Payne perseveres to gold
Oak Mountain High School sophomore Nicole Payne is a starter for her school’s soccer team, but on May 6 she missed the Lady Eagles’ state quarterfinal game at Bob Jones.
Instead, Payne stood on a podium about six hours south.
Oak Mountain’s three-sport star — she also runs cross-country — placed third in the girls 200-meter dash on the third day of the Class 7A state outdoor track and field meet, held at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex. She finished behind Sparkman’s Lauryn Hall and Hoover’s Caitlyn Little. Hall clocked a state-meet record time of 23.98 seconds, and Little, a University of South Carolina signee, ran 24.21.
Payne crossed the line in 24.42, but that wasn’t her most impressive accomplishment of the meet.
The day before, on May 5, she won the 400-meter dash. Payne registered a time of 56.58 seconds amid blustery conditions, as wind gusts surpassed 20 mph during her race.
“It feels great, but I’d like to keep improving,” Payne said after her triumph. “[The wind] was actually a bigger factor than I thought it would be.”
But she fought through it, just like she persevered this past year through the painstaking process of rehabilitating a torn ACL.
She injured it last April during a club soccer game. On top of playing for Oak Mountain, she also competes for the U.S. youth national team.
She couldn’t do either sport from last April to October. The injury wiped out her soccer seasons and forced her to miss the state outdoor track meet, along with the entire 2016 cross-country season.
Daily rounds of physical therapy occupied her time and attention as she to worked to get back to full health. Her persistence paid off when doctors cleared her return to activity in October. It was earlier than expected.
“That’s the kind of person she is,” said Oak Mountain head track and field coach Riley White. “She’s extremely driven. She’s motivated. She works hard, so if there’s anyone who was going to come back that fast from injury, it was going to be Nicole.”
Payne picked up where she had left off, as if missing nearly six months of training took no toll on her physical fitness.
She broke her own 7A meet record in the 400 at February’s state indoor championships, capturing gold in 55.24 seconds. She also placed fifth in the 60-meter dash.
“She’s obviously extremely talented, but on top of that she gives incredible effort in practice,” White said. “She’s made very visible attempts to improve her running form, to fix her running mechanics. We’re seeing great strides in that.”
Payne didn’t slow down after the state outdoor meet. While she focused on her competition at the Coast, her Lady Eagles dispatched Bob Jones 3-0 in their quarterfinal playoff game. The win clinched Oak Mountain’s spot in the state final four, where it fell to Vestavia Hills in the state semifinal.
But a lost match beats a lost season. One year removed from a challenging trial, Payne is back — both on the field and on the track.
“You just have to power through,” she said, “and finish the race.”