Boys Track: Laid-back Gardner became a different person on the track

If you've ever seen Robert Gardner walk around before or after a race, you can understand why his own family chuckled when they found out he was going to run track.

He's got a cool gait. Laid back. Slow, but smooth.

So, when he told his mother two years ago that he'd be running track at Lew Wallace, Brenda Collins was stunned.

"I was really surprised," said Collins, who moved to Gary with Gardner and then moved back to suburban Chicago before this past school year. "I didn't think he'd be able to run fast. He was always moving around here so slow. He'd move so slow --  nobody thought he could run that fast. We were all like, 'Running? Robert? Ha! We've got to see this.'"

Only, here's the thing. Brenda hasn't seen him run.

Even though she moved with Gardner to Gary for his junior year, Collins has been unable to make it to one of Lew Wallace's track meets.

She does, however, realize how gifted her son is on the track. He's not a repeat Post-Tribune Boys Athlete of the Year by accident.

"I don't drive," Collins said. "So, it's hard for me to get out and see him. But, I read the papers and stuff. And I see all the trophies and everything."

That includes his medals for winning back-to-back state championships in the 400 meters last spring and this season, and his state champion medal for this season's 1,600 relay -- for which he ran a blazing 46.38 second split time on his anchor leg.

"I just knew I had to hold it down for my teammates," Gardner said, following that race. "I knew it was the last race I'd run in my high school career, so I just left it all out there."

He has also left something else out there for both himself and the Hornets.

It's the history he's made these past two seasons going faster than anybody else in the state in his races -- and far faster than his mom thought he could go.

"I think he really enjoys (track) now," said Collins, who allowed Gardner to stay behind in Gary with a friend's family so that he could finish up and graduate from Lew Wallace. "At first, he liked basketball, but now track's more important. I did want him to come with me when I moved back, but I knew he needed to stay and continue to do what he was doing. I didn't want to pull him out of that because he was doing so good there. I am very proud of him."

So is Lew Wallace boys track coach Charles Jones, who's seen his prodigy evolve from a kid with a rare combination of speed and endurance into a two-time state champion with a bright future on the track.

"He's a hard worker," Jones said. "He was working out on his own whenever he could. One day he came running right by my house -- just a few weeks ago, when it was still cold. I was like, 'Hey there. You sure are a long way from home.' But that's one of those things that he needs to do, and he just does it without being told."

And if Gardner's burgeoning track career keeps its upward path, there will be even more to be proud of in the years to come.

Gardner hadn't committed officially to any collegiate program as of the state finals, but he does have suitors -- including New Mexico and Kansas City (Kan.) Community College, where good friend and West Side sprinter Brandon Wesby is headed.

That's also the school at which former West Side state champion and Olympic hopeful Mark Jelks attended and ran for Al Hobson, who coached and adopted Olympian Maurice Greene. Gardner was also setting his sights this past spring on the state record of 46.99 seconds in the 400 held by former Merrillville star David Neville -- who has a good chance of making this summer's U.S. Olympic team.

Though he didn't chase Neville's time down, Gardner may set his sights on the Olympics some day -- just like Neville. If so, he'd be able to do something else that he's been dreaming about.

"I talk to him all the time," Collins said. "He talks about going to college and running in college. He talks about (the Olympics) too. He always says, 'Since you didn't get a chance to see me run, you can see me run on TV.' That's his dream."

Contact Brian Hedger at 648-3122 or bhedger@post-trib.com