Elite Status

Ginnie Powell’s hurdling career almost ended before it began.

Feeling left out when her two best friends abandoned sprinting to try the hurdles at their Seattle track club, Powell decided to join them. Long-legged and speedy at 13, she seemed an ideal candidate for the switch.

But a nasty tumble to the track during one of her early attempts led her to reconsider the whole idea.

“That one fall did discourage me. I cried,” she said. “I was embarrassed, more so.

“After that, I don’t know, everything came together. And I’ve been hurdling ever since.”

From that fall came her ascent to the elite level of a taxing and tricky event.

The USC senior has won the last two NCAA 60-meter indoor hurdles titles and last year’s outdoor 100-meter title, positioning herself to complete a grand slam in June. Her winning time of 12.82 seconds at the Trojan Invitational on March 25 is the fourth-best in the world this season, and she ran a wind-aided 12.79 at the Texas Relays last weekend. She hopes to trim her time below 12.70 on Saturday, in the invitational 100-meter hurdles at the Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut.

“It’s definitely different from running the open 100 for me, more to focus on, more to do right,” said Powell, who equaled Gail Devers’ collegiate 100-meter hurdles record of 12.61 last June and broke Perdita Felicien’s 60-meter hurdles collegiate indoor record last month with a time of 7.84 seconds.

“I would say it’s a challenge, but I feel like I’m working to master it. I haven’t done that, but I’m a lot better than when I started.”

Powell won All-America honors as a freshman but struggled during her sophomore year when Joe Lanning, who coached USC’s hurdlers, became too ill to work with her. She won the Pacific 10 Conference 100-meter dash title but didn’t reach the NCAA hurdles final.

She blossomed as a junior with the help of Dr. Tommy White, a former elite athlete who has degrees in psychology and kinesiology and puts both to good use coaching the Trojans’ male and female hurdlers. In addition to her two NCAA titles, she finished third at the U.S. championships and got to the semifinals at the world championships before succumbing to bronchitis and fatigue.

“I wanted to do well at worlds, but at the same time I wasn’t going to get anything for it except for the medal and experience under my belt,” she said. “It was important to me to represent the U.S.A. well, but I did what I could.

“I liked it not being professional and not being paid because it was like, ‘Here’s my learning experience, so next time I can get a medal.’ ”

She could have cashed in and turned pro last summer but returned to USC to get her degree in public policy and public management.

“Going to school, it helps you dealing with the business aspect of track and field, and the people you meet,” said Powell, who plans to turn pro after the college season and compete in Europe. “School, to me, makes a big difference.”

Ron Allice, USC’s director of track and field, said he’s glad she stayed.

“You don’t get a Ginnie Powell very often. She’s a very gifted athlete and a very dedicated one, with a great work ethic and great discipline,” he said.

“There are people who have natural ability, and there are other people who take what they have and work to their potential. She has that special quality that brings all those things together. She’s worked hard. She’s been a good student. She’s done everything for us. She’s been a leader. She sets an example for the others.”

White, whom Powell called “a good mentor, a friend,” described his approach to coaching as problem-solving: He finds areas in which she can pick up a hundredth or thousandth of a second, but she must correct those flaws. When she met her goal of running under 13 seconds, “that part of the problem was solved,” he said. But she told him his job wasn’t done because she wants to run in the 12.40s or 12.50s.

“If I thought she was maxing out I probably would have said, ‘Let’s set a more realistic goal.’ But with the things that I see, the problems that can be solved, as well as her mental attitude, I think it’s doable,” he said. “She’s an excellent student and she learned very quickly and she was committed to being good.

“She applied the physical principles, as well as learning how to be a champion.”

To win today at Mount SAC, she’ll have to beat a solid field that includes her teammate and training partner Candice Davis, Angela Whyte and Nichole Denby.

“I’m looking more for time and technique and running my race right, because there are things I can continue working on,” said Powell, who was second to Felicien last year at Mount SAC with a time of 12.75. “I have so many more races left this year.”

And problems to solve.

*

Marion Jones, who usually opens her outdoor season here, didn’t enter because she’s not ready to run. But world 400-meter hurdles champion Bershawn Jackson is scheduled to compete Friday.

On Saturday, Athens 400-meter hurdles gold medalist Felix Sanchez, a former Trojan, will run the flat 400. Leonard Scott, third in the U.S. in the 100 last year, will run the 200; so will Lashawn Merritt, part of the world champion 1,600-meter U.S. relay team.

Also Saturday, the women’s invitational 200 will feature Monique Henderson, who won the NCAA 400-meter title last year for UCLA and was third at the U.S. championships. Athens 10,000-meter champion Xing Huina of China is entered in the women’s 1,500 and Athens pole vault silver medalist Toby Stevenson is entered in the men’s pole vault.