Univ:sity Daily Kansan / Friday, May 1, 1987
13
All American
Continued from p. 11
qualified for the junior national championships. Since then, she has swum in so many other national junior and senior championships that many of them have run together for her.
29 But Herrold, a senior who finishes her career as a five-time All-American, said she clearly remembered the 1984 Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Ind., as her favorite meet.
"I felt a lot of pressure until I qualified," Herrold said, "but once I qualified, everybody told me that it was icing on the cake because they knew I would do well."
Herrold finished 13th in the 400 meter individual medley with a time of 5:00.01.
"It was exciting to be there. The United States Olympic Trials," Herrold said, repeating it to herself "So few athletes experience that."
Jacobs said commitment also gave athletes the ability to overcome obstacles early in their careers, as Buchanan and Huffman did.
Buchanan, for example, who holds the KU shot-put record, learned how to throw the shot in junior high. Her coach painted a throwing circle in the parking lot and she used the curb as a tee board.
Buchanan eventually garnered a national junior ranking and became a high school and collegiate All-American.
Huffman, a pole vaulter who had only 22 in his graduating class at Quinter High School, also learned his sport in seemingly adverse conditions.
Huffman, a KU junior and native of Quinter, population 1,000, said he ran on dirt roads and learned to pole vault in a parking lot. He was the 1A State Champion his senior year with a vault of 14-3. Now he vaults over 18 feet.
He said he had never thought about being an NCAA Division I athlete. "That would have been ridiculous."
Huffman he wanted to attend McPherson College like his father, who once held the school's pole vault record with a vault of 13.5.
"I wanted to get the record back in the family name." Huffman said. Instead, Huffman now holds the national freshman record in the pole vault with a vault of 18-54.
Attitude
In the area of attitude, Jacobs said the way athletes approached training and competitions also determined how successful they would be.
"Athletes have to realize that they are going to have good days and bad days when they practice." Jacobs is realistic with yourself it's important.
Trammel said the U.S. World Championship Trials last summer in Orlando, Fla., taught him to deal with outside influences.
Jacobs said being able to cope with different situations, especially with negative ones, was what made one athlete's mind stronger than the other's.
Before the finals of the men's 100-meter backstroke. Trammel said the meet's announcer had a long introduction for each of the eight swimmers in the final heat
The descriptions included All-American, member of the 1964 Olympic team and world record-holder. But when the announcer came to lane eight, he simply said: Glenn Trammel, from the University of Kansas.
I was nervous before the meet." Trammed said, "but I knew that I would do well because I had spent a couple of days sitting in the stands watching world records being broken. It left me in awe and it made me motivated."
But Trammler said making the finals wasn't what he had expected.
Reporter were talking to me, TV crews were all over the place and people were testing my blood before I swam," he said.
Trammel said the commotion affected his concentration, and doubts of how and why he had made it to the final heat raced through his mind.
Trammel finished eight with a time of 58.4. This marked a turning point in his career, he said.
"I always knew that I could compete with these guys," Trammler said, "but this was the first time that I saw it and I believed that I could."
Trammel said when he had this same pressure in March at the NCAA championships in Austin, Texas, he had learned to appreciate it.
“This time I knew I belonged there because I had made the cut easily,” Tramml said. “It was just a matter of being able to concentrate on myself and my swim.”
Trammel finished sixth with a time of 49.51 seconds and was named an All-American.
'When two athletes are of equal ability, the one who will win is the one whose mind is in shape. The people who have all three of these qualities are the types of people who are obviously driven to succeed.'
Andrew Jacobs sports psychologist
Tramnel's swim at the World Trials qualified him for the United States Swimming Team, making him eligible to compete this summer in either the World University Games in Yugoslavia, the Pan-American Games in Indianapolis, Ind., or the Pan-Pacific Games in Australia.
"I deserve it," Trammel said. "I have swum with the best and I have proven that I can swim with them."
Trammel will compete in the 1988 Olympic Trails as will Huffman, who also realized last summer that he could compete with the best.
Huffman finished fourth last June at The Athletic Congress Nationals in Eugene, Ore., in the pole vault with a vault of 18 4/2. He also was named an alternate to the Goodwill Games in Moscow.
"It meant that I was fourth in the country," Huffman said. "If it would have been an Olympic year, I would have been the alternate."
Huffman said it was the first time that he thought he could be ready to compete at the 1988 Olympic Games and it had helped his confidence.
"I think I did well there because I didn't expect myself to beat anybody and nobody else did either," Huffman said. "I wanted to go out and surprise everyone."
Success has not spoiled the Quinter native because he said he was thankful everyday for what he had achieved.
"This is my favorite thing to do in the whole world," Huffman said. "This is the one thing that I do well, and I love it."
Huffman said his vaulted had not changed since his Quinter days, only that now he vaulted 18 feet instead of 14.
The difference between that?
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"Eighteen feet is a lot longer to fail into the pit than 14," he said.
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Communication
Jacobs said another area common to athletes who were high achievers was communication. He said it was not communication with others that separated these athletes from the rest of their communication with themselves.
Buchanan, who was named an All-American in March at the NCAA indoor championships, showed a month before the meet that she knew how to communicate with herself.
Jacobs said many athletes had a tendency to overlook technique problems in particular because they did not want to admit they were doing something wrong that was affecting their performance.
"I started out the season in December with a throw of 51 feet, which was my personal best," Buchanan said. "The Christmas it was a different story."
"This involves an athlete being honest and open with himself," Jacobs said. "When things are not going right, this is the athlete that is willing to talk to himself or maybe a coach about it."
Buchanan said she began to throw a foot shorter each week. When she reached 48 feet, she called her former KU coach, Scott Calder, and told him she needed some help.
"All he had to do was watch me throw once and he knew what I was doing wrong," Buchanan said. "The next throw, I threw 51 again."
Buchanan said a lot had changed for her during her career as a shot-putter, even since her first national win in New York her freshman year.
"All I wanted to do then was look like I knew what I was doing." Buchanan said, "and not like I was scared to death, which I really was."
Buchanan said she now looked at herself as a good shot-putter and said she wanted others to do the same.
"It was the only thing that I wanted since my freshman year, to be an All-American," Buchanan said. "When I set my sights on something, I usually don't plan on not reaching it."
Buchanan's career will end this summer at the NCAA outdoor championships. She said she hoped to compete in The Athletic Congress Nationals in San Diego.
A strong showing in San Diego could lead to a spot on the National Sports Festival North team this summer.
"I don't like to be taken for granted," Buchanan said. "When I threw 33 feet at nationals I knew I could do it, but my competition didn't."
Scot leads Las Vegas golf tourney
LAS VEGAS. Nev. — Ken Brown retained a one-shot lead yesterday in the delayed windup of the first round of the storm-shortened Las Vegas Invitational golf tournament.
The Associated Press
Severe thunderstorms Wednesday in an area that averages 1.5 inches of rain a year disrupted the tournament from one day to five days 'from a five-day, 90-hour event to 72
"It doesn't rain in the desert. But it did," tournament chairman Tom Hartley said.
Brown's 64 on Wednesday stood up as the lead, although Keith Clearwater and Larry Rinker joined South African Denis Watson at 65. Clearwater played at the Las Vegas Country Club, one of three resort courses being used, and Rinker was at Spanish Trail. Watson is a former winner
of this title.
Yesterday, former U.S. Open champion Andy North, Fred Couples and Tom Byrum moved into a group of six at 66. North and Byrum had their 6-under-par efforts at Las Vegas, and Couples played at Spanish Trail.
PGA champion Bob Tway, Leonard Thompson and Mark Pfeil completed their 68s on Wednesday.
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