Holdsworth Arrives At A Final Opportunity With Western Oregon

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

After nearly six years since he finished high school, Derek Holdsworth will get his one and only shot at an NCAA title this weekend at the Division 2 Indoor Championships at the CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala.

Holdsworth, of Western Oregon University, is the top entrant in the 800 meters, with a best time this season of 1:47.74, seeking the program’s first national title in the event. He’ll also anchor the Wolves’ distance medley relay where the team hopes to compete for its third victory in four years.

It’s been an odyssey for Holdsworth, who was one of the top 800-meter runners in the country when he was a senior at Lafayette High in Virginia. He won the 2014 Brooks PR Invite and concluded the season at U.S. Junior Nationals with a PR of 1:48.97.

But it was not a smooth ride after that.

Poor grades in his first two years of high school hurt his academic record. There was financial hardship at home. Even injury and illness are part of the story that fills a six-year gap between then and now.

Last summer, after two years at Trinidad State Junior College in Colorado, Holdsworth waited for the NCAA to sort through his records and determine what eligibility he had remaining

“I was fighting with the NCAA over what eligibility I had left,” Holdsworth said. “I had none at Division 1. I burned up my clock. But the rules are different for Division 2.”

Holdsworth reviewed his options and chose Western Oregon.

“I said ‘I’m going to go to the best D2 school I can find if I’m going to do it, and away from altitude,’” he said. “I had always wanted to go to Oregon. And coach (Mike) Johnson does a lot of things similar to my high school coach.”

He worked at his local running store in Virginia, saved up as much money as he could, and waited for clearance from the NCAA, which came in early August.

Holdsworth drove across the country and arrived at Monmouth, Ore. – about 70 miles north of his original dream school in Eugene.

“I really like it, honestly,” he said. “I was thinking today about Dutch Bros (coffee), I really like that. The little gratification things, like my team and the amount of guys we have to work with. I do enjoy school and it’s a complete 180 from where I was in high school.”

Holdsworth said he got good grades his senior year but they weren’t enough to lift his grade-point average out of the hole he dug as a ninth- and 10th-grader.

“I didn’t care enough my freshman and sophomore years (of high school),” he said.

After finding out he couldn’t go to a big Division 1 program, he signed with South Plains College in Levelland, Texas. But he never arrived because he couldn’t afford it.

Holdsworth stayed home for a year and trained with the District Track Club, based in Washington, D.C.

He competed in the 1,000 meters at the 2015 NYRR Millrose Games, among other events that he was able to get into while staying home and working in Williamsburg, Va.

He also spent 2016 and part of 2017 attached to the D.C. group, but by then his NCAA clock was ticking. He also injured his psoas muscle in his hip and it knocked him out of action for more than five weeks. During a slow recovery to the injury, he consulted his coaches, including the District Club coach, Matt Centrowitz, who advised that he get into a school.

Holdsworth went to Colorado and spent two years at Trinidad, where he broke numerous school records and won five NJCAA titles in 2018 and 2019.

But that wasn’t always easy, either. After arriving at the altitude of 7,500-foot elevation of Alamosa, Colo., Holdsworth learned that he had Sickle Cell Trait, a condition that was exacerbated by the thin air. After an initial struggle to adapt, he found success.

In Monmouth, he is finding more success.

“He’s faced innumerable hardships that he has overcome to get where he is now,” Johnson said. “He’s doing very well academically. More than that, the way he interacts with his teammates and the natural affiliation he has with people is really very good. After all the tough breaks he’s had, he’s gotten one last chance to do something collegiately on the track. I think it’s justified that he gets an opportunity.”

Because he doesn’t have any more eligibility for outdoor track, Holdsworth plans to stick around Monmouth and pursue a Psychology degree while training for a possible berth in the U.S. Olympic Trials in June in Eugene.

“It’s exciting,” he said. “It’s a blessing. If I’m meant to be here, I’m meant to be here. I’m taking it like I’m preparing for anything else. Just because the level of competition changes, it doesn’t change what you do.”

This weekend, Holdsworth is looking forward to a chance to show what he can do in the 800 and see if he can help WOU to a podium finish in the DMR – with teammates Justin Crosswhite, Gabe Arce-Torres and Max Carmona.

“It’s nice to know I’ve almost run my outdoor PR and I’ve got more to do,” he said. “When I ran 1:47.7, I thought I was only going to run 1:49. So when the race called for more, I was ready to give it.”