WINTHROP – Even though it was her ankle that clipped the hurdle, it was Melissa Nguyen’s head that hurt following the 100-meter hurdles final at the MVC championship meet.
“No matter how many times I watch the tape of it happening, it still hurts to see it,” said Nguyen, who recovered enough to finish third. “It’s just so frustrating.”
Nguyen, a junior, and Kim Toothaker, a sophomore who finished second in that same race, recovered to go 1-2 in the 300-meter hurdles. The two are just the most recent pair of hurdlers from Winthrop High School to make its mark in the Mountain Valley Conference, and more than likely again on a state level this week.
“We got them in middle school,” said Winthrop track coach Norm Thombs. “They came to a couple of high school practices to see what it was like. It gave them a bit of a head start, which was critical, but both of them are well aware of the history of hurdling at Winthrop.”
According to Thombs, the Winthrop girls, which have won 13 of the last 16 MVC track titles, have had a runner finish first in one of the two hurdling events for 15 years running.
“We have a feeling, almost like it’s our duty to continue this,” said Toothaker. “It’s a tradition here, and neither of us wants to be the one that slacks off.”
Part of this pair’s success has come from the stiff competition they face almost every day in practice.
“With the two of them, their work ethic is tremendous,” said Thombs. “I don’t think that I’ve ever had two girls that have worked harder than those two do all the time. They push each other in practice all the time, and are very competitive.”
And hurdling does take a lot of hard work, especially from the very beginning. According to the girls, it takes a few falls at first to realize just how tough hurdling can be.
“In middle school, when we first found out we’d be hurdling, we were scared we’d fall, we all were,” said Nguyen.
“It really takes the brave kids to do the hurdles,” added Toothaker.
Even as the two hopeful hurdlers approach their second state title together, the fear (and reality) of falling hasn’t completely disappeared.
“There was a meet the Monday before MVC’s,” Toothaker said as she glanced at a fading bruise on her knee. “I took a good spill in the 300 hurdles. It wasn’t pretty.”
“It’s kind of funny, though,” continued Nguyen. “She fell at the meet and then in practice the next day I fell, too.”
“You can’t tell yourself not to fall, Toothaker continued, again in seamless transition. “It makes you work that much harder, though. Once you have the right technique, it’s all in your head.”
Finishing each other’s sentences is now almost as common for the two girls as winning hurdles races at track meets. Despite their competitive nature, a friendship has blossomed over the years.
“They’ll support each other when they are all done racing,” said Thombs, “but they are both out there to win.”
As they chase each other around the track at the Maine Class C State Championship meet later this week, their fire will not only benefit a strengthening friendship, but also the hopes of a small but athletically talented team from Winthrop.
Comments are no longer available on this story