By Kelline Linton, Chief Copy Editor
Wanda Hutson flew from China to London, London to Miami and Miami to Trinidad in 22 hours and only remained in her hometown with her brother and nephews for one day before flying back to Abilene on Aug. 30. She returned to ACU not only as a tired, 23-year-old junior information systems major from Port of Spain, but also as an Olympic athlete who ran for her country’s glory in Beijing.
Hutson ran the first leg of the 4-by-100 meter relay for the Trinidad and Tobago team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
During the semifinals, her team befell the same fate as the United States, Great Britain and France when it did not finish the relay because the third and fourth leg did not connect with the baton.
The day of the race was a blur. Hutson remembers she might have eaten eggs and toast for breakfast and perhaps pasta for lunch, but she cannot remember all the teams who ran in the heat that rainy night. She knows Jamaica ran in front of her and the Chinese were right behind, but does not recall France dropping the baton or Ukraine disqualifying.
When Hutson stepped onto the track, she said she hoped for the best.
“I was excited and nervous at the same time because the relay is not an individual event; it’s not just you, it’s a team,” she said. “I have a responsibility, but everybody has a responsibility.”
Hutson was the first runner for her four-person team because of her great starts. When the gun fired, her short, muscular body took off like an airplane, pushing off the block and driving out onto the track with head straight back, arms slicing through the air and legs churning so fast they blurred together. She did not see the crowd or the other teams; her nervousness disappeared. Her complete focus was on successfully passing the hollow cylinder gripped tightly in her hand.
She finished the first leg and handed the baton smoothly to the next runner, Kelly-Ann Baptiste, who made the pass off to Semoy Hackett.
Her team was behind the No. 1 Jamaican team by two or three yards when Hackett dropped the baton as she tried to pass it to Ayanna Hutchinson.
“They had an opportunity to win a medal; when the Jamaicans and the Americans went out, they were very close to a medal time,” said head track coach Don Hood. Hackett cried after the race; her teammates comforted her.
“We still had to support her even when she dropped the baton; I told her it was OK and we did our best,” Hutson said. “It was sad, but we couldn’t do anything about it.” The Jamaican team that placed first in the heat but dropped the baton in the finals, congratulated the Trinidad and Tobago team after the race for its efforts.
“I think my team did its very best [at the Olympics],” Hutson said. “But, it was disappointing; I waited four years, and the baton dropped,” she said.
Marvin Essor, ’07, was at the Olympics for the Jamaican team’s 4-by-400 meter relay but did not run because of a knee injury; he watched Hutson sprint in her event. ”
She was phenomenal; she did a great job,” Essor said. “When you go to the Olympics, you see the best athletes in the world; just to be there with the best athletes in the world says a lot about how serious you take your sport and the hard work and dedication it takes to get there.”
To have the chance to run in the Olympics, the women’s 400-meter relay team needed a time that would make it one of the top 16 teams in the world. Two days before the Olympic cutoff date, Hutson and her teammates ran in Greece and qualified for the Olympics as the 14th fastest team; their time was 43.73. They ran without Baptiste, the best runner on their team.
“I think we had to prove we could qualify without her, and we did,” Hutson said. The team’s fastest time this year was 43.28, which it recorded in the Caribbean Games in July.
Hutson made the relay team after placing sixth in Trinidad’s summer trials because the six fastest runners were chosen to form the team. She did not qualify for the 100-meter or 200-meter. After making the relay team, she began her training in July and as the season progressed, Hutson improved her time and moved up to the top four runners.
“She was good enough that they actually let her run at the Olympics,” Hood said.
In China, she had to wait through two weeks of Olympics before competing. She spent most of her time preparing and watching other events like the men’s 100 and 200.
“I didn’t do anything until after I competed,” Hutson said.
She and her teammates could not sightsee because it would have worn them out, Hood said.
The team stayed in the Games Village, a place where all the athletes lived. It had walkways, gardens and ponds and was constantly patrolled by security.
“It was very pretty, really beautiful,” Hutson said. “I don’t think anybody else can top China. The Chinese people were really supportive and always filled the stands.”
Hutson also was on the relay team for the 2004 Athens Olympics but did not run. The team dropped the baton in the semifinals when the first and second runners failed to connect, while Huston, the third runner, waited for her turn.
“To actually run in the Olympics this year was a great experience,” she said.
She wants to compete in the 2012 Olympics for the relay and a single event like the 100 or 200.
“She is young enough to be able to go to the next Olympics since she had success so early,” Hood said. “Physically, it’s doable if she stays healthy and keeps from burning out.” She and Essor also want to run in the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) World Championships in Berlin next August.
When Hutson attended Bishop Anstey High School in Trinidad, she ranked fourth in the 100 and 4-by- 100 meter relay and eighth in the 100 in the finals at the IAAF World Junior Championships in 2004 and 2002, repectively. Her best time was 11.38.
She began running at the age of nine and focused on sprints in the 100 and 200 after a professor encouraged her in elementary school but she did not start to train seriously until she was 14 years old.
Upon graduating from high school, she enrolled at Southern Union State Community College in Auburn, Ala. She wanted to eventually attend Auburn University, a Division I school, but did not have enough credits after junior college. The NCAA changed its percentage requirements, while Hutson was looking at Auburn; the new policy stated athletes must graduate junior college with at least 40 percent of their degrees completed.
“If the junior college doesn’t put you in the right classes, you’re just stuck, and that’s basically what happened [to Wanda],” Hood said.
Hutson heard about ACU through Nick Alexander, a friend, fellow Trinidad Olympic runner and ACU alumnus, who thought it would be a good fit; she decided to enroll in August 2007 and said she was glad she did.
Hutson was ineligible to run for ACU last year because the NCAA determined she could not compete as a university student for one year because too much time had passed after she finished high school and before she started college; Hutson did run for some events but not as an ACU athlete. She placed first in the 100 at the Abilene Christian Open in March.
She is eligible this year and plans to run the 100, 200 and 4-by-100 meter relay for the women’s track team; her season best time so far is 11.54 for the 100, which she ran in the Trinidad and Tobago semifinals for the Olympic trials.
“Wanda works really hard; I think she’ll step in to be a leader instantly,” Hood said. “Football has Bernard Scott; we got Wanda Hutson.”
Hood wants to win the Division II National Championship as a team this year and hopes Hutson can be national champion in the 100 and 200 events.
“It’s having that one person you know can get it done; she understands what it takes to be good,” Hood said.
She begins her 15 to 18 hours of track training a week in October and wants to improve her form before the season starts in January.
“I have a lot of core stuff to work on like hips and back,” she said. “My form is not the best for a short person and is really horrible at the end of my races.”
Five-foot two-inch Hutson brings her work ethic to the women’s track team along with a willingness to run with her teammates.
“A lot of people would come in with Olympic experience and go ‘y’all can’t do what I do,’ but she is very encouraging and very much a part of the team,” Hood said. “She is the whole package.”
Hutson wants to run her personal best this year and hopes to run professionally after graduation.
She is ready for the season to begin and said she does not want her Olympic experiences to be the highlights of her track career; she wants to win a few personal titles and add to the legacy of the ACU track and field team along the way.
