This could be a big summer for one Tiffin woman. Briana Shook will head for the Olympic Track and Field Trials next month.
She will be running for a place on the U.S. team that will go to Athens, Greece. Brianna competes in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. That's the race where you see runners covering nearly two miles, during which they have to jump over hurdles, trestles and into water ... for seven laps.
Is she ready?
Last week, she took second place in the NCAA championships in Austin, Texas. Running for the University of Toledo, she broke the Mid-American Conference record she already held, cutting it from 9:59.22 to 9:49.44.
Shook battled through the entire race with the winner, Ida Nilsson of Northern Arizona University. But Nilsson is from Sweden.
In fact, Shook was the only American among the top four finishers in the NCAA Championships. That makes her chances of making the team look pretty good.
It was fun watching the NBA playoffs this week, wasn't it?
It was satisfying to see the experts proven wrong as the lowly Detroit Pistons turned the media darling Los Angeles Lakers every which way but loose and took the title four games to one.
It was Midwest vs. the Coast, serious Larry Brown vs. laid back Phil Jackson, blue collar vs. gold chains.
"Everyone" who claimed to know said that the Lakers would roll over the Pistons quickly. After all, look at the superstars they have Shaquille Oneal, Kobe Bryant, Carl Malone.
The Pistons' championship showed, that, at least this time, hard work, playing by the rules and playing as a team can beat the marquee names playing five individual games.
All's right with the world.