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Next Stride For Palm Harbor Athlete Toward Gainesville

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: May 24, 2008

PALM HARBOR - One physical attribute in sports that simply cannot be taught is speed.

It can be refined, however, and developmental techniques and strategies can be coached, but speed in the raw is something an athlete either has, or does not.

Madison McNary, as many throughout the area, state and beyond already know, has just that.

Now, while nearing her final days as a Palm Harbor University High School Hurricane, the accomplished senior is busy preparing for life's next challenge: running - and studying - at the University of Florida this fall.

Judging by McNary's sparkling four-year high school resume, a clean jump from the starting blocks both on and off the field does not seem to be a risky assumption.

Quick Impressions, Consistent Results

According to 10-year Palm Harbor track and field coach Robert Jenkins, McNary's extraordinary talent was not veiled early on, nor did it need to be coaxed out. She was ready to go from freshman year.

"Madison's got a God-given talent," Jenkins said. "She has the ability to run correctly with great strength in her legs and in her arms. It's a combination of that and her always working hard on the trivial little things that are essential."

"You knew she was special as a ninth-grader."

How special?

As a freshman, McNary, who also earned her first of four varsity basketball letters as a fleet-of-foot point guard that year, placed first in districts in the 100- and 200-meter dashes, second in the 200 in regionals, and placed first in the Pinellas County Athletic Conference meet.

It wasn't until the summer after her sophomore year that McNary switched focus from her first love - basketball - to track.

"I saw quick progression," she said of her talent's maturation during high school. "I was getting faster in a short period of time. Track's 99 percent mental too, it's a reap-what-you-sow type sport. You lose, then you lose, there's no one else but you. It's a total science, I think that intrigued me in a sense."

Even before her full switch of commitment, her freshman year also started a few streaks for McNary as well - four-straight district and PCAC titles in the 100-meters. Overall she won districts in the 200-meters three times and in regionals twice.

This past season the sprinter also decided to try her hand at a field event she said looked to be fun - the long jump. Fun for McNary? Yes. Fun for all other competitors in the region? Not so much, as they watched her win the district and regional titles in her first attempt.

The highlight of McNary's high school career though was in Winter Park during last year's state championships. As she had all season long, McNary broke the tape in both her featured events - 100- and 200-meter - to secure the first-ever track and field state crowns in school history, boys or girls.

That accomplishment in Winter Park was the first of two eye-catching feats of the year amassed by McNary in 2007 that stepped up the attention she garnered from Division I scouts. Later that summer, the 17-year-old helped Team USA win gold in the 4x100 meter relay at the Pan Am Junior Track and Field Championships, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The experience was certainly an influential milestone in McNary's young career, she said.

"That was really cool," she said. "When I found out I made the team, they informed me that I might not actually run. But I was excited because I'd never been overseas or out of the country before, and then the night before the meet, the coach called my name."

"I remember putting the USA uniform on, that was amazing," McNary said reminiscently. "It was so legit."

Recent Disappointment Short-Lived

Topping such a stellar 2007 campaign would seem nearly impossible. How do you do better than first place in everything? McNary, now with long jumping on her radar, began her senior season on pace to do just that.

After placing first in all three events leading into states, Winter Park would not prove to be so kind in 2008.

It was not, however, from any slow start or being a quarter-step slow that cost McNary back-to-back titles. It was her new event that would do her in - the long jump itself.

Mid-competition, McNary sustained a hamstring pull that would keep her out of the rest of the day's events. Her regional title jump of 18-11.00 would have given her the state championship in that event by almost four inches.

"I try not to think about it and just get past it," McNary said of that day. "I'm very competitive in the long jump, but since it's not really my event it's a little disappointing."

Bright Future

Once in Gainesville, McNary said she will mostly likely continue the work she has already completed as part of Palm Harbor's medical magnet program. She is graduating with an un-weighted GPA of 3.5.

"I want to be a pediatrician, so probably pre-med," McNary said of her equally lofty intellectual goals. "The academic support with athletics was better there than the other schools" she was considering, she said.

"That was the main reason I chose Florida - and obviously they have a great track program, too," Nary said.

Regarding the track, McNary - whose sister, Lauren, also runs at Howard University - said she has not set many specific goals.

"No, not yet," she said, admitting to a little nervous excitement about the transition. "But hopefully I can be an All-American, do something big during my college career. I don't want to set anything prematurely, but goals will be set."

While the easily detected affability of McNary's personality does shy away slightly from mentioning her collegiate aspirations, there is one future ambition McNary referred to that may best any other.

"The 2012 Olympics are in London," she mentioned. "It's definitely far off, but I want to try and accomplish that."

"I've always wanted to go to London, and to combine that with running in the Olympics would be like two awesome things in one."

Eric Horchy can be reached at (727) 815-1071 or ehorchy@suncoastnews.com.

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