Prep Flashback: Fast-track career led Taplin around world, home again

Athlete: Cheryl Taplin, Cleveland High School, Class of 1990

Sport: Track and field

High-school rewind: Won four consecutive 3A (then AA) state 100-meter titles, three 200 titles and earned enough relay points to score 93 career points in the state meet, a record that has since been broken.

After high school: Starred at Louisiana State, where she was a multi-year All-American and ran on three 400-meter relays that won NCAA championships. She also won Goodwill Games and World Cup relay gold medals. Taplin barely missed qualifying for the 1996 Olympics. Her personal-best time was a wind-aided 10.9-second 100 meters at the Texas Relays when she was a senior. She left track in 2000, ending a career that saw her travel so much that extra pages had to be added to her passport.

After athletics: Taplin is in her sixth year as a Mariners employee and third year working in community relations for the baseball club. She is probably faster than any Mariner but can't be used as a pinch-runner.

When her schedule allows, she helps University of Washington sprinters under coach LaMonte Vaughn.

Personal: Taplin, 33, is single and lives on Beacon Hill in the same apartment complex where she was raised. She lives in the unit above her father, Irving, who is retired from the Army.

Fast forward: Taplin will be inducted into the LSU Hall of Fame in July. She remains outspoken against the use of performance-enhancing drugs in track and field. When she retired, she was fighting injuries but also was upset that some runners were taking drugs to run faster.

"It gets to a point where you're tired of coming in fifth or last when at one time you were beating all these people," she said.

Craig Smith