Sunshine Sentinel

The crash happened swiftly as Anna Hall attempted to clear the eighth of 10 hurdles. She jumped over the first seven without a problem, but with the finish line in sight in the 100-meter hurdles at last summer's U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon, Hall crashed to the track.

The final verdict proved unkind: a broken Navicular bone in her left foot.

Hall struggled to fight back the tears as she was helped off the track. The setback derailed her bid to qualify for the Tokyo Games in the heptathlon, but it did nothing to dampen her competitive spirit.

Consider Hall's path to this weekend's NCAA East Regional in Bloomington, Ind., where she will conclude her stay on Saturday by competing in the 100- and 400-meter hurdles eyeing next month's NCAA Championships and the World Championships later this summer. In the year since Hall took a tumble last summer, she underwent surgery and then transferred from Georgia to Florida following a Bulldogs coaching change. Once at Florida, Hall began the healing process physically and emotionally. She started with workouts in the pool, preventing stress on her surgically repaired foot.

"We kind of went from there,'' said Mellanee Welty, Florida's associate head coach who specializes in working with the team's multi-event athletes. "It's been a really fun process watching her continue to get better and faster and stronger after that injury."

Slowly but surely, Hall worked her way back into competitive shape.

Her father, David Hall, didn't know what the future held in store a year ago, but he knew at least one certainty from his daughter's past: she would not stay down for long.

A former quarterback at Michigan who also played basketball and competed in the decathlon for the Wolverines in the early 1980s, David Hall began to notice that Anna, the third of David and wife Ronette's four daughters, possessed a fire inside that is required for those brave souls who want to want to compete in the heptathlon.

The seven-event heptathlon is the women's version of the 10-event decathlon, a two-day test of endurance and guts. In a family full of gifted athletes — Anna's older sisters Kara (played tennis at Michigan) and Julia (ran track at Michigan and Georgia) provided plenty of inspiration growing up — David began to see Anna the athlete as being different around the eighth grade.

Anna was in Maryland competing in a summer event when David had one of those aha moments as he recorded an 800-meter race with a video camera.

"She hadn't really trained for the 800 much,'' David said. "She kind of willed a big win out by inches. She probably didn't have any business winning that 800. That kind of will and strength of mind was on display.

"Age 12 to 14, I started noticing the combination of her focus and enjoyment for track, and then a will to win. Then after eighth grade and high school, it became very noticeable to those around her to see how much she seemed to embrace track and the grind."

A third-year sophomore from Highlands Ranch, Colo., Hall has blossomed and is in peak form as she turns her attention to the heart of the NCAA Outdoor postseason. She helped the UF women win their first Indoor national championship in 30 years in March, winning the gold medal in the five-event pentathlon and running the fastest 800 meters (2:05.33) by a collegiate pentathlete in NCAA history.

Hall has only gained ground in the two months since, highlighted by her heptathlon title at the USA Track & Field Combined Events Championships on May 7, which qualified her for the World Championships. She won with the top heptathlon score globally this year (6,458 points) and the second-best score in NCAA history.

Hall's spill last summer is a distant memory in the record books.

"I definitely felt a little bit of redemption,'' Hall said of her performance last month at the USATF event. "I think knowing how young I was, people knew I would be back eventually. But not the following year. That motivated me to do extra things."

Besides those tedious workouts in the pool, Hall said she underwent different treatments on her broken bone, ate additional calcium, got extra sleep, and bought into a revamped approach in the weight room devised by Gators strength and conditioning coach Matt DeLancey.

"She's a worker. That's the fun part,'' Welty said. " She's a super-talented athlete, but she comes to practice every day and works hard. With her, a lot of the time, it's almost backing her off and not letting her push her body to the limits that she would like to push her body to every day.

"It's just kind of in her DNA."

Of course, some of that comes from David, a rare three-sport athlete at Michigan who started the 1983 Rose Bowl against UCLA. While David was a top recruit out of Stevenson High in Livonia, Mich., he played most of his college career behind option quarterback Steve Smith. At the end of his time with the Wolverines, future NFL quarterback and current Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh arrived in Ann Arbor.

David moved to the University of Texas to get his MBA after his Michigan days. Once the record holder at Michigan in the decathlon, he spent several years after his football career competing in the grueling test until turning his focus to his career.

His background provides a deep appreciation for what Anna is doing with the Gators.

"From my perspective, I think the fit has really been a blessing for her and accentuated her performance,'' David said. "She has always been very focused on goals and works hard to achieve them. She did it in high school, did it at Georgia. She loves it. That's the other thing you can't miss about it. She loves being at the track."

On a recent 95-degree afternoon, Hall was at Percy Beard track by herself, wrapping up a workout. She is accustomed to the lone training sessions that are part of the deal for heptathletes.

While physically gifted, the mental aspect intrigues the finance major as much as the technical skills. She has a drive from deep within, part of the Hall sisters' DNA that their parents created.

"I would say we're all very driven," Anna said. "We grew up competing against each other. I think just being like the third one … I was always playing catchup. I feel, honestly, that's kind of what gave me my edge."

A year after her lowest point, that edge has boosted Hall to a level that many seek but few reach.

"I became more of a well-rounded athlete,'' she said. "I knew I still had a lot to give."

Original source can be found here.