WSU notes: Nikki Larch-Miller finds her passion on the sidelines

An Achilles tendon injury doomed Nikki Larch-Miller’s 2015-16 track season. It started her on a new career path, however, so the end result of pain, surgery and recovery is one she’s excited to continue.

Larch-Miller, who finished eighth in the heptathlon in the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships, didn’t compete in the indoor or outdoor seasons in 2015-16 because a muscle tore away from the tendon in her left ankle.

“We tried like six different treatments to try to get it better,” she said. “In early May, we just decided to have surgery, because nothing is working.”

Larch-Miller, a senior from San Diego, is back on the track and off to an encouraging start. She won the pentathlon at WSU’s season-opening multi-events indoor meet with 3,888 points and victories in the 60-meter hurdles (8.48 seconds) and long jump (18 feet, 5 inches).

“Extremely impressive, considering all she’s been through,” WSU coach Steve Rainbolt said. “She picked up where she left off more significantly than most athletes would have been able to. Her hurdles race looked good, and with a good time. She and I figured she might run 8.70-something, or 8.80-something.”

She started jogging in late September, sprinting in late October and jumping in early November.

“It humbled me a lot and showed me that track isn’t everything and there’s a lot more out there,” she said.

When WSU’s indoor season starts in earnest in January, she plans to be closer to her record-setting form. Larch-Miller holds WSU outdoor records in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 100-meter hurdles. Indoors, she holds records in the 60 and 60-meter hurdles.

While injured, Larch-Miller helped Rainbolt coach sprinters and hurdlers and worked with a high school athlete.

“It was a great replacement for not being able to be on the track,” she said. “But I was still around it, trying to get myself better by coaching.”

Through those experiences, she switched her career goal from elementary teacher to college coaching. She loves pushing athletes to perform and loves seeing their work turn into times and distances.

“Bolt, every time someone gets injured says ‘This is going to be a blessing in disguise,’ ” she said. “And you’re like ‘Wow, come on.’ Looking back now, it really was.”

She plans to work as a volunteer assistant at WSU next school year, in part so she can continue training and competing in the multi-events after college.

Rainbolt encouraged her to coach since her early days on campus. She pays attention to track results in her hometown and passes recruiting leads to coaches. She follows the national leaders for her events. At meets, she watches other events with the same attention she gives her own. Coaches rely on her to host and meet recruits because they love her personality and team spirit.

“She’s a girl that thinks at an extremely high level and gets it,” Rainbolt said. “She’s a person who could represent a program, be the face of a program. If you see her being the head coach at UCLA some day, it wouldn’t surprise me. If you see her being the head coach at Tennessee, it wouldn’t surprise me.”

Walk with Rainbolt — Rainbolt underwent right knee replacement surgery in March, which changed his routine for his Shocker Fitness workout programs, but not his enthusiasm.

He added a walking circuit so he could continue to lead a group.

“We walk around campus, we’ll walk on the track,” he said. “Then we’ll walk stairs and then we throw in some exercises.”

Shocker Fitness is in its eighth year of what Rainbolt started as a community fitness project. He, and WSU coaches and athletes, direct five 10-week sessions throughout the year. The summer sessions number around 100 participants; others around 60.

“I thought I might show up that first morning and nobody would show up,” he said. “I almost canceled this thing five days before the first day, because I was nervous. I had 32 people that first morning and I still have a fair number of people who were there that first morning who still come to Shocker Fitness.”

The next three-day-a-week session starts Jan. 9. For information call Rainbolt at (316) 253-4539.

Worth noting — WSU’s men’s tennis team signed Romanian Marius Frosa, a sophomore and a transfer from the University of Galati. He will join the team in January. … Codey McElroy is the new volunteer assistant coach for WSU’s baseball team. McElroy, from Frederick, Okla., played basketball as a walk-on at Oklahoma State last season and worked as graduate manager for the baseball team. He played baseball at Eastern Oklahoma State, Texas and Cameron. The Atlanta Braves drafted him in the 19th round in 2014 as an outfielder.

This story was originally published December 10, 2016 at 1:43 PM with the headline "WSU notes: Nikki Larch-Miller finds her passion on the sidelines."