UNLV’s Davis appears to have a golden future

Steve Guiremand

Friday, March 2, 2001 | 11:34 a.m.

UNLV junior sprinter Michele Davis became the first three-time individual winner in the history of the Mountain West Conference Indoor Track Championships last week in Colorado Springs.

The junior from Lansing, Mich., won the 60 meters (7.44), the 200 in a conference record 23.59, and led a 1-2-3-5 Rebel finish in the 400 with a winning time of 55.09. She was named the meet's Most Outstanding Performer and also garnered the High Point Award for scoring 30 of UNLV's 98 team points.

Not a bad performance to be sure. But to hear UNLV women's track coach Karen Dennis tell it, the best from Davis is still yet to come.

"I expect even better things from Michele, really," Dennis said.

Such as?

"I think Michele does have the ability to make it to the Olympics," Dennis said.

Considering that Dennis was the head coach of the 2000 U.S. Women's Olympic team in Sydney, Australia, last summer, that's quite a compliment.

"It's going to take more discipline on her part and she has to be a little more focused," Dennis said. "I think it's going to come in her post-collegiate years. It's difficult for a collegiate athlete to train at the level you need for the Olympics and still accomplish your degree requirements. But I think she has the physical talent to make the Olympic team. I really do."

Davis' immediate future includes a trip to Fayetteville, Ark., on Wednesday for her first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. She will run in next Friday's 200-meter races.

"I think she has a good chance of getting into the finals," Dennis said. "I would expect her to. And once you get into the finals, it's anybody's race."

Davis finished fourth in the 200 meters last summer in the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a time of 23.14. She also took seventh there in the 400 meters.

But there's a big difference between running outdoors on a regular track and running indoors on a smaller oval.

"I've never been to the Indoor Nationals, so I really don't know what to expect," Davis said. "But I fared pretty well last year outdoors, so I think I'll do okay."

"It's a little tougher for Michele because she doesn't have the advantage of running the shorter turns (indoors) day in and day out," Dennis said. "But Michele is pretty adaptable and has run well indoors in the past. I think she'll run well back there."

One thing is for sure: Davis won't be intimidated by the competition. After all, she took 10th in the 200 at the U.S. Olympic trials last summer in Sacramento where she competed against the likes of Olympic sprint star Marion Jones.

"It was a blast being there with all those upper-echelon runners, the elite you watch on TV all the time," Davis said. "You don't really think of yourself competing with or against them. It was definitely a great experience."

Added Dennis: "That was a good experience for her because she got to see what good really is. She got a chance to gauge where she's at in comparison with our national class athletes, our world class athletes. She knows now that she's on the perimeter of being an elite athlete."