Summer no vacation for sprinter

To compete as an athlete in today's sports world, athletes need to take advantage of the summer months. \nFor junior sprinter Charlene Maddox, this theme held true this past summer.\nDuring the indoor track and field season, Maddox competes in the 200 and 400-meter runs. However, last indoor season, Maddox fought injuries which kept her from competing on a regular basis.\nAll this occurred after she placed fourth in the 400-meter run with a time of 56.9 seconds at the 2001 Big Ten Indoor Track and Field Championship her freshman year.\nIU women's coach Randy Heisler said he believes Maddox's return home to Philadelphia this past summer helped her mature and figure out what she needed to do physically in order to compete at the collegiate level.\n"Charlene is like a lot of kids who come in at this level who were very good in high school; some of them state champs and never lost," Heisler said. "Suddenly, they are surrounded by a lot of good people, and you are either going to rise to the occasion, or you are going to get lost in it."\nMaddox said her main goal during the summer was to lose weight because she had gained too many pounds during her freshman year, and she believes this was the main contributing factor for her injuries during the indoor season.\n"My focus this year was to lose that weight and hopefully by losing it, to get stronger," Maddox said. This indoor season, Maddox has already shown signs of overcoming her injuries by finishing first in the 400-meter run the past three weekends, which included her running 57.66 seconds in the 400-meter run this past Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, in a tri-meet with Ohio State and Purdue.\n"I think I am running faster than I was running outdoors last year, and I just think it all has to do with the weight," Maddox said. "I guess if I was running outdoors right now, I would be running a little bit faster."\nIronically, Maddox's personal best times in both the 200 and 400-meter runs were set on the same day, Feb. 9, 2002, when she ran 24.82 seconds for the 200-meter run and 56.12 seconds in the 400-meter run.\nMaddox, who claims to be very superstitious, said she does not have any specific goals in mind for the indoor season.\n"I just want to give it my all, I don't want to put any time out there because I am real superstitious, and I just want to give it my all and run as fast as I can," she said.