In his freshman season, Brian Allen qualified for the Big East Championships. During his sophomore season, injuries kept the jumper from qualifying for the conference championships in the winter. This weekend, the junior will have his last chance of the indoor season to overcome his injury and qualify for the conference championship in the triple jump and long jump.

The Orange travels to Bucknell in Lewisburg, Pa. for the Bucknell Winter Classic on Saturday, its last meet before the Big East Championships on Feb. 18.

Allen, who’s been hampered with a stress fracture in his left foot since this summer, has been limited because of the injury throughout the season.

‘Right now the problem is I can’t run on my toes,’ Allen said. ‘It is a big problem when it comes to competition.’

Allen said his injury kept him from running hard all season and flared up during every meet. Despite his best efforts Allen did not complete one triple jump all season and said his only long jump was a ‘throw away jump’ because he jogged into the jump.

Assistant coach Enoch Borozinski said the main thing about jumping is establishing a rhythm on the run in. It’s something Allen has been unable to do.

‘When you have an injury you never really get into a rhythm so every time you come down you’re changing things,’ Borozinski said.

To alleviate the pain in his foot, Allen takes painkilling pills before every meet. On the day of a meet, Allen takes four Advil with breakfast. A few hours later, he takes four more Advil. Finally, he takes a ‘painkiller cocktail’ one hour before the meet. The cocktail usually consists of nine pills of any combination of Tylenol, Excedrin and Advil.

Allen is hopeful that the painkilling cocktail can extend his season with a big competition this weekend.

‘If I can get one good jump in then that can get me into the Big East and maybe something can be discovered the next week and I’m fine,’ Allen said. ‘You just have to keep plugging along.’

It has been hard for Allen to stay positive when he has seen little progress this season, but he tries not to get frustrated. He said he planed at the beginning of the year to improve, but he hasn’t seen any the last few weeks.

‘At this point, you’re doing everything they tell you and it’s been static for a number of weeks,’ Allen said. ‘As long as I’m doing everything they tell me to do I’m pretty powerless.’

Borozinski hopes the injury may actually help Allen in the future. He said Allen was unable to rely on his natural skills as much this season and needed to focus more on his technique.

‘I’m hoping it’s one of those things where it’s going to be a blessing in disguise in the long run,’ Borozinski said.

But this is nothing new to Allen. He injured his right foot last season and doctors later told him that it was most likely a stress fracture all along. Allen said doctors told him he was predisposed to stress fractures in his feet after learning of the second fracture.

In last year’s outdoor season, Allen needed to qualify for the Big East Championships in his final meet and was successful. This accomplishment gives his coaches confidence in his abilities.

‘He’s a pretty clutch jumper,’ Borozinski said. ‘Hopefully he’ll pull something off this weekend.’

Published on February 9, 2006 at 12:00 pm