COURTESY PHOTO
Former St. Mary’s track standout and current Tufts University sophomore Drew DiMaiti will be heading to the NCAA Outdoor Track Championships in the 400-meter hurdles next Thursday.
By STEVE KRAUSE
Drew DiMaiti was always a bit of a whirling dervish at St. Mary’s High School, whether it was on a soccer field, hockey rink or an oval track.
Now, as a sophomore at Tufts University, he is still outrunning just about everyone.
DiMaiti, whose father, Carl is the former principal at St. Mary’s, has qualified for next Thursday’s NCAA outdoor track championships in Waverly, Iowa, in the 400-meter hurdles. As of this past Thursday, DiMaiti is ranked 11th in the nation with a qualifying time of 53:01. The top 20 runners in the nation qualify for the event.
Regardless of what sport he played in high school, DiMaiti was a star. But of the three he played, he liked track and field the best, and it liked him as well. In his junior and senior seasons, DiMaiti won state championships in the 400 hurdles.
“I like the competition of racing,” he said. “Also, it was a way to be with my family, as my father helped out coaching too. That was a nice aspect of it.”
His twin sister, Carol, also ran for the Spartans and currently is on the track team at Merrimack College.
“Track also gave me the opportunity to get into Tufts,” said DiMaiti. “That was an important part of my resume.”
DiMaiti actually ran the 53.01 in last weekend’s New England championships. After that meet, he was ranked 11th out of 20, but had to wait until this past Thursday, when the last runners were competing, to know for sure that he had qualified to go to Iowa. When the dust settled, he had made it, and still with his No. 11 ranking.
“Usually,” he said, “it’s more fluid than that. This year, it stayed the same for the top 12, at least.” He said he is one of three runner from Tufts who are going to Iowa.
DiMaiti, who runs in the winter and spring, said there’s a world of difference between running track in high school and at college.
“The training is a lot more intense,” he said. “We practice pretty much every day from September until now.
“The competition is also of higher intensity,” he said. “In high school, the fastest times were always in the championship meets. Now, you get championship meet times in every meet. It’s like everyone who runs was the best player on his team in high school, or the league champ, or the state champ. But I like it. That’s what makes it so intense.”
Training is also different. For one thing, DiMaiti has to pay much more attention to lifting weights than he ever had to do in high school.
“We have a nice weight room at Tufts, and we lift three times a week,” he said. “Leg workouts are important.”
DiMaiti only stands 5-6, which puts him at a bit of a disadvantage in running the hurdles. But he compensates.
“For me,” he said, “the most important thing is the rhythm when I run. I have to have the right rhythm, or else I might end up stepping all over the place and fall down, or knock over a hurdle.”
Taller runners, he said, can almost step over the hurdles in stride. Because he’s shorter, he actually has to jump.
“That’s why for me, my leg muscles are important, and so are my knees,” he said.
Equally important, he said, are stretching and flexibility.
“I’ve had to work on that,” he said. “The best hurdlers are the ones who are most flexible. We do a lot of work with that, especially hip flexibility.”
And while the low hurdles may be a relatively short race in distance, DiMaiti says it takes a lot out of him.
“You have to clear the hurdles 10 times,”he said, “and there’s about 40 meters between each. That’s why the rhythm aspect is so important. If you fall out of rhythm it can really mess you up.”
However, the pace of the race, and the amount of concentration it requires, keeps him from thinking about how much he’s hurting.
And when the race is over?
“I may be a little dramatic sometimes,” he said. “Right after the race, you have an adrenaline rush when you cross (the finish line). After that, I’m down for the count.”