April 25, 2013
By Taylor Dutch '13
Ray Stewart will always remember Feb. 22. In 2012, it marked the day Stewart underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL. A year later to the day, he returned to the track and broke the school record in the 60-meter hurdles. Suddenly, Feb. 22 suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
"There's nothing you can do to change your past, like tearing my ACL, but that's helped make me who I am," said Stewart, who is completing his senior season this spring.
Despite his major injury, Stewart has wasted no time making his mark as one of the top hurdlers in Cal history. As a junior in 2011, he captured the conference title at both the MPSF Indoor Championships and Pac-10 Outdoor Championships. His Pac-10-winning time of 13.48 in the 110-meter hurdles earned him the No. 2 spot all-time in Cal history behind only Larry Cowling's 13.39 in 1982.
A transfer from Merritt College in 2010, Stewart captured two state junior college 110-meter hurdle titles before enrolling at Cal, and ran 13.74 as a semifinalist in the 2010 USATF Championships.
"As an athlete and as a hurdler, he is very mature beyond most college athletes that I've dealt with," Cal sprints coach Mike Gipson said.
In the first meet of what he expected to be his final campaign, the unthinkable happened. Racing in the final of the indoor 60-meter hurdles at the 2012 Cherry & Silver Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., Stewart fell and tore his ACL, one of the ligaments that connects the upper and lower leg bones to the knee. It is an injury that can require up to a year for recovery.
"It was the most devastating news," Stewart said. "You never think that something like that would happen to you."
Determined to return to the track as quickly as possible, Stewart took a month to strengthen his surrounding leg muscles before surgery. And on Feb. 22, 2012, he was able to walk into surgery without crutches.
Before the procedure, the surgeon asked Stewart if he wanted to have a nerve block injection in order to subdue the pain post-surgery. However, if he chose to have it there was a risk of possibly losing complete feeling in his knee. Stewart refused the injection.
"When I woke up from the surgery, that pain was crazy," Stewart said, now able to laugh about it. "It was two hard weeks after surgery of constant pain and constant questioning if I wanted to do it again. But going into rehab, I just told myself I was going to work as hard as possible."
After surgery and extensive therapy to get back into shape, Stewart was jogging in six months and sprinting just eight months later.
"I'm being patient in this season because there was so much I couldn't do in the fall, like lift weights," Stewart said, "I wasn't really expecting anything out of [this season], but I'm better than I've ever been, I'm mentally stronger than I've ever been."
After breaking the school indoor record with a time of 7.68 seconds in February of this year, Stewart qualified for the NCAA Indoor meet, where he matched the Cal mark in the prelims and finished eighth in the final with a time of 7.89. He is the first Golden Bear to score in the sprint hurdles at NCAA indoors since Rod Jett was fourth in the 55-meter hurdles in 1989.
Stewart has continued his comeback into the outdoor track season, posting a season's best of 13.67w in the 110-meter hurdles at the Texas Relays [currently ranked 11th nationally]. He was also a major factor in the Cal men's dual-meet victory against Stanford last weekend, where he anchored the winning 4x100-meter relay and led the Cal sweep of the 110-meter hurdles.
"There are certain accomplishments you have that can't be taken away from you and that's one of them," said Stewart. "We beat Stanford!"
With the end of the outdoor season approaching, Stewart has his sights set on the Pac-12 and NCAA Championships. But no matter the outcome, Stewart will continue to work hard knowing that he can clear any hurdle that stands in his way.
"I want to win Pac-12's again and I want to win a national championship," said Stewart with complete confidence.
Two more hurdles that Stewart is undoubtedly ready to clear.
