NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Sean Abbott
overcame various injuries to run one more year for UCLA, as team
captain
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
When Scott Abbott first arrived at UCLA, he thought he would one
day be an
All-American.
Five years and a string of injuries later, he is happy just to
be running at all.
Abbott came to Westwood in 1996 from Jesuit High School in
Sacramento, where he had been part of three state championship
cross country teams.
Although he ran behind current U.S. Olympic miler Michael
Stember for much of the time, Abbott established himself as one of
the top runners in California, placing eighth at the Division II
State Meet as a senior.
In the winter that followed, while Stember was training to
become the first prep athlete since 1967 to break four minutes in
the mile, Abbott began putting in some major distance work.
At the 1996 National Scholastic Indoor Championships in Boston,
which came right before the start of the spring outdoor season,
Abbott placed fifth in the two-mile to earn All-American honors.
Stember won the mile.
On the plane ride back from the meet, California Track and Field
News Editor Doug Speck told Abbott he didn’t think any school
had produced a mile and two-mile state champion in the same year
(Speck was wrong; Jesuit had, in fact, in 1986).
Based on their performances at the Indoor Nationals, Speck said
that Stember and Abbott were the favorites in those events.
Abbott was pumped.
A week later, he was hurt.
A stress fracture had developed in his fibia, and he
didn’t return to competition until the very end of the
season. Stember, too, became injured soon after, and though he was
able to win the 1600 meter race at the state meet, he didn’t
come close to cracking the four-minute barrier.
“It was really disappointing to end my high school career
that way,” Abbott said.
Abbott did, however, have plenty to look forward to, as several
universities expressed interest in him.
“It was great to run on the same team as Michael,”
he said. “He cast a big shadow, but I drew a lot of the
spotlight. Schools that wanted Michael came after me hard, thinking
if they could sign me, they could get Michael, too.”
Abbott initially signed a letter of intent with Boston College,
which offered him a full ride, but eventually decided to attend
UCLA.
At UCLA, Abbott was determined to make an impact right away.
“I was pushing it so hard the summer before my freshman
year,” Abbott said. “Relatively, I wanted to be at the
same level I was in high school.”
And again, Abbott got hurt. This time, he had not one, but two
stress fractures.
He redshirted both his freshman cross country and track
seasons.
In his second year in school, Abbott got yet another stress
fracture in his fibia shortly before the start of cross country.
One more followed prior to the start of track.
“I started asking myself why I was doing this,”
Abbott said. “I think I just came back because I hadn’t
run a race yet. I wanted to see if I could run at this
level.”
Finally, Abbott told his doctor about some strange symptoms he
had been feeling since high school. Ten to 15 minutes into his
runs, he said, his legs would go numb.
The doctor ran a series of tests on Abbott and diagnosed him
with compartment syndrome. According to the doctor, the four muscle
compartments in each of Abbott’s legs tightened each time he
ran, cutting blood flow to the area.
Surgery, the doctor said, was needed immediately. If the
situation got any worse, amputation may become a necessity.
“At the time, I didn’t think about running at
all,” he said. “I was pretty scared. I just wanted to
get this over with.”
Abbott was able to start training the next summer, but found he
wasn’t completely cured. In the 1998 cross country season,
Abbott ran a few races.
Then he got greedy again.
He overtrained during the winter and had to miss track again
because of a stress fracture.
“That was rock bottom,” he said. “I thought
about quitting.”
But that summer, Abbott did an internship in Colorado Springs
with the U.S. Olympic Committee, doing research on endurance
sports. There, he learned of how becoming a distance runner was a
cumulative process.
“Each time I’d come back, I tried to play catch up
and I did too much,” he said. “I saw that it took
time.”
Abbott returned last year and trained steadily. He managed to
run in all of the races with the exception of the Western Regional,
which he was forced to miss due to a ruptured disc in his back.
After a track season during which he posted personal bests of
15:05.93 (5K) and 31:47.85 (10K), Abbott graduated magna cum laude
with a degree in communication studies. Standing at the ceremony
with his diploma in hand, Abbott felt a sense of closure.
“People asked me if I feel I had failed,” he said.
“I told them, “˜Heck no.’
“I wasn’t an All-American, but I was an All-American
student. As a student-athlete, I accomplished a lot. Coming in, of
course, I was hoping more of it would be on the athlete side, but I
still did a lot.”
Then came the Olympic trials in August. Abbott watched from the
stands as Stember snatched the final qualifying spot in the 1500m.
He also saw many athletes who were competing whom he had beaten in
high school.
“I realized I still had more,” Abbott said. “I
realized that I didn’t yet have closure.”
And so it was then that Abbott decided to come back to UCLA for
another quarter.
Abbott was named the team captain and in the Bruins’ first
two races, he was the squad’s No. 2 man behind Bryan
Green.
Head coach Eric Peterson is glad to have him back.
“He has a desire to win and he’s extremely
competitive,” Peterson said. “He leads by example and
he directs behavior in a positive manner.
“He gives a commitment to this team that has been void for
the last couple of years.”
When Abbott’s done with this season, though, he says
he’s through with running for good.
“I don’t like running itself anymore,” he
said. “I’ve learned to associate the physical aspect of
it with pain. I love the competition, and I love my teammates, but
the running itself hasn’t been good to my body.”