ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 6, 1996 TAG: 9606060044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Sarah Hendricks of Blacksburg High is the sort of teen of whom it is said with a knowing nod, ``She's going places.''
Brilliant academic performance has earned her admission to Princeton University next fall. Wanderlust (and a helping hand from her family) will take her to Germany for a post-graduation sojourn, her fourth journey abroad. And a pair of strong and swift legs have swept her to two state championships in the last two high school track events she'll ever run.
Perhaps nobody but Hendricks, genuine from the tips of her running shoes to the top of her thoughtful head, could pull off the stunned tone of her report of the recent Blacksburg High awards banquet, where she was toasted for winning the outstanding female athlete honor, the American Legion citizenship award, and the best all-around student award.
``I am just so surprised,'' she said. ``There are so many talented people in this senior class. The best all-around student award was a real breathtaker for me.''
Maybe it's the only time she's been out of breath. She spends so much time on the road training that one must wonder if her lungs have the capacity of the Goodyear blimp.
She's versatile, too. The 800 meters? Where's the starting line, says she. The 1,600? Put me in, coach. The 3,200? Hand me down my running shoes, says Dr. William and Mary Lee Hendricks' middle daughter. Cross county? Hand Hendricks a map.
Now that the final finish line has been crossed, the Hendricks hardware haul includes two state championships in the 1,600 (the first as a freshman), a cross-country crown last autumn, and an 800 title.
Basically, not much gets between Hendricks and her roadwork, not even unfamiliar geography, of which she saw plenty on a school trip to Italy and Greece as a junior.
``We had some adventures running over there,'' she said.
One was in an Italian town at which her traveling party had arrived after dark. Regardless of the hour, Hendricks wanted to do what she does every day and go for a run. The chaperones would hear nothing of a young lady in their charge running the streets of a strange town after dark.
Hendricks could hardly stand it, but she did make it until dawn, when the necessity of a running fix could not be resisted further. She escaped her room, crawled through a ground floor window to wake a friend, and the two of them galloped off for a sunrise excursion through the streets of the sleepy town.
She's run on the continent and she's run across the channel in jolly old England, where she engaged in a road race through London's Hyde Park, too intent on her purpose to notice the amateur speech makers who have traditionally made the park one of the world's centers of public speaking.
Which is not to say that Hendricks has no appreciation for the humanities. She does. So far, she's thinking about studying some sort of education at Princeton. The idea of being a running coach holds an appeal for her.
Before she gets into any of that, she has more running to do herself. She plans to run for Princeton's team.
In the meantime, she can practice her coaching technique on younger sister Mary, a seventh-grader, who is swiftly catching running fever herself.
``I think she really loves it and that's what's important,'' Sarah Hendricks said.
That will be be one more Hendricks who will be going places.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Blacksburg High's Sarah Hendricksby CNBcompetes in the recent Virginia High School Track & Field
Championships. color.