‘I believe in it’

Bearkats senior makes hurdles look easy, has eyes set on regional gold

By Cody Stark

Sam Houston State senior Lane Dennis is no stranger to the medal stand.

In fact, the Bearkat hurdler added another one to his collection two weeks ago when he won his third straight Southland Conference championship in the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best time of 50.69 seconds.

But Dennis has his eyes set on bigger and better things, and he hopes to become the third Sam Houston State student-athlete to win a gold medal at the NCAA Outdoor Midwest Regional championships, which begin Friday at the University of Oklahoma’s John Jacobs Track and Field Complex. He has a good chance with the second-fast time heading into the meet.

“I feel like I can go in there and dominate like I did in conference,” Dennis said Tuesday afternoon. “I haven’t lost anything and have been working hard. I’m number two going in, but it is a small margin. The time that is number one, it’s going to take more than that to win it.

“I feel very confident going in and I feel no pressure. I’m relaxed, my practices have been going good and if I go in there and execute, I’ll make it happen.”

The reason Dennis has turned into one of the nation’s best hurdlers, he made it to the semifinals of the NCAA Outdoor Championships last year, is because of his execution. He makes running the hurdles look effortlessly.

At the SLC championships, he blew away the competition, edging the second-place finisher by more than a second. He never breaks stride and it’s almost as if the hurdles aren’t even out there.

“The deal with Lane is that he is a true student of the sport,” SHSU sprinters coach Dave Self said Tuesday. “In his spare time, he is on the internet reading about hurdles or watching clips of races. It is all about his dedication to the sport. This is what he does. He is a 400-meter hurdler through and through.”

It all started when Dennis was at Huntsville High School. As a junior in 2003, he just missed out on the medal stand when he finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles at the Class 4A state meet in Austin.

Determined to get over the hump, Dennis went to work and returned to Austin as a senior and left as the state champion with a shiny gold medal draped around his neck.

“I still say to this day that state is my biggest accomplishment for the simple fact that it is Texas, which is a big state, and I did it from lane nine,” Dennis said. “I went up there my junior year and finished fourth out of lane nine. I told my mother after the race I was going to go back next year and win it. I had to fight to the end. That meant so much to me to win it by fighting to the end because I worked so hard for that.”

Dennis found out that college track was an entirely different game when he got to Sam Houston State. He quickly lost confidence and said he didn’t have what it took to compete.

“Coming out of high school, I was thinking I could do whatever I wanted,” Dennis said. “But then you find out that there might be six or seven state champions in your heat. Then you might have a guy that has all kinds of accolades and it takes the announcer five minutes to read them off and he spends two seconds announcing Lane Dennis. That gets in your head and I wasn’t ready.

“Redshirting helped me. I got to work on my technique and learn. Now, I don’t get those butterflies in my stomach anymore before a race. My first year (2005) I went to Oklahoma and got dead last. This year I’m getting dead first. I mean every bit of that. I have the confidence because I know I can do it.”

From humbled freshman to confident senior, Dennis is doing what he loves. He wants to continue running when his college career is over and he is on the right track.

Dennis’ 50.69 clocking at the SLC meet was good enough to land him an invite to the United States Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will be held June 25-28 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field.

“It’s the drive, just the drive,” Dennis added. “This is what I sleep, eat and breathe. I pray about it and I have the family backing me. I’m out there working and doing everything I have to do. I believe in it.”

Regional notes

Coming up big — Sam Houston State thrower Jon Lipton really took advantage of the “Last Chance” meet Saturday at Northwestern State. His toss of 196 feet, 6 inches in the discus is the best mark in the Midwest Region and the seventh-best throw in the country this year.

Title defense — Bearkats sophomore Dess Meek will look to defend her regional title in the high jump this weekend. Last year, she came out of nowhere to win the Midwest Region with a leap of 5 feet, 11 1/2 inches. She currently has the 11th-best height (5-8 3/4) in the region this season.