Plant’s Wilkins out with stress fractures

Posted Sep 7, 2009 by Bill Ward

Updated Sep 7, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Plant senor cross country runner Trenor Wilkins, an all-state performer last fall and a first-team member of the Tampa Tribune’s all-Hillsborough county team, is out 6-8 weeks with stress fractures in both tibia (lower leg) bones, Panthers coach Mike Boza said Monday.

Boza said Wilkins first started having pain about two weeks ago but at the time, believed it was associated with sore calf muscles. But when the pain continued, Wilkins underwent a MRI, which revealed the stress fractures.

“It’s a little strange to me because his mileage this summer has been about the same as last year,” Boza said. “The only thing different is that he’s picked up the intensity a little more.”

Boza said if Wilkins can return to the team following the injury, he will likely petition the Florida High School Athletics Association to grant a hardship waiver in order to allow Wilkins to compete in the cross country postseason. Usually, runners have to compete in a minimum of four regular-season meets in order to be eligible for district, regional and state meets.

In the meantime, Wilkins, who was the Class 3A-Region 2 champion last fall, is trying to keep his aerobic fitness by training with the Panthers’ swim team.

“In the long run, this might turn out OK for us,” Boza said. “With Trenor out, the other guys have stepped it up. There’s a lot of competition on the team becuase they know when he comes back, there’s only going to be six spots [on varsity] available because Trenor’s going to have one of them.”