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Tuesday, February 9, 2010 |
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Officers take home medals at police games
Published August 3, 2007
SEGUIN — If they ever truly existed, the days when a police officer’s physical conditioning consisted solely of lifting a coffee cup or of the kind of knee bends one must perform in getting in and out of a police car are long gone.
Today, just as an officer must be able to qualify with his or her weapon, police in most departments are held accountable for a certain level of physical fitness.
But some officers who work in the Seguin area carry fitness to a level most of us can only dream of and a few of us can only wistfully remember. Seguin Police Officer Willie Ybarra, for example, competes in biathlon events.
This year, Department of Public Safety Trooper Mike Cantu and County Attorney’s Investigator Frank Allenger took fitness to a whole different level, recently competing — and winning gold medals at — the Texas Police Athletic Federation’s annual police games, conducted this year in Houston.
Cantu got gold medals in the pole vault and long jump. Allenger took medals in the 5 and 10 kilometer runs and the 1,500 meter sprints.
“I trained about seven months,” Allenger said of the effort that saw him take three golds.
That training meant he ran from his home down into Seguin and the courthouse and then back.
“When I train in Seguin, it’s kind of hilly. When I got to Houston, it was more humid, but the terrain was nice and flat.”
The training here paid off, he said.
“I was able to bring my best time down in two events. I hit my personal record in the 10K, 36.08, and in the 5K I ran an 18.45,” Allenger said. “After the 1,500 meter run, my legs were shot, but it was worth it.”
In his age class, 35-39, Allenger was the fastest in the 5 and 10K event. He was second in the open class — competing with officers in their 20s.
If Allenger started seriously training for the police games back last winter, that wasn’t when he began running.
“I’ve been running since I was in high school and college,” Allenger said. “I’ve always run to keep in shape.”
He was in high school in San Antonio with Ybarra, and both competed in track events.
At age 32, Cantu is slightly less-removed from his high school and college pole vaulting career than are Ybarra or Allenger.
“I jumped in high school and in college at the University of Texas Pan Am from 1993-1996. It paid for three years of my education,” Cantu said.
Later, while attending the Department of Public Safety police academy, Cantu got a medal for pole vaulting. But the police games hadn’t had a pole vault event since 2000 until this year, he said.
“I’ve nagged them years and years, and they brought it back,” Cantu said, smiling. “I guess you could say I resurrected the pole vault.”
If he did, he didn’t exactly resurrect his college performance, though.
While he jumped 15 feet, six inches in college 10 years ago, he jumped 12 feet three inches at the police games. While it might not have gotten him much notice at UTPA, it was good enough for the gold in Houston.
As for the long jump, that’s not one of Cantu’s events — or at least it hadn’t been.
“I never do long jump, and I don’t really know why I signed up for it,” Cantu said. “But I jumped 15 feet and won my age division.”
Cantu, who talked Allenger into competing in Houston, also began his training last winter.
“Before Easter, I lost 14 pounds just so I could get on a pole I didn’t break,” Cantu said.
The Koehler Company and other local troopers, as well as Seguin Chief of Police Luis Collazo all contributed money to buy Cantu a pole.
He trained with Chris Allison out near the New Braunfels Municipal Airport, who has three pole vault pits in his back yard.
“He’s a good coach and he got me going again,” Cantu said.
But there’s only so much a coach can do, and setting back the clock isn’t one of them.
While Cantu said he’ll be at the games again next year, he’s already well aware of the price he will pay.
“It’s not as easy as it used to be,” Cantu said. “At this age, everything hurts a little more than it used to.”
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