At the 2001 IHSA track and
field meet, Wheaton North
coach Don Helberg received a
scouting report on a promising
runner from his state champion
hurdler, A.J. Harris.
“We were at the pool at the hotel,
and Adam was in there
swimming,” Helberg said. “And
A.J. was telling me, ‘Just wait
for my brother. He’s faster than
me.’ “
As it turned out, Adam Harris
was faster than nearly everybody.
In 2004, Adam Harris became
the only athlete in the 111-year
history of the IHSA track meet
to win the 100 and 200 meters
and the 110-meter high hurdles
in the same meet. And now he
has done it twice.
Despite missing much of the
season with a hamstring injury,
Harris repeated as state champion
in all three events. For that,
he is the WGN-Ch. 9/Tribune
Athlete of the Month.
The injury happened March
11, during the final of the 50-meter
dash at the Evanston Invitational
–a race Harris won. It
was the last time he competed in a short sprint for several weeks.
With the help of Wheaton
North trainer Steve Mayo, Harris
began rehabbing the injury
with stretching and flexibility
exercises, heat treatments and
deep muscle massages.
On the track, Harris’ coaches
limited him to running only the
400. While Harris always has
been blunt about his dislike of
distances over 200 meters, he admits
the change had some benefits.
“I didn’t like it,” he said. “But
it helped work up my stamina,
because I couldn’t run to my full
potential. I was kind of getting
used to 400s around the end.”
Harris didn’t compete in any
of his three main events until a
few days before the DuPage Valley
Conference meet. But you
wouldn’t have known it from his
effort May 13, when he swept all
three as the Falcons won the
team title. A week later he swept
the Streamwood sectional.
At the state meet Harris won
the 110 hurdles in 13.95 seconds,
then returned to the starting
line a few minutes later to run
the 100. The quick turnaround
didn’t faze him much–Harris
won in 10.5 seconds.
Harris’ closest competition
came in the 200, where his winning
time of 21.48 edged McHenry’s
Noel Figueroa by 0.03 seconds.
This fall Harris will compete for the University of Michigan.
Ann Arbor’s proximity to Detroit
meshed with Harris’ interest
in the auto industry, and he
has looked into Michigan’s automotive
design classes.
And all the 400s he ran this
spring also could pay off if the
Michigan coaches see the same
things in Harris’ future that
Helberg does.
“It’s just a mental thing where
they need to work with him,”
Helberg said. “If they can break
that, I think he’ll be an outstanding
400 hurdler.”