Date: Fri 28-Jun-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KIMH

Illustration: I

Quick Words:

Sean-Martins-Feature

Full Text:

B Y K IM J. H ARMON

Sean Martins knows what hurdles are all about. Whether they were spaced out

over 110- or 300-meters, there was no one at Newtown High School - and none in

the old Western Connecticut Conference - better than Sean at leaping them.

After being placed alongside Bruce Jenner as one of the greatest track

athletes to graduate from Newtown High School, Sean Martins soon began the

transition from high school to college.

It was hard.

It was tough.

And the three-time WCC 110- and 300-meter hurdle champion found out he had

some different hurdles to get over in his freshman year at the University of

Connecticut. " It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, " said Sean,

now a sophomore at UConn. " We'd be out there at least three hours a day, five

or six days a week - just during the offseason - and that hit me kind of hard.

But I got into great shape really quick. I was running times I never ran in

high school. "

And the times he ran in high school - 22.8 seconds in the 200 meters, 51.09

seconds in the 400 meters, 14.8 seconds in the 110 hurdles, and 38.6 seconds

in the 300 hurdles - ended up being confirmed as school records in a recent

hunt (by coaches and reporters) through paperwork and old newspaper files to

finally register the best of Newtown High School boys' track.

" I didn't even know I had done that when (Carl Paternoster) was coming out

with the records, " Sean said. " At first I was - maybe I did and maybe I

didn't, thinking about it in high school, but it never really occurred to me.

It made me feel so good inside knowing something I did will last for at least

a couple years. "

In college, though, Sean was getting even better.

The Hurdles

Things were going well, but less than two months into his first year as a

collegiate runner and hurdler, Sean came down with mono. He tried to run

through it, but it quickly affected his performance and effectively benched

him for more than a month.

He came back in mid-December for the indoor track season and the biggest

hurdle he had to face - outside of the 400s that he ran - was the constant

exhaustion. " Everything I had built up to was gone, " he said, " but I kept

working at it and, surprisingly, I made All-New Englands in indoors. I was

happy about that even though I never got to the point where I was building up

to. "

The spring season was much of the same. He was third in the 400 hurdles in the

Connecticut meet and was part of the 4-by-400 relay team which was second in

the Connecticut meet and fifth in the Big East.

And that's when another hurdle loomed on the track.

Right after the season was finished, the coach gave Sean a schedule to run

over the summer. That fit into Sean's ideas, but what didn't fit into Sean's

plans was the coaches' hope that he would also run cross country in the fall.

Sean never ran cross country in high school and was worried about running

three seasons when what he really wanted to do was relax a little bit more and

try and get his grades - which suffered through his bout with mono - back up

to get him into the School of Business.

" He was trying to make me the best I could be, " Sean said, " but, at the

time, I just wanted take a season off and train. I knew I would be totally

exhausted if I did all three seasons because that's basically year round. "

Sean did end up taking the semester off, instead training downstairs in the

basement gym of his dormitory. He was able to work on his grades and able to

eventually get himself into the School of Business, but his attempts to rejoin

the UConn mens' track team for the winter and spring seasons were rebuffed by

the coach.

" His rationale was, " Sean admitted, " all the other guys on the team would

have seen that you could go and come back whenever you want, but that's not

the truth. I basically stopped because I really needed to bring up my grades

after that first year when I had mono. "

He got his grades up and set himself up for a year of study abroad - in

Denmark. He is probably going to start at the University of Copenhagen, and

then travel to Berlin, Prague, Russia and Estonia.

It was a great opportunity, but one - with the idea that Sean would miss

another year of competition - that did not sit well with the coach.

" Right now I miss it . . . I miss it so bad, " said Sean. " I just want to

run. "

While over in Denmark, Sean will try and find some club-level teams to run

with or will run and train independently in the hopes of getting himself ready

for his senior year and the fall of 1997.

In the interruption in his collegiate career might have interrupted his

dreams, but Sean Martins is still holding out hope.

" I was thinking, " said Sean, " that in my junior or senior year I could

hopefully make the NCAAs. Everyone's dream is to make the Olympic Team, but

now I don't know if that's possible. I'll stick with it and see where I can go

with it and when I come back for my senior year . . . you never know. "

But whatever does happen at the University of Connecticut, Sean will remain as

one of the greatest track athletes to come out of Newtown High School.

And he has four records to prove it.