Senior Spotlight: Corinne Myers

Corinne Myers concedes that ball sports were not her thing growing up.

“I was never really an athlete,” said Myers, a senior at Westwood. “I was so bad at every sport I tried. I played Soccer for five years and I never scored a goal.”

But Myers’ family “forced” her to go out for cross-country as a freshman. And when Cardinal coach George Glover told her parents that Corinne could be a talented runner, Myers remembers them saying — “Are you talking about our Corinne Myers?”

Yes, Victor and Debbie Myers, Glover was talking about your daughter and after a sensational junior year, Myers is one of the Record’s 50 seniors to watch this year.

Myers had a good freshman year, placing 4th in the State Group 2 1,600. She showed her potential at the Penn Relays when she ran a 2:18.6 800 leg and later was part of the Westwood 4-x-800 team that won an Emerging Elite national championship.

But it almost all came tumbling down in the fall of 2011, when after winning the Big North American cross-country championship she was shut down with an unexplained lump and an unremitting pain in her right leg.

“Nobody ever determined what it was,” said Myers. “We went to several doctors and one suspected compartment syndrome (a potentially life and limb threatening condition) but when I went to get tested for it — everything came up negative.”

Some treatment and rest were prescribed and the pain went away — although Myers still has a nickel-sized lump on the outside of her leg.

She missed nearly five months of running, but then had a good track season, winning both the 1,600 and 3,200 races at league, county group and state sectional meets and running on Westwood’s 4-x-400 meter All-Bergen relay team.

Then came 2012-2013 — Improvement continued in cross-country (8th in the Bergen Meet of Champions), and indoors climaxing with a 2:16.0 anchor 800 that helped Westwood win the Indoor Nationals Emerging Elite Sprint Medley title.

None of that could have predicted what came next. In a season where teammate Alexandra Cimino,  Madison Holleran of Northern Highlands and Josette Norris of Tenafly set Bergen County records and/or won state championships, Myers nearly stole the show. She was consistently spectacular. She ran the 10th fastest time in Bergen history (4:56.60) in taking second in the State Group 2 1,600 and won the state Group 2 800 title. And then she and Holleran turned the State Meet of Champions 800 into their own personal battle with Myers’ 2:09.74, fourth fastest in Bergen history.

“It’s an honor to be compared to them,” said Myers. “We all performed very well at the same time. It’s exciting to be able to compete against phenomenal athletes and then after the race, we’re able to hug each other. It makes it more fun to compete.”

And now, after a few weeks off, she looks ahead to her final year of high school competition. “I’m really lucky that my parents are in good shape (They compete in cross-fit competition) and we can all go for runs together,” says Myers. And that will come in handy this summer as the Myers family serves as camp directors and (in Corinne’s case) counselors at a church-based summer camp in the Catskills. Then it’s back for senior year and making decisions towards her future education and running.

“I’ve had informal contact with Wake Forest and the University of Miami and after July 1, I think I’ll hear from some other schools,” said Myers. “I don’t know what I want to do yet, but I’m keeping all of my options open.”