Female Athlete of the Year: Abbey Meyer

CASCADE — A state championship was on the line, but there was a delay:

Cleanup in Lane 5.

Abbey Meyer, who poured her heart into four sports for four years at Cascade High School, was pouring her guts onto the track at Drake Stadium.

'I get so nervous anyway, but in this case we knew what we had to do to win (the Class 2A team title),' Meyer said.

Meyer was the second runner for Cascade in the 1,600-meter relay, the final event. The Cougars trailed Hudson by six points, so the math was simple. Third place meant a share of the title. Anything better, and the Cougars were sole champions.

For a few moments, the stakes were too steep for Meyer's stomach as she waited for the gun to go off. Up came her lunch.

'I don't know what came over me,' she said. 'The officials were so nice to me.'

The starter called the opening-leg runners out of their blocks. Officials cleaned the track where Meyer had littered it, while others used towels to shield her from view of the crowd.

One approached her with a bottle of water.

'He told me to take a deep breath, then told me to take a sip,' Meyer said. 'Then he just dumped the rest down my neck, and that felt so good.'

Meyer's father, Dale, watched from the stands.

'When she started bobbing up and down like she usually does, I knew she was OK,' he said.

Refreshed and refocused, Meyer ran a 58-second split, the Cougars placed second in the event and took home the team title.

Her love-hate journey with track and field was complete. And triumphant.

'It was grueling,' she said. 'But it was worth it.'

A 5-foot-2 dynamo who ran on 10 state-championship relays and was second team all-state in basketball and softball, Meyer is honored today as The Gazette's 2014 Female Athlete of the Year.

The award is in its 32nd year of existence, and Meyer is Cascade's first winner, female or male.

'You look at the success our girls' sports programs have had, and Abbey's fingerprints are all over it,' said Mike Sconsa, the school's girls' basketball coach. 'She's the ultimate competitor. Tenacious, tough. And she absolutely hates to lose.'

And the folks here absolutely hate to lose her. She'll move on to the University of Dubuque in the fall, where she'll compete in basketball for sure, with the possibility of adding volleyball or softball.

'I'm already thinking ahead to next fall, and I'm thinking, 'How on God's green earth are we going to replace her?'' said volleyball coach Mary Frake.

'The competitor she is, the quality of kid she is ... I'm choking up just talking about her.'

It's not just the adults in this community who dread her departure. Meyer built an army of young fans — they called her Miss Abbey in Kelli Ludwig's first-grade class, in which Meyer worked as an assistant as part of a future-education class.

As the state basketball tournament approached, Meyer's locker was adorned with a good-luck sign from the class. She received letters from each student in the class. She read them all.

'Working with those kids, that was one of my most favorite experiences here,' Meyer said. 'Building with blocks with them, helping them with their math. It was awesome.'

And it was enough to steer her toward a major in elementary education. She hopes to return to the area after college as a teacher and coach.

Meyer baby-sits for the Frake family (Tim was her track coach). She's a hands-on baby sitter.

'I'm not one of those (sitters) that watches TV and is on her phone all the time,' Meyer said. 'I want to play, have fun. I want the kids to want me back.'

Meyer is the third of four children for Dale and Lisa Meyer. The family lives on a farm about 15 miles northeast of town.

Farm work was a staple from the beginning. So were sports.

'It's a busy household,' Lisa said. 'We're not home too often. But that's the way we like it.'

Dale was one of Abbey's first coaches.

'I told her when she was young, 'You're not going to be a very big girl, so you're going to have to work a little harder than everybody else,'' Dale said. 'When we had a tournament, she'd be up early, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to go.'

Sports mentoring from her family continues to this day.

On a recent Saturday with Abbey in a hitting slump, her brother, Nate, accompanied her to the softball diamond for extra batting practice.

'She was struggling a little, so she came to me for some help,' Nate said. 'I've always said I'd be available to help, but I wasn't going to be the one telling her she needed to go work. It's up to her.'

The day after the extra work, Meyer went 8-for-9 with a home run. Slump over.

Meyer was second team all-state as a shortstop last year, then did the same during basketball as Cascade went 26-1 and reached the Class 2A state semifinals.

The run ended there against Hudson, with Meyer scoring 24 points in a 45-33 defeat.

'Abbey's the fastest player I've ever coached,' Sconsa said. 'She's only 5-2, but if you watch her play, you see how she can control a game.'

Meyer is Cascade's career leader in steals in basketball and digs in volleyball.

But it's on the track where she is most renowned. She was a 15-time state placewinner, a 10-time champion. All in relays, including four in the 800-meter relay.

Not that she always enjoyed it. More accurately, she tolerated it. Sometimes.

'I wouldn't say I hate track,' she said. 'But I hate the way it makes me feel.'

The reason: Severe pre-race anxiety that manifested itself in Meyer's psyche regularly. It was on full display at Drake Stadium last month, but it was far from the first time.

'It's really stressful for her,' Tim Frake said. 'It's her most successful sport, but I know it caused so much stress for her.'

So much so that she very nearly didn't go out as a senior.

'There was a time I didn't want her to,' her mother said. 'To see her in so much misery before a race, it was tough.'

Meyer hemmed and hawed on her decision. But once she made it, there was no going back.

'I was either going to go out, or I wasn't,' she said. 'If I went out, I wasn't going to quit.'

She went out. And she went out a champion.

ABBEY MEYER

* Name: Abbey Christine Meyer

* School: Cascade

* Birthdate: Dec. 23, 1995

* Family: Father, Dale; mother, Lisa; brother, Nate; sisters, Amber and Annie

* High school career: A quality performer in four sports, and an all-stater in three. Second-team all-state in basketball after leading the Cougars to the state semifinals and a 26-1 record, averaging 12.9 points, 4.3 steals and 3.4 assists per game. Second-team all-state shortstop in softball and all-conference libero in volleyball (she is the school's all-time leader in digs). Matched state record with 10 relay titles in track and led Cascade to two team titles (2012 and 2014).

* Future plans: Will play basketball and either softball or volleyball at the University of Dubuque. Plans to major in elementary education.

Voting Results

1. ABBEY MEYER, Cascade (11) 60

2. HALEY LORENZEN, Iowa City High (2) 41

3. DANI FRANKLIN, C.R. Washington 28

4. KIERA WASHPUN, Iowa City High 27

5. KENNEDY SALOW, Center Point-Urbana 25

Others receiving votes: M.J. Kamin (Cedar Rapids Washington), Alli Peterson (Iowa City West), Katie Sommer (Linn-Mar), Kristie Sommer (Linn-Mar)

Others nominated: Samantha Fitzgerald (Springville), Aleena Hobbs (Cedar Rapids Washington), Jordan Holmes (Cedar Rapids Kennedy), Andrea Hughson (East Buchanan), Molly Lembedezer (Western Dubuque).

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