Maybe it’s fortuitous, Leah Worthen sprinting around Hayward Field, at home in Tracktown, USA.
Maybe it’s fate, the daughter of a track legend, competing where track icon Steve Prefontaine and coach Bill Bowerman called home.
Whatever the reason, Worthen has emerged as a fixture on the Oregon women’s track and field team. The daughter of Fran Worthen, the accomplished sprinter from Coos Bay, Worthen is part of a revitalized core of Oregon sprinters.
The elder Worthen ran for Marshfield High from 1969-72 and was considered an early pioneer in women’s track and field. She had times in the 100 meters (11.9) and 200 (24.3) in high school that are considered quality times by today’s standards. She was friends with Prefontaine and had help from Bowerman.
When Geoff Thurner, track sports information director, told Leah Worthen about a reporter’s interest in a feature, she had an inclination of what it was about.
“I really enjoy talking about my mom and all that she did ’cause I think she hasn’t got all the recognition that she deserves for what she did ’cause she was such an amazing track and field athlete,” Worthen said.
And for Worthen, who is competing in her second season at Oregon, she is feeling much more comfortable as a sophomore.
“I think (I’m) better prepared than last year,” Worthen said. “Last year was such a transition for me from high school to college. I feel like I’ve improved in practices and meets so I’m really happy with where I’m at right now coming into Pac-10s.”
Worthen’s season best in the 400 of 55.41 is less than a second away from the regional qualifying standard of 54.61.
She debuted in the 400-meter hurdles in the Oregon Invitational and after leading much of the race, tripped up on the final hurdles and finished in 1:04.28. Worthen started considering the event last summer after she saw the qualifying time of 1:00.82.
Coach Robert Johnson sees the event as a way to maximize points at Pac-10s and decided to have her participate after seeing her try it out.
“He kind of looked at me over a few hurdles one day and was like ‘OK, I think we can do something with this’ and I think that’s kind of when it was born and now I’m pretty excited about where that will take me,” Worthen said.
“A little unsure of herself, got a little too close, took one too many steps and hit the eighth hurdle with her lead leg, which is uncharacteristic because usually you hit it with your trail leg,” Johnson said.
Her mom, the head coach at Marshfield High, had been the only track coach Leah Worthen had ever known until she arrived at Oregon and began working with Johnson, who describes his pupil as “tough as nails.”
“I think he’s done a great job of phasing us in and out of training cycles,” Worthen said. “We peaked very well in the indoor season and now we’ve been building up to Pac-10s… so I think it has to do with a lot of great coaching, great team atmosphere, great training group, especially this year is probably the main difference is we have a training group this year.”
That training group includes junior transfer Kavina Hall and freshman Keshia Baker. Hall, Baker, Worthen and Rebekah Noble make-up Oregon’s 4×400 meter relay team that has the potential for an NCAA Championship appearance. They’ve already secured the regional qualifying standard of 3:42.00 with a time of 3:36.07.
Growing up in Coos Bay
Worthen kept busy athletically year round in high school at Marshfield.
“If you’re an athlete, you did all three sports,” Worthen said. “You were a three sport athlete. You didn’t specialize. The school needed you everywhere. I did volleyball, basketball and track all year then in the summer that’s what we did – sports camps when we were little and then as we got older we just did summer track and that’s just kind of what our family did.”
When time arrived to look for a college, Worthen, lightly recruited out of high school, visited schools around the state. Worthen selected Oregon and now competes on Hayward Field, a place she’s known since she was eight, and feels like home, she says. She has a grandmother who lives in Springfield and was a regular visitor to Eugene.
Initially, Fran Worthen had concerns, knowing her potential as a track athlete, wanting what was best for her daughter. She wondered if Leah would be better off at a smaller school. But now that she’s fit in, both athletically and socially, Leah couldn’t be happier.
“It’s been wonderful for her,” Fran Worthen said.
And to her younger sister, Alison Worthen, it’s motivating to see what her sister’s accomplished.
“It’s really inspiring to, not just me as her sister, but a lot of people ’cause you see hard work pays off,” she said.
When Leah Worthen decided on Oregon, Fran Worthen knew it was time to let her daughter go and work for a new coach.
