SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. (EYT/D9) — After a difficult, injury-filled outdoor season, Bryan Dworek took out his iPhone, created a new folder in his notes and punched in a number.
He typed: 7.40.
That was the distance in meters the Brookville graduate hoped to reach in the long jump for the Slippery Rock University track and field team.
(Pictured above, Brookville graduate Bryan Dworek soars through the air in the long jump for SRU at the SPIRE Collegiate Indoor Games on Saturday/photo courtesy of Slippery Rock University)
“I just wanted to manifest it,” said Dworek, a senior.
It was a very bold goal to set, especially coming off one of the most trying times in Dworek’s life, filled with pain, disappointment and doubt.
Brookville Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
Dworek struggled with shin splints so bad that a stress fracture eventually formed in his left leg. It affected him the entire outdoor season, sapping his explosiveness and shattering any hope he had at a good campaign.
“It just got worse and worse,” Dworek said. “I just kept hurting myself more and more. I just got to the point where it wasn’t worth me trying to hurt myself.”
Dworek shut himself down to mend and figure out what has causing the debilitating shin splints in the first place.
Through the next few months, as he worked tirelessly in the weight room and studies his technique to try to prevent those injuries from occurring again, he still had that number engraved in his mind: 7.40.
In feet, that’s a gaudy 24-3½. That puts him among the best jumpers in the nation in NCAA Division II.
He stuck to his guns. Never wavered from chasing after that mark. As the indoor season this winter progressed, Dworek got closer and closer to that lofty goal.
“It was just frustrating last year to go into a meet not healthy,” Dworek said. “And then this year, it was kind of like let’s see what I can do. The first meet of the season, I hit a (personal record) and I it was kind of like, ‘OK. I think this season is gonna be good.’
Finally, last weekend at the SPIRE Collegiate Indoor Games at the SPIRE Institute, Dworek surpassed that distance punched into his notes on his final attempt in the long jump finals.
He touched down in the sand at 7.44 meters — 24 feet, 5 inches — to break a SRU indoor record in the event that had stood for 34 years.
“It was funny because that place wasn’t a very good place to jump,” Dworek said of SPIRE. “It was my last jump and I was like, ‘Holy crap. That felt really good.’ I felt like I was in the air for a long time. This one other jumper was like, ‘Oh, you’re gonna like this number.’”
When his distance was announced, Dworek was overcome by emotion.
“I went over to (SRU assistant track and field coach Tabitha Bemis) and hugged her,” Dworek said. “It was my goal and I finally got it.”
Bemis, who coaches the jumpers at The Rock, said she wasn’t sure if that was a record-breaking distance at the time. She knew he was in the ballpark of that mark.
“One of our sophomores, Mason Reed, he’s kind of our numbers guy, and he was like, ‘He got it,’” Bemis said. “The thing about our school records are they are steep. They are very impressive. He had the number in his mind and to see it come to fruition for him was really awesome.”
Dworek credits Bemis for helping him reach the mark.
And stay healthy on the way to getting there.
The two broke down every aspect of his jumping to try to discover the root of his health problems.
Dworek hasn’t had a recurrence of his shin issues since tweaking his “firing pattern,” as Bemis called it.
“There were just some inconsistencies — it just didn’t come as natural for him,” Bemis said. “We spent a lot of time trying to correct that firing pattern, whether it be in the weight room, through drills, watching video, creating resistance in order to feel it, those sorts of things. We got creative with the training and the drilling.”
It’s paid off.
Now Dworek has quite the comeback story.
“Oh my gosh, it is really cool,” Bemis said. “It’s exciting to see what else he can do.”
A few days after breaking the record, the previous holder of the SRU indoor long jump mark, Jeff McBride, reached out to Dworek to offer his congratulations.
And a little competitive ribbing.
“It was just humbling having the guy whose record I broke reaching out to me,” Dworek said. “It was really funny because he said that his sons were 12 and 14 and they’re coming to reclaim it.”
Dworek is hoping to make that very difficult by adding on to the mark.
He has a new number pecked into his notes: 7.60.
With the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference meet and the Division II National Championships coming up, Dworek still has a chance to reach that next goal this indoor season before redirecting his sights to the outdoor campaign.
“Now I’m up to 7.60,” Dworek said. “I’m 12th in the nation right now, so I want to crack an All-American spot.”
Bemis doesn’t put anything past Dworek.
She knows better than anyone not to doubt him after what he has been through.
“There’s definitely more work to be done, so I’m excited to see him continue to work and make improvements,” Bemis said. “I mean, gosh, as a coach, you just want to see these athletes be the best person that they can be on the track and in the classroom and see them achieve their potential. To see him break through that barrier he’s been fighting for, it’s just so emotional and exciting.”
Brookville Area High School sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.
Fall Sports
Rocky Grove and Lakeview Team Up for Mason
