BY ANDY BAGGOT
UWBadgers.com Insider
MADISON, Wis. — Dave and Kari Ellenwood hit the road Wednesday night for what they believe will be a trip of a lifetime.
They packed up their 2008 Pontiac Montana minivan — the one with 200,000 miles on the odometer and a queen-sized bed in the back — and left their home in Langley, British Columbia headed south on Interstate 5 from Canada.
Google said their 423-mile journey to Eugene, Oregon, took 6 hours and 48 minutes. Upon arrival they made their way to Armitage Park Campground, a picturesque day-use and RV park located five miles north of the city, and got settled in for the rest of the week.
"We'll go at a leisurely pace," Dave said before departure, "and get there and yell our guts out for our daughter."
The NCAA men's and women's outdoor track and field meet is being staged 15 minutes away at Hayward Field and one of the headliners is Wisconsin senior Georgia Ellenwood.
She is the top-ranked individual in the seven-event heptathlon — 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin and 800 — that will be staged Friday and Saturday.
Ellenwood is fresh off amassing 6,173 points in the Big Ten Conference meet, which set a league record and currently stands as the fifth-best score on Canada's all-time list, the 10th highest in NCAA history and the 12th-best total in the world this year.
"I kind of went into this year open-minded and tried to be as fit as I've ever been and let the results come," she said.
Wisconsin has long been a destination for elite multi-event talents, but especially since assistant coach Nate Davis came onboard 11 seasons ago. One of his signature moments helped convince Ellenwood that Madison was the place for her.
She said UW caught her eye in 2012 when Dorcas Akinniyi, Jessica Flax and Deanna Latham finished 1-2-3 in the Big Ten indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon, an unprecedented feat. Those three subsequently finished in the top 10 in the NCAA heptathlon.
"I wanted to be as good as them," Ellenwood said.
In fact, she's better as far as Davis is concerned.
"She's the best. In every way. End of story," he said.
Ellenwood's personal best in the heptathlon is 259 points better than Latham, who owned the school record before Ellenwood came along.
Ellenwood also holds the program record in the five-event pentathlon — long jump, javelin, 200 meters, discus and 1,500 — with 4,392 points.
"The score is all that matters," said Davis, who also tutored 2016 U.S. Olympic decathlete and UW record-holder Zach Ziemek.
Ellenwood said she didn't come to Wisconsin thinking she would be the best heptathlon specialist in program history, but the five-time, first-team All-American watched Akinniyi, Flax and Latham train and evolve and it "made me realize that could be me one day."
Crossing the 6,000-point threshold was a big deal for Ellenwood. She's one of three qualifiers in the NCAA field to reach that point along with freshman Tyra Gittens of Texas A&M (6,074) and sophomore Nina Schultz of Kansas State (6,018).
Ellenwood's top-ranked score was fortified by personal bests in the 200, 100 hurdles, shot put and javelin.
"It was kind of shocking to see that number and to believe that I went out and did that," she said.
"I need to keep believing that I can progress because sometimes you think when you get to a certain point you might plateau. I need to keep believing that there's so much on the table and still so much to progress toward."
That's because there is. Ellenwood, vying to become the school's first NCAA women's champion in the heptathlon or pentathlon, says she's certain she left points on the table in multiple events in the Big Ten meet, so her performance bar can be nudged higher.
"The most important thing that I've learned this year is that I haven't set limits for myself," she said. "I'm seeing so much progression this year that it's created such a positive mindset for me because I know there's still so much to do."
Davis said Ellenwood came to a crossroads two years ago when she suddenly began having issues in the high jump, an event that had not given her problems before. Instead of getting frustrated, she re-evaluated her technique and went about making the needed adjustments.
"A person who thinks of themselves as a prodigy or a talent doesn't have to know the event," Davis said. "Someone who thinks of themselves as a hard worker wants to know the ins and outs of everything and doesn't get frustrated when something goes wrong because that, to them, is an opportunity to learn more about it.
"When she turned herself into somebody who values the work, someone who wants to learn, then she just took off."
Davis said Ellenwood's emergence is defined in part by intangibles.
"There's always something that limits someone, fear, injuries, expectations, stuff they can't manage," he said. "She doesn't have those limitations. She's not afraid. All she's ever needed was confidence. She just needs to be told, 'Yeah, you can do that.'"
Ellenwood, who has her degree in sociology and environmental studies, said her proudest career achievement has nothing to do with results.
"In previous years I've doubted myself a lot and I had some things that I had to work out and know that I could be at the level I saw other girls at," she said. "This year I kind of broke that barrier and I have so much more confidence going into competitions and it reflects in the scores."
Ellenwood comes from an athletic family. Her parents — Dave is director of parks and recreation for Burnaby, a suburb of Vancouver, and Kari works with special needs adults — played soccer at Simon Fraser University. Older brother Stuart was a middle-distance specialist at Simon Fraser, located in Burnaby, and younger brother Dean is a middle-distance standout at Idaho.
"It all started in our living room, her running around against her two brothers," Dave Ellenwood said. "It started with a little girl who wouldn't sit still, sticking out her belly and running fast around the circuit in our home."
The Ellenwoods like to camp, so their accommodations for the week are ideal. They'll cook breakfast in the morning and have a campfire at night. In between they'll be at legendary Hayward Field cheering on their daughter over the two-day event.
"It's really special," Dave said. "It's one we're looking forward to."
It will be the second NCAA camp-out for Dave and the first for his wife, who believes her daughter is in an ideal frame of mind.
"She's more ready than she's ever been," Kari said. "I talk to her a lot and I've seen that growth in her, the realization that everyone else is human and she can compete with these girls. She's more ready than ever."
