Kutney always able to find an interesting reason to run
By DOUG LESMERISES
Staff reporter
03/22/2002
BRANDYWINE
HUNDRED -- On a warm spring day at Brandywine High School, athletes were
blooming. Tennis players struck forehands, baseball players fielded
grounders, and lacrosse players cradled balls on a far field. Jenn Kutney
had just finished track practice.
"I can't do that," Kutney said, gazing at the activity around
her. "I've lost all hand-eye coordination. I can put one foot in
front of the other, but that's all I can do. It's the running."
For the senior, it's always the running.
The running lets her know what time of year it is, in the present and
past tense, as in, "Oh, that happened in cross country season,"
or, "That happened during freshman year indoor track."
The running gives her structure, allows her to plan her guitar lessons
and the hours she spends building sets for the high school production of
"How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" around track
practice.
The running keeps her healthy. Her life has been filled with almost
continuous running since fourth grade, from cross country, where she has
two Division I state titles and four All-State selections; to winter
track, where she won the 3,200-meter run at the state meet as a freshman;
to spring track, where she also won the 3,200 as a freshman and finished
fourth in that event in the Meet of Champions last spring.
Kutney has taken one break, giving herself a breather and skipping the
winter track season her junior year.
Her body punished her for breaking the routine. She came down with
mononucleosis, which affected her through the first two weeks of the last
year's spring season.
"I don't get sick when I run," Kutney said, "only when I
don't run. So I'm never stopping."
She'll keep running at the University of Delaware next year - she
thinks. It's like she has had an eight-year relationship with running, and
you know what going to college can do to high school relationships.
So as she finishes her career at one of the best girls running programs
in the state, she'll try to appreciate what has been her constant
companion.
"You lose some kids spring of their senior year," said
Michelle Flanagan, who has coached Kutney through all of her seasons,
"but she hasn't caught senioritis yet."
So Kutney will continue to put one foot in front of the other. Running
is what she does, and it has never kept her from anything else that she
really wanted anyway.
"I used to play basketball," Kutney said, "but I was
always getting knocked down or falling down or getting hit with the ball.
Track leaves less bruises."
Said Flanagan: "There are certain kids that you hate to see go,
and she's one of them. It seems like she's always been there."
Always there. That's just what Kutney said about running.
 The News Journal/FRED COMEGYS |
| Jenn Kutney enjoys a run with her Brandywine teammates on Tuesday. "I don't get sick when I run," Kutney said, "only when I don't run. So I'm never stopping." |
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