South's Groth has some of state's best indoor times
Mar. 6—CHEYENNE — Caydince Groth has been a track standout since she first pulled on a Cheyenne South uniform as a freshman.
She qualified for the Class 4A outdoor state meet in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dashes that year. Groth made the podium in the 400 with a fourth-place finish. She added another fourth-place effort in the 400 as a sophomore.
As good as she has been, Groth has put together a career year entering today's Wyoming girls indoor state meet.
The senior has the state's fastest time in the 200 at 26.68 seconds, the second-fastest 400 (1:02.02) and is part of the 4x200 relay team that has the second-fastest time in the state (1:50.78).
Groth points to three reasons she has had so much success this winter: a focus on injury treatment and prevention, running cross-country and having teammates that push her.
Groth has frequently found herself battling Achilles soreness during the indoor seasons. She attributed the soreness to the pounding her body takes training on the tile floors in South's halls. She tried to head that issue off at the pass this season.
"I've been more cautious and better about taking care of my body," Groth said. "When something starts hurting, I ice it or roll it out. I wanted to take care of myself so I wouldn't have to tape things up like I have in the past.
"I've gotten pretty good about making sure I stretch everything out as often as I can."
Her parents, Kaci and Josh Scott, have played a role in that focus by reminding her to take care of her body. They helped Groth embrace the "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" philosophy.
"They're totally right, but I can't let them know they're right," Groth said with a laugh.
This past fall was the second Groth has spent running for the Bison's cross-country squad. She knew distance training could help her as a sprinter, but she didn't pursue it seriously during her junior campaign. Groth got serious about it this season, and feels it helped her considerably.
"Instead of running by myself, I worked harder to stay with our group," she said. "I got better conditioned, and I wasn't as sore after the first week of indoor as I usually am."
South indoor track coach Casey Steele also coaches the school's cross-country teams. He could tell Groth approached this season differently. He has seen that approach carry over indoors.
"Cross-country helps sprinters in a variety of ways," he said. "It expands their base of cardiovascular fitness, but it also teaches them they can run hard, even when they're tired. That's probably more important because sprinters don't always realize that.
"They hit that fatigue and think they need to back off. She knows she can push through that fatigue now."
Steele points to the Feb. 19 meet in which Groth posted her fastest 200 and 400 times of the season as an example of that. Groth ran the 200 roughly 15 minutes after finishing the 400 and still recorded the fastest 200 time in the state.
"She shook off the fatigue of the 400, got back into the blocks and ran like it was nothing," he said.
Groth joins her younger sister, Kaycia Groth, senior Paige Guille and junior Darby Downham on the 4x200 relay team. That quartet has the second-fastest time in the state by a shade more than 2 seconds. They set a school record in the event at the final state qualifying meet.
Downham also will compete at state in the 400, where she has the seventh-fastest time this season. Guille had the 12th-fastest time in the 400, which was merely 65 hundredths of a second off the eighth and final qualifying spot.
Having a collection of sprinters that strong to train with has brought the best out in Groth.
"Instead of having just one girl push her in a workout every now and then, she has a good group of girls pushing her every day," Steele said. "Our relay success is because of them all pushing each other.
"(Groth) is extremely competitive, though. She realizes there are girls out there who are more talented and faster than she is, but she refuses to be beaten. She comes off the curve and looks like she's beaten, and that's when she runs people down."
Jeremiah Johnke is the WyoSports editor. He can be reached at jjohnke@wyosports.net or 307-633-3137. Follow him on Twitter at @jjohnke.
