Sat Feb 11 2012
Injuries slowed Grant Curran during his freshman year of cross country and track at Georgetown College.
This year he’s headed to the NAIA National Championships for cross country to be held Saturday in Vancouver, Wash.
Curran, a sophomore at Georgetown, qualified for the national meet by finishing seventh in the Mid-South Conference championships Nov. 7 at E.P. Tom Sawyer Park in Louisville.
He covered the 8,000-meter course in 27 minutes, 27.27 seconds.
“It was not my fastest time of the year, but it was definitely my best race this year,” Curran said. “Five guys got to go and I’ve been eighth the entire season. I had to step it up and beat the guys ranked higher.”
Curran, a 2008 graduate of Franklin County, and Georgetown teammate Luke Garnett both qualified as individuals for the national meet. Garnett placed sixth in the conference championship, and the top five individuals not the championship team, Rio Grande, earned a berth to nationals.
Last year was a struggle for Curran, who was injured before the cross country season started and couldn’t train in the offseason.
By track season he was dealing with tendonitis. That kept him off the track but not off the team as he competed in the discus.
This past summer was injury-free, and that helped Curran get ready for the cross country season.
“This summer we basically kept his mileage lower than everybody else to keep him from getting injured,” said Todd McDaniel, assistant cross country and head track coach at Georgetown. “I think it helped a lot keeping his mileage lower.”
And Curran did this season what McDaniel knew he could do.
“I really expected him to do this last year,” McDaniel said, “but with his injuries that slowed his progress. I didn’t expect him his first year back from the injuries to come back this strong, but it’s where I thought he could be.
“After one good year, if he stays injury free, he could be even better next year.”
For Saturday’s meet, Curran isn’t putting a lot of emphasis on where he places.
“I want to get a good time, maybe in the 26s,” he said. “I just want to run a good race. There are going to be a lot of really, really good runners. This is more about my time in the race and less about where I place.”
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