During his career at Oregon, nine-time All-American Matt Scherer was an intimidating presence on the track. With the body of bulky wide receiver, and always wearing dark sunglasses, Scherer had the look of a serious sprinter down.
He also had the speed.
If there was a runner ahead of him during the final leg of the 4×400 meter relay, Scherer would run him down because for him, there wasn’t anything more fun than chasing the leader and finally “putting the hammer down” to win the race.
Scherer loved having the sprinter mentality and until running 45.19 seconds in the 400m his senior year – only 0.12 from the school record held by Olympic gold medalist Otis Brown – he hadn’t planned to run professionally. Before he graduated he talked to Oregon coaches Vin Lananna and Dan Steele, who suggested that if Scherer wanted to compete in the Olympics, he’d have to switch events – and lose his sprinting image.
He’d have to run the 800m.
“You could be fourth best in the U.S. and not make the Olympic team and be top five in the world,” Scherer said. “The 800 is almost kind of the opposite.”
Despite the near-school record in the 400, Scherer’s time didn’t crack the top 10 in the nation in 2006. Although he’s confident he could have run a 44-second 400 if he continued to train in the event, he realized that the 800 presented him with a better opportunity.
“We came to the consensus that I was good in the 400, but not quite good enough,” Scherer said. “It made sense when you took a step back and looked at everything – in terms of Americans in the 400 versus the 800.”
Once he started training, Scherer said he lost about 15 pounds but suffered a torn calf muscle that forced him to miss the 2007 indoor season. Although he endured some hard workouts as a Duck under Steele, once he joined the Oregon Track Club Elite team under coach Frank Gagliano, Scherer had to endure both a physical and psychological re-evaluation of his running ability.
“Running 40 miles a week last year was three times as hard as running 50 miles per week this year,” Scherer said. “It’s gotten easier this year and my mental progression has gone along those same lines.
“I’m learning my limitations as a middle-distance runner. The 800 is definitely harder (than the 400), by far.”
Scherer believes he needs to run a 1:44 or low 1:45 to reach the Olympics, and beat out about 10 other guys who are lumped together with similar times.
“I know I can compete with just about anybody,” he said.
Last weekend in the Oregon Relays, Scherer ran a season best-time of 1:48.48 in the 800 and ran a personal best of 1:47.08 last May. He knows he needs to start shaving off seconds soon, or he just hopes that he runs the race of his life when the time comes.
“It’s coming up pretty quickly,” he said of the trials. “The hard work is over. It’s just a matter of peaking at the right time and developing the speed – getting everything to come together.”
To reach his Olympic goals, however, maybe he’ll just need some guys out in front of him down the home stretch of Hayward Field, where Scherer has burned so many other competitors before.
“When you roll up on someone and pass them, the crowd’s a lot more into it,” Scherer said of his 400 running days in Eugene. “That was always what I thought I did pretty well. That motivated me. That got my adrenaline going – getting the crowd excited and passing people.
“I don’t get to have that much fun anymore.”
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Same dream, greater distance
Daily Emerald
May 1, 2008
48.48 last weekend in the Oregon Relays.
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