ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090008
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on May 10, 1996.
The girl's winner of the triple jump at the Blue Ridge track and field
championships was identified incorrectly in some of Thursday's
editions. Wendy Heath of Lord Botetourt High School won the event.
NOTE: Also ran in May 12, 1996 Current.
The more Glenvar's Trish Nervo has to deal with pain, the stronger she becomes.
John Nervo remembers when his daughter started backpacking at the camp he runs in Craig County.
``When she was 11 or 12 years old and started [on the trails], she had blisters and a sore back,'' he said. ``She'd be crying and swearing she'd never do it again. Now she goes along the trails so easily.''
Trish Nervo has been covering Timesland's cross-country trails and tracks just as easily for Glenvar High School.
She has developed into one of the nation's top cross-country performers and one of the state's best in the distance events in track.
After finishing fourth in the Foot Locker national cross-country championships in December, Nervo accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of North Carolina. This spring, she set meet records in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs at the Cosmopolitan Club Invitational.
A year ago, Christiansburg's Bethany Eigel handed Nervo painful losses in both events. It might have been her salvation.
``After she was beaten by Beth Eigel, her times dropped in both events,'' said Richard Myers, Glenvar's running coach. ``She doesn't like to get beat. She's a competitor.''
As a junior, Nervo failed to finish in the Top 20 in the Foot Locker meet and her career appeared to be on hold. Some blamed it on burnout.
Myers felt differently.
``Trish was disappointed and down on running,'' he said. ``When she came back from taking some time off in the winter, the Eigel races were the things. It was a turning point and it made the difference between good times and great times.''
Besides beating Nervo, Eigel gave her a new outlook.
``Running is an endurance sport,'' Nervo said. ``It's not like basketball where you get in shape, play the games and learn new skills. In running, you're never in shape. You always try to get in better shape. You're never comfortable in running.
``You can't say, `That's not too bad [a performance]. I'm in shape now.' To improve, you have to get in better shape.''
What Nervo learned from her races against Eigel was to run through the pain and go on to better performances.
``To compete with everyone and set records, I had to hurt,'' Nervo said. ``Before, if I started to hurt, I'd slow down. I could still beat everyone by a lot. Now I push through the pain and that means I can get records.''
Myers has seen the change.
``Now, even though Trish is hurting from a lack of oxygen, she'll keep on going and crank it out,'' he said. ``When she finishes big races, she's hurting badly. It's a lesson she taught herself. She saw Eigel do it that day [in the Cosmo], looked at herself and decided she was going to do it.''
That change was the difference between a scholarship to Division I North Carolina and one to a Division II school or a lesser Division I program. The change was apparent in Nervo's Foot Locker finish this past fall.
Nervo's development as a competitive runner began in the seventh grade, when Beth Hall, who still teaches at Glenvar, noticed Nervo loved to run.
``She saw me in gym class,'' Nervo said. ``She got me to go out for track. I never won; I got a lot of second places. It didn't bother me. I was running to have fun.''
``We were practicing to run a mile,'' Hall said. ``I suggested to Trish that she see the track coach. She started at 12. Now she's become a role model. I had her come talk to my 12th-grade class. She talked to them about if you want it, you can become it.''
Myers doesn't remember seeing Nervo run until she was an eighth-grader.
``She ran the mile right at 6 minutes, which was pretty decent,'' he said. ``I never thought she'd be as good as she's become until the end of her junior year.''
Basically a shy person when she started running, Nervo's first experience with the media came when, as a freshman, she was touted as a running phenom. A lengthy story in the Roanoke Times & World-News that fall was no jinx as Nervo won the first of her four consecutive Group A cross-country titles.
Nervo did appear to be battling a jinx in the Cosmo, where she never had won until this year. Not only did she win at the Salem meet, she smashed the 3,200 mark set in 1988 by William Byrd's Christy Atkins by more than 16 seconds. She also bettered Eigel's winning time of 1995 in the 1,600.
The rest of Nervo's high school career will be a quest for better times. Her toughest test might come in the Group A track and field meet in a few weeks. If it's a hot day and another runner decides to skip the 1,600 and rest for the 3,200, she might be able to challenge Nervo. That's the way Atkins lost the last race of her high school career in the 1988 Group AA meet.
For Nervo, the scene has changed.
``At the beginning [of my career], it was a lot of personal talent. I used it to become a good runner,'' she said. ``There's only so far you can go on natural talent. Then you have to use it.
``When I won the state [cross-country] title as a freshman, I just said, `Wow.' I didn't see it in the perception of how big it was. It was just another race. There was no pressure on me. No one knew who I was.''
Nervo still is basically a shy person, but she answers questions from the media now as easily as she wins races. There's no doubt about the lessons Nervo has learned in high school. She demonstrates them most every day she competes as a runner.
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PAUL L. NEWBY II/Staff. 1. Glenvar's Trish Nervo (above)by CNBbegins her pullaway in the 1,600-meter run at the Cosmopolitan Club
Invitational track and field meet. 2. Nervo's parents stay close by
(left) as the winner catches her breath before heading to the medal
stand. Nervo set meet records in the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs.
color.