LAKE ANDES -- Even though Andes Central senior Connor Florey hasn't competed in a track meet for six weeks, he's still gearing up for the Class B state track tournament that starts Friday in Rapid City.
Florey pulled his right hamstring twice about two weeks into the season and hasn't been able to compete since.
"When I first pulled it, I didn't really take care of it and I didn't think anything of it, and then I pulled it again," Florey said.
Assistant track coach Diane Deurmier said Florey's absence has hurt the team this season and it was especially hard because he injured himself so early.
"It affected the whole team," Deurmier said. "We have very few boys to begin with. We had high hopes for our medley relay team that would have been one of the top contenders, but without Connor the relay fell through. We were missing an extra guy throughout the year."
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Last year at the state tournament, Florey competed in the triple jump, long jump and high jump. He placed second in the high jump with a jump of 6 feet, 1 inch, and his 20-foot long jump was good enough for sixth place. Florey didn't place in the triple jump.
Before his injury, Florey was able to qualify for this year's state tournament in the long jump with a leap of 20 feet, 9 inches, which puts him in the No. 7 seed going into Friday, and he also qualified in the triple jump with a jump of 43 feet, 7 inches, which is good for the No. 3 seed going into Friday. Florey said he's slowly trying to get back into shape.
"For the past week I've been starting to slowly jog and do rehabilitation exercises," he said.
"It feels good so far, but I'm not really pushing to my hardest. I'm worried if I do push it, I'll injure it again, but if I don't push it in my events I'm worried I won't be able to place."
Florey said before his injury, he was hoping to place in the top three in the triple jump and the long jump, but now he's just hoping that he'll be able to place.
"I don't think I'll be able to take first this year," Florey said. "It's a good possibility that I'll be able to place in the top 10, and hopefully I can do that."
Florey said the hardest part about having to sit out for the majority of his senior track season was not being able to compete with his fellow teammates and having to watch everybody else participate from the sidelines.
"It was awful," Florey said. "I would watch my events really closely, and watching other competitors knowing that I could beat them just killed me."
