Track's Meredith Rainey

For most people, excellence in competitive sports is not like riding a bicycle. It's easy to forget how to do well.

But for freshman runner Meredith Rainey, it has been surprisingly simple to hop back on the bike.

Rainey finished sixth in the 500-meter run at the Eastern Championships last Saturday, providing the Crimson with its only team point and nearly qualifying her for the NCAA Indoor Championships. She also ran a personal best of 55.79 seconds and captured first place in the 400-meter run at the Heptagonals two weekends ago.

Rainey's accomplishments are impressive when they stand on their own. But when you consider that Rainey hasn't run competitively since seventh grade, her achievements on the track are simply amazing.

Rainey's initial exposure to competitive racing came in fourth grade, when she joined the Atlas Track Club of Brooklyn, N.Y., and trained under Coach Fred Thompson--who will be the assistant coach of the 1988 U.S. Olympic Track Team.

"A large part of my success is due to the excellent training I had when I was young," said Rainey, referring to Thompson's coaching.

But other interests interfered with her running, and so in the seventh grade Rainey chose to stop racing competitively.

"My track was suffering because of other things," Rainey said, "and I didn't want to run and not do well because I wasn't training enough."

She continued to play sports, eventually becoming captain of both the basketball and volleyball teams at St. Anne's School in Brooklyn, while also participating in dramatics.

After coming to Harvard, Rainey decided to pick up the sport she left six years earlier and joined the Crimson track team.

"I got here and I noticed that a lot of people did sports, and I just felt really lazy," Rainey said. "So I decided to go back to track."

She made what could have been a difficult transition with surprising ease.

"It didn't take too long to realize that she had a lot of talent," Harvard Coach Frank Haggerty said, "although she wasn't in good shape."

Haggerty started Rainey off slowly, entering her in the sprints rather than in the longer races. As she grew stronger, Haggerty moved her up to the quarter mile, and she's been improving ever since.

Rainey's performance at Heps--which earned her a spot on the All-Ivy First Team--has surprised a lot of people.

"To come out in your first year and win the Ivy title is just amazing," distance Coach Ed Sheehan said.

What is even more amazing is that she is going to improve.

"I don't know when she'll stop improving, that's the scary part," women's track Co-Captain Erin Sugrue said. "Every time she goes out, it's as if she sets a personal best."

Rainey's early training under Thompson may have been instrumental to her improvement. Haggerty feels that she has acquired an ability to visualize his suggestions and incorporate them into her running.

Rainey can also clearly visualize her goals for next season. "I want to get in the nationals," she said without hesitation.

With such a difficult goal--only two women at Easterns qualified for nationals this year--Rainey must start training early.

"Next year, I'll train through the fall and I'll come into winter track in better shape," she said.