Westmont’s Meador Is Thankful to Be Running for His Life

For someone who was a cross-country All-American as a freshman, being the No. 2 runner on his team would normally seem like a letdown. For Westmont’s Noey Meador, it seems more like a miracle.

Three seasons ago, Meador was 19th at the NAIA cross-country meet as a freshman. But during track season the next spring, he was bothered by back pain.

Finally, in the off-season, his condition was diagnosed as a stress fracture in his spine. After resting through the summer of ‘97, he returned to cross-country, only to experience the same pain. Then he sat out the track season.

The same thing happened his junior year, and last March, at 21, he saw a back specialist in Los Angeles, who said the problem was not a stress fracture, it was cancer.

Meador flew home to Oregon, where he saw 10 more doctors in less than two weeks.

Meador was told it could be one of two things, lymphoma, which is curable with chemotherapy, or schwannoma, which is more severe and requires surgery.

Because the tumor appeared to be wrapped around Meador’s spinal cord, it was decided to remove a part of it for a biopsy, then go on from there, once doctors were certain what they were dealing with.

But then what Meador calls a miracle happened.

When he awoke from surgery, he was wheeled back into his room. Along the way, he saw his mother in the hallway, smiling from ear to ear.

“When I woke up in the recovery room, all I could think about was, ‘What was the diagnosis?’ ” Meador said. “When I saw my mom and she had a huge smile on her face, I knew everything was OK.”

Doctors had indeed found something. But it wasn’t a cancerous tumor. It was an edema--a buildup of tissue--that was never connected to his spine, but rather muscles in his back.

The edema was removed, and no cancer was found. One doctor told Meador the chances of something so malignant-looking being harmless were one in 2 million, and that more than 99% of the people whose MRIs looked like Meador’s have lymphoma.

“It was a miracle,” Meador said. “When they first said cancer, I thought, ‘It’s got to be someone else.’

“In 20 seconds, all those goals and all those things that are important in life--All-American, academic goals, career plans--they all dropped out and became so insignificant. . . . I thought, ‘I could be dead in three months.’ ”

That surgery in mid-April, not even five months before his senior cross-country season, left Meador barely able to walk because three back muscles had been cut.

But with a new lease on life, Meador wasn’t going to let anything stop his return to the Warriors.

He made it back to the team for the beginning of the season but, having not run at all until September, Meador was clearly not at his best.

“He has no business being where he’s at, based on the circumstances,” Coach Russell Smelley said. “He’s a guy that, regardless if is he’s an All-American or No. 2 on the team, he’ll always give his all.”

And Meador, who was named co-captain by his teammates, has improved, working his way up to second. He said his goal now is to be ready for track season.

The experience has given him a new appreciation of life.

“I know how important the Lord, friends and family are,” Meador said. “They were before, but I let other things get in the way of them. Now I don’t let [running] take me away from them.”

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Cal Poly Pomona lost at Grand Canyon, 2-1, Saturday in men’s soccer, dropping the Broncos 1 1/2 games behind the Antelopes and assuring Grand Canyon a spot in the California Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament next month. . . . Cal State Dominguez Hills won its ninth consecutive women’s soccer match with a 2-0 victory over Cal State San Bernardino on Saturday, improving the Toros to 10-3 in the CCAA, a game behind first-place Cal Poly Pomona.

Araceli Martinez of Cal State Dominguez Hills won the women’s race by more than 11 seconds over UC Davis’ Sarah Shuler at Saturday’s CCAA cross-country meet at UC Riverside. She finished in 21 minutes 57.8 seconds. UC Davis easily won the men’s and women’s titles.

The Cal Lutheran women’s soccer team clinched at least a tie for its ninth consecutive SCIAC title with a 7-0 victory over La Verne on Saturday. All three Cal Lutheran seniors had either a goal or an assist in their final home game. . . . Eric Dugan scored a hat trick for the Pomona-Pitzer men’s soccer team in its 5-4 victory at Whittier on Saturday.

Cal State Bakersfield’s women’s volleyball team came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Cal State Los Angeles in five games Saturday at Bakersfield and build a two-match cushion over the second-place Eagles in the CCAA. . . . Bakersfield women carried their dominance of the Eagles over to the soccer field, setting a school record for goals in drubbing Cal State Los Angeles, 9-0.

UNIVERSITY DIVISION

It was a long week for Long Beach State’s inflatable 49er mascot. The mascot suit, which is worth $6,000 and stands nearly 10 feet when fully inflated, was stolen during basketball’s “midnight madness” on Oct. 15. School officials, figuring the theft was simply a prank, contacted fraternities and promised no prosecution if the suit were returned by Oct. 25 with no damage. It was returned Saturday, eight days after it was taken, a little dirty but in working condition.

Stanford flexed its muscles this weekend against Southland schools, winning several key contests in men’s and women’s sports.

In women’s soccer, the 10th-ranked Cardinal defeated No. 7 USC, 3-2, Sunday at Stanford to take sole possession of first place and a one-game lead over the Trojans in the Pacific 10 with three games to play. And the teams switched places in the rankings two days after Stanford had beaten No. 20 UCLA, 6-0.

In men’s water polo, the third-ranked Cardinal defeated top-ranked USC, 5-3, Saturday at McDonald’s Swim Stadium. It ended the Trojans’ nine-game winning streak. The Cardinal turned around the next day and defeated No. 4 Long Beach State, 6-3.

Best of Week

MEN’S WATER POLO

* Pepperdine at Stanford, Saturday, noon; USC at Stanford, Sunday, noon: A week after defeating No. 1 USC and No. 4 Long Beach State, the Cardinal gets a rematch with the Trojans a day after battling the No. 8 Waves.

MEN’S SOCCER

* Pacific Soccer Classic at UCLA, Friday and Sunday: The No. 4 Bruins, winners of 11 straight, host No. 20 Virginia, No. 24 Cal State Fullerton and Air Force in a late-season tournament. Virginia, a five-time NCAA champion, plays the Titans Friday before facing the Bruins in a rematch of the schools in the 1997 NCAA finals Sunday.

CROSS-COUNTRY

* Pacific 10, West Coast, Big West conference championships: All three conferences end their seasons Saturday. The Pac-10 meet, hosted by USC, is at El Dorado Park at Long Beach, the WCC’s is at Crystal Springs Course at Belmont in Northern California, and the Big West’s is at Rocklin in Northern California.