It didn’t take Flings Owusu-Agyapong long to make it to the top.

Owusu-Agyapong didn’t start training for track and field until her 11th year of school but was soon a three-time team MVP. In 2006, Owusu-Agyapong became the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations champion in the 100-meter dash.

It was a place she fast became accustomed to.

‘Well competitions in Toronto, or at least the region I was in, it wasn’t really that big,’ Owusu-Agyapong said. ‘There weren’t really a whole lot of runners there. Coming out here it’s like everyone is running really, really fast. You’re like ‘Wow,’ and you have to step back and find yourself again.’

Next up for the Owusu-Agyapong and the Orange is the Larry Ellis Invitational in Princeton, N.J., as the Big East championships loom just two weeks away.

This season, as member of the Syracuse track and field team, Owusu-Agyapong outran the vast majority of her fellow, and often more experienced, teammates. In her first indoor season with the Orange, Owusu-Agyapong broke the school record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.52 at the ECAC Championship in January.

She fell short of her goal of posting an NCAA Regional qualifying time during the indoor season, and her name didn’t enter the record books under easy circumstances. Her performance at ECAC came after significant strife because of something else she had become accustomed to.

Owusu-Agyapong’s season training took a devastating blow when she was sidelined with what the coaching staff reported as a minor injury. This wasn’t a huge surprise as Owusu-Agyapong battled injuries throughout her high school career. Owusu-Agyapong had to work her way back through a slow rehabilitation process. Each month represented a different benchmark as she fought to return.

During the month of October, Owusu-Agyapong didn’t run at all. As weeks fell off the calendar, progress gradually occurred. November marked the return of running but still no sprinting. After nearly three months, Owusu-Agyapong could finally come back to sprinting in December.

‘She’s able to sprint three times a week,’ sprints coach Dave Hegland said. ‘That’s that litmus test for us in terms of whether or not we’re getting a full workload in, if you can sprint three times a week.’

Although she finally made a strong return at ECAC for the indoor season, she missed a large portion of training time with the injury, which could hamper her ability to run outdoor. Owusu-Agyapong is running with a disadvantage training-wise and has yet to reach the potential Hegland knows she is capable of.

‘The first time I went up and recruited her in Toronto and watched her train I knew she was really talented,’ Hegland said. ‘She’s really explosive, and she looks like a sprinter, plus I think she’s got all the tools to be really great.’

Owusu-Agyapong wants to spend the remainder of the outdoor season focused on reaching the NCAA regionals. The disappointment of the indoor season has turned into fuel for the outdoor season.

‘I hope she’s a top five at the Big East kind of runner,’ SU head coach Chris Fox said. ‘I really hope that she qualifies for the NCAA regionals, which I think is a great goal for a freshman. She is perfectly capable of doing that.’

Thus far in the outdoor season Owusu-Agyapong has posted an ECAC qualifying time in the 100-meter dash, as she did with the 60-meter in indoor, yet still has failed to tally the seemingly elusive NCAA regional time. Although her opportunities are dwindling (only three meets remain) Owusu-Agyapong still could qualify to compete against some of the world’s best runners.

‘This year is really about acclimating to the training and being in college,’ Hegland said. ‘She needs to try to train for the year and stay healthy. That’s going to be paramount for her through her entire career.’

hscrowle@syr.edu

Published on April 16, 2008 at 12:00 pm