McCormick exceeds expectations

January 08, 2001

McCormick exceeds expectations

By DAN KAUFFMAN / Staff Writer

Middletown senior Greg McCormick gave a word of warning as he entered the Monocacy Valley Athletic League indoor track meet.

"Don't expect anything from me," he said.

McCormick wasn't even sure he would compete Saturday at the Hagerstown Community College's athletic complex - not just because of his continued recovery from a neck injury, but because of a hip pointer he suffered last week. And even then he waited an hour before he picked up his pole and almost two before he took his first warmup approach for the high jump.

"Coming into the meet, Coach (Don Boyer) didn't want me to compete if I didn't feel fine," McCormick said.

He must have felt fine. Despite the injuries, McCormick put on a performance even he didn't expect, winning the pole vault with 13 feet, 6 inch effort and the high jump with a leap of 6-2.

"I've been having a little bit of trouble so far this season," McCormick said. "This helped me."

Coming into the meet, the pole vault was McCormick's biggest obstacle, especially after suffering a fractured neck last February on a botched vault. He only started to practice the event again last fall.

Physically, McCormick's neck is completely healed.

Psychologically, there are still some lingering fears.

"I was OK at the beginning of the season," he said. "It's just a little bit of a mental thing coming up and nagging me in the mind."

Wearing a protective helmet during his vaults, McCormick performed the event with caution, but still managed to defeat North Hagerstown's David Miller on his last attempt to tie the MVAL record, set last year by Brunswick's Steve Ferrel.

"That's fine with me," McCormick said of his performance.

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