A.L. Brown senior hopes success carries over to state track meet

Even though Talvanisha Lawing has done some of her best work at a rival high school, she’s happy to be capping her track and field career with the program where it all began three years ago.

The A.L. Brown jumper/hurdler is back for her senior year after spending the spring semester and the 2012 outdoor season at South Rowan.

As a Raider, Lawing placed in the top 10 in three events at last year’s 3A state outdoor meet. This winter, as a Wonder, she is one of the top-ranked indoor track and field athletes in the state.

The 1A/2A/3A state meet will be held on Feb. 9 at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem.

In four regular season meets, she has placed no worse than third in all of her events. Lawing specializes in the 55-meter hurdles, triple jump and long jump.

Lawing has established new personal-best marks in all three events. The first came on Dec. 12 when she long-jumped 16 feet, 10 inches at an A.L. Brown polar bear meet, which was held outdoors.

At an East Rowan polar bear meet on Jan. 9, she ran the 55-meter hurdles in 8.64 seconds. On Jan. 13 – at JDL, a true indoor track – Lawing triple-jumped 36 feet, ½ inch.

Comparatively, her new personal records bring good news.

Her 55-meter hurdles time is better than the time she ran in the finals of last year’s state indoor meet (8.99), where she finished in fifth place. Lawing’s previous best triple jump of 35 feet, 3 1/4 inch was set at last year’s outdoor regional meet.

That’s why Lawing is approaching this year’s state indoor meet with such anticipation.

“If everything goes well, if I have a good meet, I’m capable of anything,” said Lawing. “I’m a second off or a meter off (of where I want to be). I really look forward to that meet.”

When Lawing started at A.L. Brown as a freshman, she was purely a hurdling specialist. Triple jumping would come a couple years later.

There were such strong hurdlers in Cabarrus County at the time that Lawing didn’t know if she could compete. Jay M. Robinson’s Erin Tucker and Concord’s Juanita Leto both became state champions by the time they graduated.

They were a couple years older than Lawing but that didn’t matter to her. She was devastated after she placed behind them in the 100-meter hurdles at her first high school outdoor meet.

“I came home crying to my mom,” said Lawing. “But I picked up a lot from those girls. I’ve learned a lot. They talked to me and said it would come in time.”

As her abilities were starting to peak during her junior year, Lawing’s family moved to South Rowan’s district. She embraced her new outdoor track and field team and helped the Raiders win the North Piedmont 3A championship.

Lawing also embraced a new event – the triple jump. She placed seventh at the state outdoor meet last year in the event, complementing her fourth-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles and ninth-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles.

Lawing moved back to Kannapolis during the summer and is taking track and field more seriously than ever. At the start of this indoor season, she quit her job at a fast food restaurant so she wouldn’t have to miss any practice time. Lawing has been spending extra time training with A.L. Brown’s jumps coach, Daniel Wallace.

“Wallace has really helped her with her jumping and her steps,” said head coach Brian Landis. “He’s one of the big reasons why she’s jumped so far.”

Lawing has spent her four years of high school taking the right steps to compete among the best. At the state meet, she’s hoping to take things just a little bit farther.