Brittney Bernardoni plays with pain (Miami OH)

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Track standout Brittney Bernardoni plays with pain
Batavia grad helps Miami U. despite injury


July 30, 2008 Recommend
By RICK ARMSTRONG RARMSTRONG@SCN1.COM
She's "loving it" at Miami University, despite playing with pain.

A strong-willed competitor, Brittney Bernardoni wasn't ready to call it a season. But few would have blamed the sophomore track standout from Batavia earlier this year if she had.

The week before the Mid-American Conference Indoor Meet in late February, the pole vaulter injured her right shoulder while competing in a meet.

» Click to enlarge image

Batavia graduate Brittney Bernardoni finished seventh at the MAC outdoor meet despite a shoulder injury.
Courtesy of Miami University

Career highlights:
High school

2006 • IHSA Class AA State champion,

personal record 12-9

College

2007 • NCAA Mideast Regional qualifier (12-6 at Vanderbilt Invitational)

• 8th at Mid-American Conference Indoor (12-1½)

• 6th at MAC Outdoor (11-11¾)

2008

• 7th at MAC Indoor (11-6¼)

• 7th at MAC Outdoor (11-11¾)

"I put my elbow behind me and my shoulder popped in and out of the socket," she said matter-of-factly. "I tore the labrum (muscle) and hurt some other key things and had to get a total shoulder reconstruction."
But not right away. There was the conference indoor meet and upcoming outdoor season, and Bernardoni didn't want to let her team down.

Doctors told her she could compete -- if she could stand the pain -- and wouldn't likely do further damage.

"In not so many words, Brittney took one for the team," said Miami assistant track coach Shaun Meinecke, not muffling his admiration.

"Knowing you're not gonna get a p.r. (personal record) when you step on the track, not gonna give your best performance can be tough. But she wanted to contribute to the team.

"The shoulder she injured is the most-used one in the pole vault and it limited the things we could accomplish."

Bernardoni, who cleared a personal best 12 feet, 9 inches in winning the IHSA Class AA state title as a senior in 2006, couldn't match it this spring. Still, she cleared 11-6 ¼ at the indoor meet and 11-11¾ at the outdoor conference meet, taking seventh place in both.

"It was a rough outdoor season and it was extremely painful," she said about gutting it out.

"I was on anti-inflammatories and it was rough but I was proud of what I was able to do, score some points for my team."

Mind over matter?

"That's kind of the way I approached it with her," said Meinecke. "We'd be scheduled to vault and I'd tell her to give me what she could."

Bernardoni had the surgery after the season and is rehabilitating it while spending the summer working on a research project at school. She's an exercise science, pre-med major who wants to be a doctor.

"I wouldn't call it a good experience (going through the injury, surgery and rehab)," she said, "but definitely a learning experience. I definitely want to work with people, maybe in sports medicine. (Orthopedics) is something I may look at."

Currently, the honors student is working on a research project that will lead to a paper she hopes to have published.

"I'm looking at carbohydrate and fat metabolism after exercise in women with different body fat percentages," she said of the project that is funded by a grant through the school's undergraduate summer scholars program.

"The women (she lined up for the study) come in and exercise and we give them a high fat or high carb shake. Afterward, we have them sit down and we measure the gases they breathe out to measure how much fat they're burning."

She's also carrying a minor in Spanish.

"I took it in high school and, being a doctor, it would be helpful being bilingual," she said.

She will start running soon and hopes to get back vaulting by December but figures to limit her schedule in the indoor season in hopes of being close to 100 percent for the outdoor season.

Meinecke knows the team will get the best she can give.

"Looking back, (last year) was one of those seasons where you look at her performance and it wasn't the best of her career," he said. "You have to be as positive as you can and, all things considered, she had a pretty good year."