Me and Michael Danehy
I have known Mike for about 4 years now. I believe the first time we ran together was on a 4X800 for the KTC competitive team in the AAU Junior Olympics at Eastern Michigan University. I had run on the team in the regional but did not run at JOs because Jay Oatts was a couple of seconds faster at the time. He was on the team with Zach Moss, Jay and Bryan Webb. Since I did not run the relay I ran the 3000m. Well, even though we had a pretty stout team, the race did not go as planned. During Michael's leadoff leg he was hit in the hand by a competitor knocking his baton out of his hand. That team never recovered and finished a disappointing 11th place. We still joke about that drop every once in a while. We were so mad as a team trying to protest that hit and disqualify a team. These thoughts were stopped quickly by our coaches. We have had many other races since then and have become pretty good friends over time. Since he runs the 800 and I run the 1600/3200 we do not compete much anymore. Without a doubt I can guess the pinnacle of his career so far in running. The State finals of the 800 this year for AAA he came in with a PB in the 1:56 range and not really a strong favorite to compete for the title. He did not win that title but what he did do is best his PB by about 2 seconds and almost defeated Rob Sorrell to place 3rd. He was so happy for at least a week afterwards. His potential to succeed in the future is great. There are not many runners I have run with that have as much pure leg speed and general athleticism as he does. He will greatly improve when he runs for THE University of Tennessee this next year with me. His potential is comparable to another former teammate and soon to be teammate Yarrick Kincaid. Without a doubt Michael will improve by leaps and bounds under the tutorship of Coach Watts who had produced great half milers like Jebreh Harris and Jose Parrilla. I am pleased to know that I will be able to witness his improvement first hand over the next 4 years. I know I will be seeing you around Mike. Thanks for the great times and hope to create some more memories in the near future.
P.S. Next week I will be writing about Zach Moss,
Chris Kane