The St. John Fisher track and field teams are two of the newest additions to Fisher’s athletic department, but coach Mike Henchen’s program has already sent an athlete to compete in nationals. Sophomore Devin Cornelius became the first member of Fisher’s track and field team to qualify for the national championship in the program’s three-year history.
Cornelius qualified for the heptathlon at the 2014 NCAA Division III Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championship in Lincoln, Neb. and placed 11th overall.
“It was almost surreal, it was something that I’ve been working for a long time and I’ve finally accomplished it,” Cornelius said. The heptathlon is seven different track and field events completed over a two day period. A scoring table is provided to evaluate and award points for each performance and award a victory to the heptathlete who has the most points after the seven events.
Cornelius made the decision last year that his goal was to make nationals. One year later he had just two meets left in the heptathlon event to finish in the top 15 in order to qualify for nationals. After finishing in 17th place in the New York State meet, Cornelius only had one more shot to qualify.
Entering the ECAC Championships in Boston, Mass. Cornelius felt good after day one, but he would save his best for last. On the final day of competition Cornelius posted three personal bests. He ran the 60-meter hurdles in 9.08 seconds, the 1,000-meter run in 2:42:74 and jumped 4.15 meters on the pole vault. With those times
he had accomplished a goal that he had set for himself almost a year ago and he had qualified for nationals.
“He really takes the focus of being the complete athlete,” Henchen said. “It’s not just about the event, but getting the rest, nutrition and the biomechanics he really works on.”
The Men’s Indoor Track and Field Championships took place at the University of Nebraska. At first Cornelius felt a little overwhelmed being at this big Division I college and looking at the phenomenal facilities that they had there, which were just a bit better than what he was used to at Fisher.
Another obstacle that Cornelius had to overcome while competing was when coach Henchen became very ill and had to spend most of the trip in the hospital. In his absence coach Kristine Wilcox really stepped up in helping Cornelius throughout the two days.
“It wasn’t the national championship experience that I wanted, but Devin adjusted and coach Wilcox handled things very well,” Henchen said.
While in the hospital Henchen was able to see some of the events that Cornelius competed in, such as the high jump and the 1,000 meters, but he was constantly being updated by both Wilcox and Cornelius throughout the competition.
“It was in the back of my head, but I wanted to be as successful as possible for his benefit,” Cornelius said. “As big as this was for me, he has been building the program for three years so it’s just as big for him.”
Cornelius, who had been battling a sinus infection throughout the week, competed in his third heptathlon in three weeks. He said that it was tough but heading into the first day Cornelius looked as good as ever. He ran his second fastest time in the 60-meter hurdles, finishing fourth with a time of 7.13 seconds. Next was the long jump, where he cleared 6.17 meters. In the shot put competition, he posted 11.71 meters. In the fourth and final event of the day, he placed fourth out of 15 heptathletes in the high jump, with a personal best 1.90 meters.
“After day one I was sitting in a relatively good position being in eighth so I was slightly ahead of points and feeling good, Cornelius said. “Also having a personal best in the high jump was a very big way to end the day.”
It was a tough start for the sophomore on the second day as he stumbled out of the block in the hurdles and finished with a time of 9.33 seconds. Cornelius would lift himself back up as he cleared 3.90 meters in the pole vault for his second-highest score of his career.
Heading into the final event, 1,000 meters, Cornelius was in 11th place. He would finish with a time of 2:46 to finish the national’s heptathlon in 11th place with a total point score of 4,836.
“My coaches were ecstatic for me and it was definitely exciting to gain that experience and competition,” Cornelius said. “It puts an exclamation point of where we’ve gone as a program and we are definitely ahead of where I thought we would be,” Henchen said.
With one national championship experience under his belt, Cornelius is now looking forward to competing in outdoor track and field as his season has already gotten under way. When looking back at his indoor season, Cornelius credits the hard work he put in over the summer that led to him having such success.
“It really goes back to preparation, as I spent the summer working out as much as possible as well as when I got to school,” Cornelius said. “I learned that it’s not how bad you want it but how much you actually put in to it and really go for it because that is when you will know that you’re ready.”
Kyle Lumsden
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