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Winona Co-Sportsman of the Year - Garrett Heath (Winona, Mn)
Sportsperson of the Year: Heath elite ... enough said
Garrett Heath outleans Mohamed Trafeh for 6th at Foot Locker Nationals
- (r) Heath (Foot Locker photos) - They were the top two underclass finishers
in the Nationals this past December and should battle again next year
- Heath's story below is quite interesting in his sporting background
- from Mark Abraham
There aren't a lot of high school athletes who can claim to be all-state
in three sports as both a freshman and a sophomore.
Garrett Heath can.
There are even fewer athletes who can brag about breaking a 5,000-meter
cross country course record by a full 50 seconds.
Heath can.
And there are only a handful of high school athletes who get a chance
to compete at the national level ... and excel at it.
That would be Garrett Heath, too.
When the phrase "elite athlete" comes up, the quiet Winona Senior
High School junior probably won't admit it, but he does belong in that
class.
"There's a lot of kids that go on these various trips, but a lot
of them pay their own way," said former WSHS cross country coach
Jim Flim, who coached Heath during his freshman season. "When Foot
Locker and other people pay your way, you're an elite endurance athlete.
"When I had him, I knew he was going to be a phenomenal runner and
skier. When I made the decision to retire, I knew I was giving up on a
great athlete. I still stay very close to the coaches and see how he's
doing."
What Flim saw in 2002 was very impressive. It started last February at
the state Nordic ski meet when Heath placed second in the skate race,
fifth in classical race and fourth in the pursuit (the combined time of
the two races).
In the spring, Heath excelled on the track. He placed second in the 3,200-meter
run and sixth in the 1,600 at the state meet.
Following a summer of hard work, as well as a two-week training session
at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) Olympic Training Center with the U.S. biathlon
team, Heath entered the 2002 cross country season with one goal in mind
- to finally beat Minneapolis South's Forrest Tahdooahnippah, who he finished
second to in the state 3,200-meter run.
"I've been motivated for a long time to beat him," Heath said.
"I tried as hard as I could to beat him in track. Before the state
cross country meet, I'd never beaten him, and we'd raced five or six times.
I could see the margin getting smaller. He's a really good runner. I've
been chasing him since I've been running."
Heath primed for the showdown by winning every race prior to the Minnesota
Class AA State Cross Country Meet. Among those wins was a spectacular
performance in the Winhawks' only home meet - the Jim Flim Invitational
on Sept. 21 on the hills at Saint Mary's University.
Heath shattered his own record by 50 full seconds in winning the race
in 15 minutes, 9 seconds. He finished 58 seconds ahead of his nearest
competitor.
"He decided to go out and run that race and just plain let it go,"
Winona High cross country coach John Ruggeberg said. "It should have
been a day to let him know this season was wide open for him."
Heath later set the meet record in winning the Big Nine Conference championship
in 15:26. He followed by up by taking the Section 1AA crown by more than
15 seconds.
Then came the state meet in Northfield.
"Going in ranked No. 1, I was really nervous," Heath said. "Once
the race came, I was all right. I didn't know my strategy until I got
to race day. I decided to go out slower and stick with the pack. I've
been working on my kick all year. That's what (former Faribault standout)
Tom Schmidt did to me the year before. The pace felt really easy. I wanted
to go out early. I had to hold myself back until the two-mile mark, then
I too off."
The lead pack consisted of about 16 runners with 2,000 meters to go in
the 5,200-meter race. Heath blew them all away. He won the state title
in 15:50.9 - 17 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor, Tahdooahnippah.
"I felt like a lot of pressure was taken off my shoulders,"
Heath said of the state title. "As a sophomore, I was ranked second
and kind of blew up (he finished sixth). That was a relief."
Added Ruggeberg: "He won by 17 seconds. That's a healthy margin.
Prior to this year, he didn't have a lot of speed to call upon. He had
to go out, work hard and leave people behind. If it came down to Garrett
and another runner, it could be a tough situation.
"He worked real hard on his kick. This year, he could handle those
situations just fine."
Shortly after the state meet, Heath competed in the Foot Locker Midwest
Regional meet in Kenosha, Wis., where he placed fourth out of 350 runners
and earned a berth in the national championships in San Diego.
On Dec. 14, Heath again proved just what kind of runner he has become
by placing sixth overall. All five runners that placed ahead of him were
seniors.
"At regionals, you learn how many kids are out there and how good
of a state we live in in terms of running," Heath said. "I thought
our state was average, but we had two kids from Minnesota qualify in the
top eight."
As far as the sixth-place finish at nationals, Heath said, "I was
kind of excited at the moment. It probably should mean more than what
I showed. I'm kind of surprised I ran as well as I did out there."
His performances at the state and national levels have already drawn the
attention of national recruiters. Heath has already been contacted by
2002 NCAA national champion Stanford, along with Minnesota, Duke, Notre
Dame and a number of Ivy League schools (Heath is also a 4.0 student).
"He's by far the best runner to come through the Winona Senior High
program in my 30 years," Flim said. "We had a lot of good runners,
but Garrett's ahead of all of them at this stage of his career.
"I predict next year, he'll be the first runner in the state to break
15 minutes for 5,000 meters. I think he's that good."
Garrett Heath also already proved that.
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