A speedy recovery for Eldridge

Bryce Alderton

Keith Eldridge will try to break a Newport Harbor High school record

in the 100 meters at the Sea View League track and field

preliminaries Tuesday afternoon at Irvine High in addition to the

obvious goal of winning the race.

It is a goal the Sailors’ junior set at the start of the season,

before a painful ailment in his stomach sent him racing for another

coveted prize essential to any success on the track -- his health.

Eldridge will burst from the blocks come the league preliminaries,

hoping to beat his personal-best time (10.8 seconds, a hand time as

opposed to an electronic reading) and shatter the school record.

Trevor Jones ran a 10.89 electronic time to win the 100 at the CIF

Southern Section Division II championships in 2000.

This coming six weeks after Eldridge found himself inside Hoag

Hospital, receiving emergency surgery.

Eldridge, the defending league champion in the 200 who also

qualified for the CIF Southern Section Division II preliminaries last

season, started feeling sharp pains near his lower stomach the

afternoon of March 7.

He went to sleep, but awoke at 2 a.m. March 8.

“I couldn’t move, it hurt so bad,” Eldridge said.

His father, Keith Eldridge, drove his son to the hospital.

Six hours later at 8 a.m., the younger Eldridge went under the

knife as surgeons worked to remove his appendix.

“I was scared, my dad had it when he was in his 20s and [doctors]

told him he had a 50-50 chance of living,” Eldridge said. “That was

the only surgery I’ve ever had.”

The surgery was a success. Eldridge spent two nights in the

hospital before going home.

On doctors’ advice, Eldridge abstained from running until March

30, the day before a league dual meet against Irvine.

“I got off, went to practice and ran the meet the next day against

Irvine,” Eldridge said.

Eldridge finished second in the 100 in 11.32 and third in the 200

at 24.30, his first meet of the season.

A hamstring pull in February forced him to miss the first month of

the season.

“I thought I could be done for the season,” Eldridge, a running

back, cornerback and kick returner for the Sailors’ football team,

said.

As expected, Eldridge encountered challenges in that first meet,

but they weren’t related to the appendectomy.

“It didn’t hurt, but I had no stamina whatsoever,” Eldridge said.

“And I was nervous.”

Eldridge’s times in both events have steadily dropped in the final

two league dual meets, culminating Wednesday at Woodbridge.

Eldridge took first in both the 100 (10.9) and 200 (23.6), his

best hand times to date this season, giving Sailors’ Coach Nowell Kay

optimism heading into league preliminaries, finals and, possibly,

beyond. Eldridge’s best time in the 200 is 22.79, clocked last year,

Kay said.

“He is one of the seven kids who are our main point scorers,” Kay

said. “Without him, we were hurt in the speed department. He brings

the whole relay team up with his competitiveness.”

Eldridge ran a leg on the 1,600 relay team last season, but Kay

has kept him out of that event since he missed so much training time

at the beginning of the season.

Eldridge may run a leg of the 400 relay at Tuesday’s league

preliminaries, Kay said.

The focus remains on the 100 and 200, which Kay said Eldridge

should contend for top places in both events. Kay said Eldridge could

also finish among the top seven in Orange County in the 100.

Eldridge prefers the 100.

“I tend to get tired fast,” he said.

Ironically, his best event last year was the 200, Kay said.

“The 100 is really an explosion at the start,” Kay said.

Weightlifting with the football team has helped Eldridge burst off

the blocks a little quicker and with more power.

Kay has noticed the difference, not only in Eldridge’s running

style, but his demeanor, coming from football.

“At the start he has confidence in his legs and is able to stay

relaxed and do better,” Kay said. “If you watch the Olympics in the

100 and 200, runners’ cheeks are bouncing because they are totally

relaxed. You can still fire the muscles at full-strength without

straining. When the neck and shoulders get tense, it slows you down.

“The work ethic of football has helped him.”

In this season of unexpected hurdles, not even a pulled hamstring

and appendectomy have kept Eldridge down for long.