Allen returns to national triple jump prominence

By LINDA BOUVET, LSSU Sports Information Director

Junior John Allen quietly arrived on Lake Superior State’s campus at mid-semester of last year. His anonymity faded as soon as the 2009-10 track and field season began, and now he’s ready to make a name for himself at the 2010 NCAA Division II Indoor Championships, which begin Friday in Albuquerque, N.M.

Allen, originally from Lansing, is on his way back from a two-year hiatus. The former Michigan State University triple jump record holder earned All-Big Ten Conference Second Team honors in 2007 after finishing second at the outdoor conference championships. He had an outdoor best of 15.87 meters that year.

“After leaving Michigan State, I moved back to Atlanta with my parents for a while to get my life together,” said Allen, who trained in Texas during spring break. “I was working a couple jobs and just got tired of living at home. I wanted to be back at school running track. I paid off my student debts. I was looking at Division II schools and got on the GLIAC web site. I clicked on Lake State. I had never heard of it before and didn’t know where Sault Ste. Marie was or anything. I sent some information to Coach Eles. He emailed me back the same day. I talked to him the next day, and it was three or four days before the semester started. He said, ‘I have a spot available if you can make it here by Tuesday.’ I was there on Tuesday.”

Allen trained with the Lakers last spring while re-acclimating himself to college life. As he served as a meet official, manning the high jump bar during the Lake State Classic in January of 2009, only insiders knew that the volunteer worker was capable of putting LSSU on the map with his triple jump performances.

So far this season, he is undefeated in the event. He won the GLIAC title with a school-record and meet-record jump of 15.45 meters.

“I had been having bad meets the whole year,” Allen said. “At the conference meet I finally got my foot down and jumped well enough for nationals and to break the conference record. My dad always told me ‘it only takes one jump, and that could be the one that breaks the world record.’ I’m excited to be getting back to nationals. I definitely think I have a shot at winning. I want to have my best performance, and hopefully it will be that day.”

Allen, whose goal is 15.9 meters, has struggled with foot fouls since his return to competition. He is steadily regaining his sense of timing.

“His approach is starting to come together,” said LSSU assistant track and field coach Gregg Schmidt. “He was way off when he first started training. Now it’s a matter of an inch or two.”

According to Schmidt, Allen is a gifted athlete who hasn’t come close to reaching his peak. Schmidt and Allen work well together, because both are accustomed to training without a jump pit (LSSU expects to install an above-ground pit within the next year.)

“We’re able to work on different phases of the jump,” Schmidt said. “(Not having a pit) hurts the long jumper more than the triple jumper. It forces him to break down the approach into phases.”

Former Laker all-America long jumper Derek Sandahl proved in 2001 that it’s possible to have success without a pit, and Allen’s current training regimen is not unusual. LSSU track and field head coach Steve Eles said that Allen already has great “air form,” and makes the best of his training situation by working on approaches, ply metrics and weight training.

The more confidence Allen gains, the more leadership he brings to the Laker team. It’s a welcomed fringe benefit of having an athlete of his caliber in the program.

“He’s competed at the Division I level,” Schmidt said. “He’s critical of himself and knows what he’s able to do. He doesn’t get down on himself in the wrong way. He’s 100 percent coachable at meets and practices.”

Allen, who is impressed with the Division II talent level, takes his “coach on the field” role to heart.

“Michigan State was so big, and I was doing stuff at MSU that I had no business doing,” Allen said. “Up at Lake Superior State, it’s a smaller community and you get to know everybody. It’s friendlier…My father coached basketball for many years. I want to be a coach after my years of running track are over. I’ll take on that responsibility as much as I can. I want to see my teammates do well.”

“We’ve needed people to step up and say a couple things, and he’s turned into a vocal leader,” Eles said. “We’ve had him here for a year now and I’ve seen a big transformation. He was fairly quiet last year. In the last month or two, he’s become more vocal and energetic. He’s doing a great job leading us, even though he might not have seen himself doing that when he first got here.”