Pawnee City girls don't fit sterotype

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BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

Pawnee City girls track athletes Sam Musil and Michelle Habegger destroy conventional thinking.

Musil is a standout thrower, leading Class D this spring in both the shot put (43 feet) and discus (137-5). But that doesn't stop the junior from also being a middle-distance runner. Musil not only won both throws at the Pioneer Conference meet Saturday, she ran a leg on Pawnee City's victorious 3,200-meter relay and finished fourth in the 800.

Musil, the defending Class D discus champion, had to run the 3,200 relay at state last year during the discus competition. Fortunately, her preliminary discus flight came after the relay, in which Pawnee City finished third.

"It might've been hard convincing the meet officials that I had to leave to run on the (3,200) relay," said Musil, whose older brother, Bobby, had the same combination of events in high school. Bobby Musil is now a thrower at Missouri.

"It's fun, but it can also be tiring,'' she added about the unlikely mix of middle-distance running and throwing. "At most of the meets, I've been done throwing before I have to run. But sometimes, I'm not."

It can also lead to some long practices for Musil, who was third in the shot last year at state.

"Sometimes she's there until 7:30 or 8 o'clock getting everything done,'' Pawnee City track coach Alan Strong said. "She takes her throws very seriously and she works a lot on her technique. Sometimes she does her running at the beginning of practice, and sometimes it's at the end."

At 5-foot-3, Habegger doesn't fit the stereotype of the long, lean athletes who usually compete in the jumps and hurdles. But her times and distances prove that height can be overrated.

Habegger's best triple jump of 37-6 is second on the overall state chart this spring and No. 1 in Class D. She's also among the class leaders in the 100 high hurdles with a time of 15.7 seconds. Habegger won the triple jump last year at state and took third in the 100 hurdles.

"At state, I'll get a little nervous if I see some taller girls (in the jumps and hurdles) that I don't know," said Habegger, who overcame juvenile rheumatoid arthritis in her legs as a young child and became an all-around state champion in gymnastics prior to her high school career.

"I haven't been blessed with long legs, but I've been blessed with springy legs."

Together, Musil and Habegger provide the base for a Pawnee City track team that could contend for the Class D team title in two weeks. The Indians also have one of the top distance runners in the state in Alicia Marteney, who won both the 1,600 and 3,200 runs at the Pioneer Conference meet.

It's already been a successful athletic school year for the Indians. The volleyball team went 19-8 and finished No. 6 in the final Class D-1 ratings. In basketball, Pawnee City was 14-5 and also ranked No. 6.

Neither one of those teams made it to the state tournament, and that's provided even more incentive this spring.