The legs that made Glenn Powell the fastest kid in Belzer Middle School suddenly couldn't carry him across a hospital room.

Five years ago, the current Lawrence Central High School hurdler contracted CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy), a rare neurological disorder that weakens the muscles. Though people suffering from it usually lead normal lives, they often require a cane to walk, according to Dr. Craig Herman of Community North Hospital, Powell's neurologist.

"I couldn't walk," said Powell, who used a wheelchair and spent three months in the hospital during the spring of his seventh-grade year. "I couldn't eat. The muscles in my throat couldn't swallow, so they had to feed me through a tube. (But) I never thought I wouldn't run again. Even when I couldn't walk across the room to use the bathroom, I never considered not running again."

Today, Powell enters the North Central Sectional at 5 p.m. as the favorite in the 110-meter hurdles after winning the Marion County Meet in 14.47 seconds. Sectionals will be held throughout the state today, with the top four finishers in each event and others who reach the state meet qualifying mark advancing to regionals May 27. The state meet is June 5 at Indiana University.

"(Glenn's) getting better and more excited about what he can do," Lawrence Central coach Mike Holman said. "Seeing him in the weight room and based on the testing we do, we knew this was a different athlete than a year ago. We knew if he could get in a (high-caliber) race, we'd see a big jump, and so far that's been true. He's got a great chance to continue step-by-step in the postseason."

CIDP causes the body to attack its nerves, prompting the muscles to shrink. Powell, a junior, continues to take medication to decrease his body's immune response and keep it from producing the antibodies that damage his muscles. The disease often spontaneously goes into remission and Powell will have his medication slowly reduced in the near future to see if he has recovered, but his nerves still show signs of the illness, Herman said.

Powell missed his seventh-grade track season and couldn't keep up with the kids he used to beat when he returned at the end of the next season. But he continued to improve by focusing on his technique and finished fourth in sectionals last year in 15.50 seconds. He was eighth in regionals at 15.67.

His lack of strength, however, caused slow starts and he was often running from behind. Powell has finally been able to consistently lift weights and, though he doesn't build muscle as fast as his teammates, his performance continues to improve. There are still days he has to back off his training, but Powell has seen his times drop from 15 seconds in mid-April to 14.47 in the County Meet on May 11. He aims to drop below 14 seconds for the state meet.

"At the end of my eighth-grade year, all the people I used to beat were beating me, (but) I think that made me train even harder," said Powell, who is looking at attending Arizona State. ". . . I beat a lot of people (in the Marion County Meet) that had started beating me. I think that was a really good breakthrough for me."

Call Star reporter Nat Newell at (317) 444-6045

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