Miller Harms finally back on outdoor track

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2024 (717 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wil Miller Harms felt a pop.

As he lay flat on his stomach on the track, he optimistically thought, “Did my brand-new spikes just break?”

Rather, it was his left Achilles tendon, which plagued him for years throughout his promising young track and field career.

That was in May 2022 in the first race of his first outdoor season since 2019, due to two years impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, the Brandonite returns to the outdoor rubber for the Western Canada Team Challenge at University Stadium in Winnipeg to run the 100-metre dash in the U23 men’s division.

The former Neelin Spartan took some time to reflect on his journey from winning a bronze medal at JV provincials in 2019 to rehabbing for more than a year to compete for the University of Manitoba Bisons last winter and earn his spot on Team Manitoba this week.

“It was very tough mentally. I think my friends and family saw that more than I did. I just tried to suppress that,” Miller Harms said, adding his perspective shifted throughout the journey.

“I was dealing with ‘how am I going to get back?’ but also ‘this might be a great opportunity for me to rebuild.’

“So far, it’s worked out great. That rebuilding, not just mentality but I’ve been able to rebuild it to the point where it’s almost on par with my right leg.”

Miller Harms pushed through tendonitis in his left Achilles since Grade 10, and it developed into tendinopathy, which comes with an increased risk of tearing. When it finally snapped, he fortunately received surgery within a week and started his rehab process after about three months in a walking boot.

Miller Harms was already with the Bisons, training with strength and conditioning coach Adam Stevenson, who tailored a testing protocol around the injury to track progress. Miller Harms learned a lot about how tendons work and the importance of loading them correctly to keep them in shape.

“Tendons want to have load put on them, take a lot of stress … too little load and the tendon will degenerate but too much and you’re putting too much strain on it,” Miller Harms explained.

“If I knew what I did now back then, I don’t think I would have torn my Achilles.”

In his first season with the Bisons, Miller Harms ran the 60-metre dash and 300-metre while also competing in the long jump.

He tied his 60-metre personal best from high school, which may not be the goal of many university athletes but given the circumstances, it was significant. He was hard on himself about meeting expectations at first but has realized the long, slow process is working.

“I’m realizing how much of a difference there already is between where I was in September to where I am now,” Miller Harms said, adding sprints coach Gee-Ef Nkwonta played a major role in his progress.

“The way he tailors our workouts, I think he’s amazing.”

The 21-year-old qualified for Team Manitoba at a meet in Selkirk a couple of weeks ago. He ran an 11.49-second 100-metre, good for the 13th of the 23 Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan athletes in the field.

His 200-metre time of 23.05 seconds puts him in the bottom half of the 22-man field.

CROCKER GROWS

IN ROOKIE YEAR

Juliana Crocker made a bold move to the University of New Brunswick right after high school. After her first semester, she made possibly a braver one to transfer to the University of Manitoba.

The Brandonite, who broke the provincial high school pentathlon record in Grade 11 at Vincent Massey, is set to compete in the long jump and 100-metre dash in the U23 women’s division.

“I’m so excited for this weekend. I’ve seen so much improvement in the past few weeks,” Crocker said, noting she set a 37-centimetre personal best in the long jump a few weeks ago. She’s seeded sixth with her mark of 5.53 metres.

“I had no idea I had that in me and he still thinks I can go so much farther.”

Crocker wanted to continue as a pentathlete at the university level but was placed in the 400-metre and 800-metre and said she didn’t enjoy it as much.

She sought and found greener pastures at the U of M. She’s in a big training group and relishes the opportunity to train with Madisson Lawrence, who won the national heptathlon title last month.

“She’s someone I’ve looked up to in the sport for so long, now she’s my training partner and just pushes me to an entirely new level,” Crocker said.

“It’s so nice because she gets it. A lot of people, nobody else has to put in the same amount of hours we do for every event. We’re on the track six days a week training and we’re lifting another three days on top of that.

“She has so much experience with that and she’s always someone I can go to about the sport. She pushes me a lot more, being in Brandon we had our high school group … but a lot of the training I did was on my own.”

Crocker wasn’t able to compete for the Bisons in the second semester and has had a short outdoor season as she slowly returns to a full workload after dealing with a stress fracture for a couple of years.

STRONG WESTERN MANITOBA PRESENCE

The Westman contingent representing Manitoba is loaded with talent, including Neepawa’s Tryn Turner and Daxx Turner for the U23 women and men, respectively.

Brandon’s Zach Redekop and Nathan Simard made the team, while Brandon’s Konnor Klemick is with the U18 men and Neepawa’s Rocklyn Turner cracked the U16 women’s squad.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Instagram: @thomasfriesen5