Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week - Josh Yelsey: Triple threat

Barry Faulkner

Corona del Mar High track and field coach Bill Sumner has a term

for an especially grueling training session, the kind that leaves an

already supremely fit runner’s legs wobbly and eyes slightly glazed.

“That’s a Josh Yelsey workout,” Sumner said. “The kind that spins

everyone’s head.”

A willingness to punish himself with preparation has helped Yelsey, a

senior, turn heads this spring, most notably at the May 3 Pacific Coast

League Finals at Irvine High.

Yelsey won the 800 meters (1:58.42), the 1,600 (4:25.60) and the 3,200

(9:57.55) to single-handedly account for nearly a third of the Sea

Kings’ 102 team points (30). He also ran a 52-second 400 anchor split on

the 1,600 relay, but by the time he got the baton, the Sea Kings were

hopelessly behind.

Yelsey’s performance helped the Sea Kings share the PCL crown with

University and Northwood. It also earned him recognition as Daily Pilot

Athlete of the Week.

“(The triple) is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile,” said Yelsey,

who won the 1,600 and was second in the 800 at PCL Finals as a junior.

“I’ve heard incredible stories about people who have done it.”

There is nothing incredible about Yelsey’s natural running ability,

according to Sumner, which makes the Yale-bound standout’s

accomplishments all the more remarkable.

“On a scale from one to 10, he’s about an eight in terms of athletic

ability,” Sumner said. “But in work ethic, he’s a 10, and he’s a 10 when

it comes to intellect. As track runners go, he’s as smart as they come.”

The primary weakness Yelsey has had to overcome is raw speed,

according to his coach.

“His stride is terrible and that kills his speed,” Sumner said. “Two

things that factor into speed are stride and frequency of stride. He has

neither, so he has to outwork people.”

Sumner estimates Yelsey’s workouts exceed the average Sea King

runner’s by 25%.

“He does more than anyone else and he’s always been able to handle

it,” Sumner said. “He knows he has to do the extra work to be able to do

the things he wants to do.”

Yelsey, who has a 4.1 grade-point average and scored 1,350 on his SAT,

could do virtually anything he wanted in sports as a youngster.

Before high school, in fact, tennis and baseball were his sports of

choice.

But former CdM and current Princeton standout Liz Morse talked him

into running with the cross country kids the summer before his freshman

year and he enjoyed cross country so much, he opted for track over

baseball and tennis in the spring.

“The people and the coaches were so great,” Yelsey recalled of his

rationale for continuing to run.

Yelsey was second in the 1,600 and ninth in the 800 at CIF Southern

Section Division III Finals last season. He will run the 1,600 and 3,200

at Friday’s Division III preliminaries at Trabuco Hills High, dropping

the 800.

“My goal from here on out is to run as fast as I can each race,”

Yelsey said. “Until now, I’ve always had to think about conserving

energy, because I had to score points for the team.”

Since breaking the self-imposed 4:20 barrier in the 1,600 (at this

year’s Arcadia Invitational), Yelsey said he could shave several more

seconds off that standard.

“I could pop a 4:15 at any time,” he said.

A student of his sport, Yelsey recalls holding some of his older

competitors in awe at postseason meets. But, he is now on the other end

of that equation.

“In one sense, it’s hard, knowing you’re supposed to win,” he said.

“But the cool part is when people look at me and aren’t secretive about

saying ‘Whoa, there’s Josh.’ That gives me a mental edge.”