Sept. 17, 2010

By: Rob Ivory

Imagine leaving your job right now. Could you could come back in two years and post your personal best work?

That's what Brookfield, OH native and Viking runner Kari Haywood has done in her first year back to running. In her two meets since coming to Cleveland State, she has bettered her time and is looking to get into a goal she never thought she would be setting.

But her accolades started with a stellar career, just moments from the Ohio/Pennsylvania border.

"I did not run cross country until my senior year of high school," Haywood said. "Until then I ran track and I was a hurdler and ran 100 meters, 300 meters, 400 at the most."

Haywood explained that in her senior year of high school, she was put on the 800 meter (4x8) and made the Regionals. Her junior and senior year she made it to the 300 and 100 hurdles in both finals, but missed qualifying for states her junior year in the 300 hurdles by just one-sixteenth of a second.

"It was close," she remarked.

Her senior year would not be the best to Haywood as she got mononucleosis during basketball season, which hurt her in the long run.

"When it came time for track, I could not better my times, so my best year was my junior year.

"I had a couple of offers to run (in college)," Haywood said. "I don't know what happened and I ended up going to Youngstown State and before school started, I transferred to Penn State and got my associates degree there.

"I would go and run hurdles at night when I didn't run competitively," Haywood said. "I helped with the track team and last year I helped coach 7th and 8th grade basketball in Brookfield."

After earning her associate's degree from Penn State, Haywood entered the work force for eight months as a physical therapist. There, she worked in a nursing home and enjoyed what she did. From there, she wanted to get back into school and finish her bachelor's degree in physical therapy.

"It was on my mind," she said. "My mom I talked about finishing my degree at Penn State and we decided that I should finish since I was so close. I was hesitant in leaving Penn State after a year so I could go run somewhere."

Haywood said that running never left her mind and that it was the reason for going back to school, but she wanted to run and go back to school.

And that's where Cleveland State comes in the picture.

"Wesleyan wanted me to run for them, but as a hurdler," she said. "I trained by myself, but not to the point where I could pick up where I left off in high school. I think I may have lost some speed over the years. I called Cleveland State out of the blue and see if I could run cross country.

"I really like how Cleveland State is condensed and everything is close. I liked how it was all somehow linked together. (Youngstown State and Kent State) are really spread out." Kari said of what she like about CSU. She loved the campus on her first visit to CSU, but it was not her first visit to Cleveland.

"I had been to downtown before, for a Browns-Steelers game," Haywood said. "but then remarked, "Not a Browns fan," as she chuckled.

As for her running at Cleveland State, it was a tough running against girls that had been running for many years, consecutively.

"I was not expecting to come out like I did," she admitted. In her first meet of the year, Haywood ran a personal best of 20:42, which was good enough for 31st place overall and fourth of all CSU runners, much better than what she expected.

"I thought I would be running last," she said. "I really thought it would be a lot longer process. I definitely did not expect (to see my time in the) 20s, especially in the first race."

Haywood said she came blank into the first race and did not know what to expect. It had been her first race since Oct. 28, 2006, a date she remembers well.

"It was regionals and it was stormy and I did not run well," she recalled. "It was not a good race from the beginning and not something I wanted to leave on."

Haywood contributes her time to hard training and tough practices by head coach Joe Jaketic. "They are much more intense and more mileage (34 miles per week) than in high school."

If that wasn't enough, Haywood again ran her personal best in CSU's last event, the Mel Brodt Invitational at Bowling Green.

"I ran a 20:06 and I was definitely shocked."

Now, she is shooting for something that she has never achieved in her racing career and is very focused on her goal.

"I want break 20," she said confidently. "It may not be the next race and I don't know if 19 is going to take me a few meets. I am not expecting it, but I want to work towards it. I never expected to get to 20, so 19 would be fantastic."