Marcia_Neville's Blog

So….

If Jeremy Rankin is the fastest 100M sprinter in the history of the state…. and he is… why doesn’t he get any respect?

Rankin ranks among the fastest prepsters in the entire world. Talking about his future, he dreams about, “2012, and running with the big boys”, at the Olympics. But, around the OVERLAND High School track, the guy that set the state record at 10.32 seconds last year, as a sophomore, can’t shake the disrespectful nicknames. “They call me slow poke”, he laughs. “And, my coach says I’m lazy, so he calls me LZ for short.”

Then, as he continues laughing he just shakes his head and sighs, “It’s what they gave me, so I just go with it. There could be worse names.” He admits that around the track, he is kind of lazy. “I’d rather be in the weight room than out running. I think I was born to lift, I love it.” But, when you ask him about his lifting routine, he becomes very secretive, explaining that there’s no reason to give the competition any kind of edge.