Editors Note: From the Contra Costa Times

Blazing his own way in track

Ballenger's decision to quit prep competition and concentrate on open meets has helped make him a better runner

By Ben Enos
STAFF WRITER

A little over two years ago, Che Ballenger was set to begin his junior year at Oakland Tech High School. He entered the year having never lost a race as an 800-meter runner in the Oakland Athletic League, and it seemed certain that he would have no trouble extending his winning streak through a third year.

Such success led Ballenger to make a choice that not many athletes would have the guts to even consider.

He quit.

To be fair, Ballenger didn't quit running altogether. He simply decided that the high school league he found success in as an underclassman no longer held the challenge that he sought to prepare him for a collegiate running career. It was a choice that some might have thought odd, but one that Ballenger was confident would benefit him in the long run.

"I felt like running the open circuit would help me transition from high school to college. I felt that it would be more of a challenge," Ballenger said.

To make the move, Ballenger enlisted the help of Rik Richardson, coach of the Athenian Athletics Track Club. Ballenger joined the club and immediately went into training with his father, Damon. The trio worked on creating a schedule that would promote gradual improvement rather than immediate results.

"We promised to get him in the big meets," Richardson said. "We didn't race him twice a week like high schools do. Che and his father picked their races and adjusted their training schedule for each."

Ballenger spent the next two years competing at a level where he was certainly not a favorite to win many races, also adding the 1,500 as a race that he regularly competed in. He competed at the Brutus Hamilton Invitational in Berkeley, the Stanford Invitational, and the Modesto Relays -- all big-name meets that allowed for more learning than winning.

"I was able to go to meets where I wasn't the fastest person, and I had to deal with it. I knew I probably wasn't going to win a lot. My goal was to drop time each race," Ballenger said.

Now 17 years old and a student at Merritt College in Oakland, Ballenger is focused on the upcoming junior college season that will kick off in the spring of 2007. He is confident that he can compete at the collegiate level, a feeling bred mostly from the competition he's faced in two years on the open circuit.

"It's helped me a lot as far as learning who a lot of the athletes are that I'll have to run against next year. I know the way they like to run, and I have a feel for it instead of going into it blind," Ballenger added.

Such confidence does not come from merely running with a higher flight of competition, and Ballenger recently gave spectators at the Pacific Association Junior Olympics Qualifying Meet at Granada High School in Livermore on June 25 something to think about. Ballenger set a personal best at the meet by clocking in at 4 minutes, 1.14 seconds in winning the 1,500 meters.

The personal record for Ballenger was also good enough to break the previous meet record of 4:01.55, a mark set in 1995 by former Olympian Asmeron Bolota.

The success that Ballenger may find in the future is not something that necessarily comes naturally. Richardson points out that Ballenger's improvement may have more to do with the runner's work ethic and willingness to work as part of a team than anything else.

"Che studies very hard and trains very hard, and I think in the long run it's going to pay off," Richardson said. "He takes what the older runners teach him and learns, and he gives back to the younger ones. He's very aware of everything on and off the track."

Either way, Ballenger seems determined to blaze his own trail to the upper echelon of track and field. As a runner who's always looking for a challenge, it's obvious he wouldn't have it any other way.