“I really felt I was at a point that I needed to hand her off to another coach who could take her to another level,” she said.
On Leah Worthen’s first day on campus, she, her mom and her dad met coach Johnson in his office, sat down and talked about Leah and training among other things. He wanted to make sure they had an understanding on what it would take for her to improve.
“Everything that her mom was doing, I sort of do similar,” Johnson said. “It wasn’t too much of a drastic change for me or for Leah.”
Mom paved the way
Fran Worthen is a well-known name in track circles. She earned eight individual state titles and two relay state titles in her Marshfield High career. Fran Worthen set the Marshfield 100, 200 and long jump records. She set the national high school long jump record during her sophomore and senior seasons.
After high school, the opportunity to compete in college wasn’t there, and she practiced and competed at Southwest Oregon Community College with the men’s track team.
Fran Worthen topped the American 220-yard record three times, but had the mark denied on technicalities every time.
“It is and it is kind of hard to disassociate with me because it’s my mom and I know my mom and she’s a mother to me but I’ve read articles,” Leah Worthen said. “Her Sports Illustrated article when she was featured on the front is just really cool to see. I’m like, ‘This is my mom and that’s pretty neat to read.’”
Leah Worthen looks at her mom’s times and sees the relevancy to today’s track and field athletes.
“For her to be running today she would still be an extraordinary track athlete and that’s what’s impressive,” Worthen said. “Those times aren’t good for her time. They’re good for our time still. That’s impressive I think.”
Worthen always had a feeling she’d be a sprinter. As a sixth grader, she completed a six-mile run with her father in the Prefontaine Memorial Run. She knew then that long distances weren’t for her.
Worthen found her comfort zone in the 400.
“The 400 is just kind of a general race when you’re young,” Worthen said. “You don’t need to be super fast and you don’t need to be a long distance runner. The 400 just kind of fit.”
It helped to have a former world-class sprinter there to help Worthen develop.
“She’s really up on all the new training techniques, training phases, nutrition and all that type of thing,” Worthen said of her mom. “She can really watch and control so many aspects of our lives as runners. She ran our practices, she cooked our dinners, our meals, she bought our groceries and knew how much we were sleeping.”
Worthen is keenly aware of where she is with a college scholarship and able to compete at the Division I level after her mom went without.
“She has loved the fact that the opportunity has been open for me and she’s really made me see how precious that is and to be able to come to college and be on a women’s team where they support women’s athletics and they give money to women’s athletics is really (amazing),” Worthen said.
“I think both me and Leah realize how much to value a scholarship that we co
uld get like that,” Alison Worthen said. “Not very many people get the chance to run at a Division I and they don’t get a chance to get a scholarship.”
Family potential
Alison is following her sister as a multitalented athlete. Alison is also doing the three sport arc – volleyball in fall, basketball in winter and track and field in spring. Calling Alison more well-rounded at her age, Leah Worthen says her younger siblings receive attention from Division I coaches.
The pair competed together at Marshfield in 2005 when Leah was a senior and Alison a freshman. That year Leah spurred Marshfield to the state championship. Alison has fond memories of running the 4×400 at state with Leah. Alison ran the third leg and handed off to Leah.
Leah possesses two individual state titles in the 400, while Alison earned her lone state title last spring in the high jump.
They could be teammates again at Oregon, should Alison decide to come to Eugene. Alison, now a junior, is starting to think about college. She’s considering going to a smaller school and doing both volleyball and track. But if the right Division I offer came along, she’d follow her passion and pursue track.
“I’d love to see her come here and run track and I think she’d love to be here too,” Leah said. “It’s just going to be a matter of who’s going to recruit her (and) what her options are like.”
“I dream of that all the time,” Alison said of reuniting with Leah at Oregon. “I’d love to get the chance to run with her again.”
Leah sees Alison’s potential as a heptathlete. Alison has dabbled in the 200, 400, 800, shot put, high jump, triple jump and 4×100.
“She could potentially be a knockout heptathlete,” Leah said. “I look at her and I look at Kalindra (McFadden) and I know that Alison could be right there.”
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