JOHN KOVACH | Colleges Accident drives Williams to push limits

CLARION, Pa. -- Sean Williams has come a long way back as a runner since suffering a skull fracture in an automobile accident when he was a senior at Austintown Fitch High in December 2002.
With the help of courage, determination and perseverance the past three years, Williams has been able to overcome most of the lingering after-effects of his tragic injury, to become one of the top runners on the Clarion University cross country team after only three meets into his junior season.
In a recent performance in 8-kilometer (about 5-mile) competition, Williams won the St. Vincent Invitational run on Sept. 24 in 26 minutes, 56 seconds to help Clarion win the 11-school meet.
On Sept. 16 against Slippery Rock, Williams placed fifth overall in 27:21.2 to help Clarion win, 19-50. He had the second-fastest time on his team, only about seven seconds behind sophomore Chris Clark (27:14.6).
And in Clarion's season-opener Sept. 10, Williams placed second in the nine-team Thiel Invitational in 27:56.45, just .35 seconds behind sophomore teammate William Herrman (27:56.14), as the pair led Clarion to victory.
New world for him
Williams' comeback is like a new world for him compared to the depth of his suffering from the accident.
"It was a skull fracture and I was in the hospital and in rehab for about a month and came back to school 2 1/2 months after my accident," recalled Williams. But, "I recovered pretty quickly and I attribute that to my running and the shape I was in."
Williams said he began his comeback earlier than was expected by riding a bicycle, and then worked his way back to running by early April 2003 near the beginning of the outdoor track season.
He said his biggest challenges were getting back into shape and overcoming double vision that resulted from his skull fracture.
"Being out of shape made the comeback tough. I had to get back in shape," Williams said.
"And I had an eye patch I had to use to cover up my right eye so that I wouldn't have double vision," Williams said. "I wore the patch pretty much the whole time [my senior year]. It lasted into the summer and it took me six months before I could take off the patch. Then I had to use sunglasses when there was a sunny day."
Williams, who recovered sufficiently to place second in the 3,200-meter run in the 2003 District meet, said that he suffers from "atrophy on the right side of my face because of skull fracture that damaged the muscles around my right eye."
But, "Wearing sunglasses when it is bright out doesn't hamper me, and actually I think [my condition] is getting better."
Optimistic about future
Williams, a team co-captain, is very optimistic that he will continue to improve his times. He said he has cut about 1:30 from his 8K time since coming to Clarion, and expects to cut another 1:30. His best 8K time is 26:26. He hopes to get that down to about 25:00
Williams also runs the 5K for the Clarion track team and predicts he will be much faster this coming season.
"I definitely am going to be under 15:00 in the 5K [3-mile] on the track next spring," said Williams, noting that his best 5K time is 15:42. "There is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be my biggest year. I have nothing but good things in front of me."
Williams said that the other biggest factors in his comeback were coach Dan Caulfield and his training program and "just mental attitude, increased training, proper nutrition and getting sleep which is probably one of the key elements."
Caulfield is in his first year at the Clarion helm.
Better days ahead
Williams said the best is yet to come this cross country season.
"We're still kind of training heavily and we haven't reaped the full benefits of training," Williams said. "We're still building our training program. We'll be building for about 1 1/2 more weeks before we start tapering the heavy workouts. We're running about 75 miles a week and it is high intensity running. We are running fast."
Williams also is exceling in the classroom with a 3.4 grade-point average as a triple major in business management, industrial relations and real estate.
He also serves as vice president for the Society for the Advancement of Management on campus and secretary of his Phi Delta Theta fraternity.
The son of Colleen Bagnoli, Williams has two sisters, Jackie, a Youngstown State student, and Nicole.
Also on the Clarion team is freshman Jeffery Musick of Warren JFK.
"Musick has been injured since he has come here, but he is going to be real good once he gets healthy," Williams said.
kovach@vindy.com