By Roscoe Nance
Hampton University sprinter Francena McCorory, who hopes to someday become a mortician and own a chain of funeral homes, is getting a head start on her life's work.
She is burying the competition in the 400-meter dash.
McCorory set an American record in that event with a time of 50.54 in the final as she successfully defended her national indoor title at the NCAA Indoor Championships March 13 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
McCorory, a two-time All-American, topped the 1991 record formally held by Diane Dixon. McCorory is the first female NCAA Indoor champion at the distance and was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I National Athlete of the Year for the indoor track and field season.
McCorory, the Most Outstanding Runner in the 2010 MEAC Championships last month, won by more than a full second at the NCAA Championships; her time would have also won the World Championship by more than a half second.
"She is a phenomenal runner who can sprint and run longer distances,'' Hampton Women's Track and Field Coach Maurice Pierce says. "She can run anything from 60 meters to 800 meters.
She has great lung capacity. Usually you're a sprinter, a middle runner or quarter-miler. The best quarter-milers have both speed and lungs. She's one of those special people who carry both.''
McCorory, a three-time MEAC Athlete of the Week for the 2009-10 indoor track and field season, says it took a while for her to fully absorb the magnitude of her record-setting performance.
"After the race, I thought it was a dream and I hadn't run yet,'' she says. "Going into the race, I knew I was capable of winning but wasn't expecting that time.''
She attributes her performance to her training regimen and a minor adjustment to her eating habits. She stopped eating meals after 10 p.m., began eating more fruits and drank more water.
Pierce devised a demanding workout routine for McCorory that included intense strength training and running 500s and 200s. As the NCAA Championships approached, Pierce had McCorory concentrating on speed work.
He says shecould have broken the record in February, given the progress she made during training. However, he purposely eased up on her workouts and pointed to the NCAA Championships.
"It doesn't surprise me that she broke the record,'' Pierce says. "She trains hard in practice and does things normal athletes can't do. You could get an indication in practice how well she was going to do. She could have run 49 seconds, but there was nobody to push her. I don't think there's limit for her. The older she gets, the better she will run. She has dedicated herself to it. She's preparing instead of showing up and running.''
Pierce envisions McCorory lowering her time to 48 seconds and being ranked number one in the world down the road.
For the outdoor season, Pierce has set a target time of 49 seconds in the 400 meters and 22.5 in the 200 meters for McCorory and adding the titles for those events to her collection.
"It's a matter of keeping her healthy and in the weight run and sharp,'' Pierce says.
Staying healthy has been a challenge for McCorory. She has been involved in two automobile accidents that disrupted her sophomore and junior seasons, and she also had a hamstring injury last season.
"It was very frustrating,'' McCorory says of the injuries. "You have to keep on working hard and know that you're not going to be at that point forever. I just kept God first. I knew it was going to happen; I just had to keep working. Nothing in life comes easy.''
"I never really enjoyed running,'' McCorory says. "It was something for me to do. I didn't hate it. I just wasn't in love with it.'
Running appears to come easy for McCorory. At least that's the way appeared initially to Pierce, whose wife was assistant coach on McCorory's high school team in Hampton, Va., and introduced him to his future star when she was a freshman at Bethel High.
"She did phenomenal stuff as a 14-15-year old,'' Pierce says. "The amazing part is you didn't realize she was running that fast. She was covering distance. You'd look at your clock and say, 'Wow, she ran a fast time.''
McCorory began dabbling in track and field when she was in sixth grade. She needed an after school activity to occupy her time, and the track coach suggested that McCorory join the team after seeing her run the mile in a physical education class.
McCorory became more serious about track in ninth grade as a member of the varsity team, which was more active than the junior varsity she had been a member of in sixth, seventh and eighth grade.
"In ninth grade, I wouldn't say it was a joy,'' McCorory says. But I figured I could go pretty far with it, and the more I won, the more I enjoyed it.''
Pierce says there is no limit to how far McCorory can go in track and field. However, McCorory at this point says she is undecided as to how far she wants to go in the sport.
"I haven't put much thought into professional track,'' she says. "But I am definitely going to mortician school. It might not be right after I finish school.''
Becoming a mortician is a personal passion for McCorory that was born after she attended the funeral for one of her aunts when she was a high school junior.
"I wasn't pleased with the job that was done,'' she says. "My mom was upset. I didn't like the way we felt when we saw her; I don't want anyone else to feel like we felt. I felt I could do a good job. I think I can make a difference.''
Pierce says the mortuary business doesn't mesh with McCorory bubbly outgoing personality; McCorory agrees.
"When you think of morticians, you think of a quiet, sullen person,'' she says. "I'm not like that. I'm really outgoing. I like to talk. I'm not afraid to say what I think. A lot of people think I'm kind of weird. I get a lot of wows and why do you want to do that when I tell people I want to be a mortician. After they walk away they're probably think I a little different. I'll probably change the perception of morticians. That's a good thing; not all (morticians) are the way people think they are.''
McCorory seems to have already developed a mortician's sense of humor.
"You won't have to worry about complaining customers'' she says.