University of Minnesota grad, Shani Marks earned a spot on the US team for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain March 7-9. The triple jumper was second in her event. More impressive, however, was her role in helping save the life of another former U of M athlete, Carter Holmes.Nearly two weeks ago, Holmes was training at the Gopher's indoor facility when he told others that he felt ill. He left the track and, apparently, collapsed in the lobby. That's where Marks found him: "Amanda Thieschafer, my training partner, and I were working out in the field house that day. We had parked at the meters in the back, and Amanda was rushing out the back door in front of me to try to get to her car before her meter expired. All of a sudden she turned back to me and frantically starts saying 'Shani, there's a man here! A man is lying here!' I had no idea what she was talking about but I came out into the lobby to see Carter laying on his back, not moving, eyes staring wide open, and his face was purple.
"Amanda and I were really scared and panicky, but Amanda dialed 911, and I ran back into the field house to find Mark (the facilities guy). Mark recognized Carter because had been working out in the field house about ten minutes before, but he obviously had no identification on him so no one knew what his name was. Mark ran and got the AED(defibrillator) machine from the opposite end of the field house and, thank God, the ambulance was there within minutes. They started working on him immediately. By the time they took him off in the ambulance he had a faint pulse, so we were so thankful for that."
Holmes is recovering in University Hospital, where he was taken after the incident, and his brother, Tom Holmes, says that Carter is responding to treatment and will probably be transfered to another hospital soon to begin rehab. Holmes had been training, and learning French, to prepare for the World Masters meet in Paris in March. The quick work by Amanda and Shani could very well have saved his life as , Tom says, one of the blood vessels to Carter's heart was discovered to have a 100 per cent blockage. There is a family history of heart disease, Tom said, and Carter's lifelong friend and training partner, Mike Moser, added that Carter had had a physical about a year and a half ago that revealed a high cholesterol level.
DtB will have more on Holmes later.
Regarding the USATF Indoor Championships, Marks noted that she had some problems getting to Boston because of the weather. "My travel started at about 9:30 AM on Friday. I was delayed four hours in Minneapolis and then four hours in Philadelphia. We spent an hour waiting to take off in Philadelphia, and then had to fly circles outside of Boston for about 30 minutes because there was so much traffic coming into Boston. I eventually got into Boston right around midnight. Very long and exhausting days."
As for the meet, Marks said: "Shakeema (Welsch, who won the event) did pop off her big jump in the first round. I inched towards her every jump, but was not able to quite catch her. It was a good competition though. She made me work, so that was good for me. Although I wasn't able to catch her, I did have an indoor PR and the most important thing I needed to get out of this meet was to make the World Championship team, so I was really excited about that. I will be leaving for World Champs this Sunday, and the first round of triple jump is Friday March 7. Going into the meet, I want to just have fun and keep things fairly simple and hopefully increase my Indoor PR."
Photo Courtesy of USATF
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