And a rookie shall lead them

Clark hits her stride at UMass-Lowell

In her first year of competitive distance running, Nashua High North grad Lyra Clark led the way at UMass-Lowell, setting school marks in two events. (Bob Blanchard)

It wasn't exactly the way Gary Gardner usually hears from prospective athletes looking to be recruited for his team. But when the University of Massachusetts at Lowell's cross-country and track coach opened his in-box and found an e-mail from Lyra Clark waiting, he was intrigued.

"It was a different approach," Gardner recalled, laughing. "When I got her e-mail, she said she'd gone to Nashua North and I know the head track coach there, so I called him and said, 'Who is this girl?' "

Art Demers told him that Clark "was a really good athlete, but she'd done other sports too, so he never made a runner out of her. So we took a chance," Gardner said.

A chance that paid off.

In her rookie seasons last year at UMass-Lowell, Clark was named the Northeast-10 Conference's Freshman of the Year in cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track. It's the first time a River Hawk runner has swept all three categories. She holds the UMass-Lowell record in the 1,500-meter run outdoors and the 1-mile indoors.

Clark, 20, arrived at UMass as an academic sophomore, having transferred from Norwich University, where she originally went to play basketball. As an incoming transfer last fall, she qualified as a freshman athletically.

Clark and Gardner spent the better part of the fall and winter prior to her transfer exchanging e-mails about training and conditioning. In the spring of last year, Clark came to Lowell to meet with Gardner, tour the campus and facilities, and receive her summer training routine.

Clark didn't train at all last summer, however, after falling ill with mononucleosis. Still, Gardner relied on his instincts and let her join the cross-country team.

In her first-ever cross-country race, at the NE-10 conference meet, Clark placed fourth. She went on to earn eighth at the regional meet, and took 77th at the nationals, her third cross-country meet.

"I was always more basketball-oriented and did track to stay in shape for that," said Clark. "At the end of my senior year, I began second-guessing my choice to do college basketball, and I was bummed Norwich didn't have a track team."

At Nashua High School North, Clark was a thrower on the outdoor track team, specializing in the javelin as a sophomore. Her junior year, she joined the 4x400-meter relay unit.

Running cross-country for UMass last fall, she was named to the NCAA Northeast Region's Division 2 All-Star team and was the NE-10 champion.

During the winter indoor season, the 5-foot-8-inch Clark ran the mile and distance medley. She was the NE-10 champion in the mile and runner-up in the 1,000. Clark ran the medley with Patricia Brice of Chelmsford, Christina Dalomba, and Haley Catarius, helping the quartet earn All-America honors.

Last spring, she ran the 1,500- and 3,000-meter events. She finished first in the 3,000 at the NCAA championships with a time of 10:28.33, 30 seconds faster than the runner-up. She entered the outdoor meet ranked second in Division 2 in the 1,500 and 33d in the 3,000. She now runs a mile in 4 minutes 55 seconds.

In the classroom, she maintained a 3.94 grade point average as a biological sciences major.

Gardner feels Clark's best days lie ahead. "Her training this summer is far superior than last summer," said Gardner. "She had mono, so it was really touch and go for a while, but once we saw her compete, it didn't take a rocket scientist to see we had a runner on our hands. We've added more volume to her workouts and I think she'll come back stronger. It's definitely different to have a really good runner graduate and then another All-American shows up randomly."

With the graduation of nine-time All-American Nicole Plante last year, Clark had big shoes to fill. "I'm really competitive and I love seeing that I can get better at something," she said. "I'm concentrating on doing my mileage that Coach gave me and lifting at least three times a week. I love lifting, so that helps my mileage as well because I'm getting stronger. I almost didn't do cross-country because I was scared of not knowing what it would be like.

"I didn't think I'd have this type of rookie season, but now that I have, I feel like I only want to improve on it," she continued. "I thought it would be a good social thing and a good way to stay in shape, but it worked out better than that."