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Sprint star gets back on track at Metro
7 years out of school, competition, Hughes regains sprinting form
By Eric Lansing
lansing@mscd.edu

Photo by Heather A. Longway-Burke • longway@mscd.edu Sheila Hughes, 25, is a sprinter for Metro’s track team and practices for two to two and half hours, Monday through Thursday. Hughes now owns the season’s fastest 100-meter dash in the conference with a time of 12.09. She is currently majoring in behavioral science in hopes of working with at-risk youth.

She came to the right place at the right time.
Metro sprint star Sheila Hughes graduated in 1999 from Overland High School where she lettered in track all four years. She then went on a hiatus that lasted seven years. Not many athletes can regain their form after such a long break away from their sport, but Hughes is just that good.

“I am that blessed,” Hughes said humbly about her talents on the track.

Hughes wanted to get back into school and had a few different universities in mind. But her love of the track eventually brought her to Metro, along with the “great” behavioral science program.

“It was either with my best friend at Metro or my other best friend at the University of Phoenix,” Hughes said about her final choices of colleges. “And I thought it would be cool to go to school and run track again. I want to be a counselor and work with adolescents, especially with at-risk youth.”

But at that time, Metro only had a cross country team, which consisted of runners in long-distance events. Hughes was a sprinter, but decided to contact Metro’s cross country assistant coach, Sean Nesbitt, anyway.

“He told me that they didn’t have a track team but let’s meet in a few months,” Hughes said. “So they contacted me and I met with (head coach Peter Julian), and he told me it was a great time because they decided on developing a track team and that they had a couple other people inquiring about it, so it was perfect timing for me.”

Perhaps Julian and the rest of the athletic department knew the gem they had in Hughes and developed the team just for her. It at least accelerated the talks into forming one. Although she was interested in joining the newly formed track team, she was nervous about being away from the sport for so long. Hughes wasn’t sure how she would perform.

“I told the coach I just wanted to maybe train,” Hughes said. “Kind of a health goal of mine, to just get back into shape. But once I started training, coach told me I was running in (the 60-, 100- and 200-meter dashes). It was just something he put me into, and I thought if he had faith in me, then I should have faith in myself.”

“She’s a really heavy hitter when it comes to her sprints,” Metro head coach Peter Julian said. “She is a positive team leader, does well academically, and is just the best runner in the conference.”

When she isn’t lining up on the blocks or stretching for an upcoming event, Hughes is cheering on her teammates or readily giving senior advice, even though she is only a sophomore. With so many freshmen on the team, and athletes coming from all over the Metro sport spectrum to help out the track team, Hughes is a leader for the team.

“It’s cool that we have her on the team,” said Anthony Luna, a long-distance runner and teammate of Hughes. “She boosts the team up, gives congratulations, and she is a really good sport and a really good team player.”

Hughes knows the importance of teammates and sportsmanship to succeed, especially for the first-year track program at Metro, and it doesn’t matter to her whether you’re a sprinter or a cross country runner.

“I want us all to do well as a team,” Hughes said. “So if we can help each other out or if someone knows more than another person, we should always help each other because we are a team. We are also representing our school.”

And represent the school she has, holding the top Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference time in the 100-meter dash (12.09 seconds) and ranking second in the 200-meter dash (25.97 seconds). Hughes won the RMAC Track Athlete of the Week March 28 for her performance at the Ron Upton Invitational where she beat out top runners from the University of Wyoming and University of Colorado-Colorado Springs in the 200.

Hughes is ready to wear Metro’s blue and white colors May 6-8 for the RMAC Tournament and put her abilities against the top runners in the conference.

One in particular is Adams State’s Drew Houston, who has bested Hughes in a few competitions this year. At the RMAC Indoor Championships Feb. 24, Houston squeezed out close wins over Hughes in the 60 and 200.

"I’m so excited about the RMAC (Championships) because there’s some people I want to put my skills up against and see if I can actually get her this time,” Hughes said suggestively about her fiercest competitor in Houston.

While Hughes is only in her second year at Metro, and still working on getting back into top physical condition, there is plenty of optimism in the newly formed track program for years to come.