coaches.”
Davis says that her parents back in her native California helped guide her through a freshman season in which the team struggled, resulting in a coaching change afterwards. The new coaches told her, “It is going to be OK, stay grounded and do your thing.”
She is among the nearly six percent of Black female softball players in Division I, and the only Black player on Minnesota’s squad. “I know of only a couple in Division I, so it is just a matter of helping others learn about the game of softball,” explains Davis, who mostly plays third base. “I wish there were more [Black] women who did play. It is still forming as an up-and-coming sport.”
Chimerem Okoroji: getting better all the time
Making her third NCAA appearance in as many seasons, junior Chimerem Okoroji modestly says she’s nearly reaching her stride on the track. “Things definitely have gotten better since my freshman year,” she admits. “I’m starting to understand the sport a little bit more.”
Okoroji will compete in three events this weekend at the national preliminary: the 100 meters, 4×100 meter relay and 4×400 meter relay. Earlier this season, she set a career-best in the 100, 11.63 seconds, which is the fourth-best time in Gopher history. In that same LSU meet, she also clocked another career-best, 24.22 seconds in the 200 meters, tying the school’s seventh-fastest time ever.
“I think I really like the shorter sprints like the 100 and 200,” surmises Okoroji, who expects to graduate next year in fashion design and child psychology.
Additional excerpts from interviews with Mead, Willis, Davis and Okoroji can be found on Charles’ “Another View” blog at www.challman.wordpress.com.
Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com.
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