By Brian Smith
Sports Correspondent
The best athletes don’t have the best memories.
They have the most selective memories.

They remember best the times they didn’t reach their goals.
So when Bryce Bergman stepped off the podium with his second gold medal earned on the day hanging around his neck, one of the first things he talked about was how disappointed he was last spring when he didn’t win the 300 meter hurdle title.
“Last year I thought I had it and then I messed up at the end,” Bergman said.
Bergman crossed the finish line Saturday and extended his right hand after finishing off the title he wanted most and that so tantalized him since last June.
“This is one of the toughest events out here,” Bergman said. “This was my goal. This one was the one I really wanted. ”
At the 2007 championships, Bergman led going into the final fifty yards of the 300 meter hurdle event, only to be edged out in excruciatingly close fashion.
Less than one-hundreth of a second seperated Bergman from his title.
“I thought I had it last year and then I couldn’t finish it off,” Bergman said.
The 300 meter race wasn’t even close this weekend. After winning the race and high-fiving the competitors around him, he raised a closed fist and looked up the New Bremen contingent sitting high above him.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been in the 39’s,” Bergman said.
Bergman finished off on Saturday what he started last year and what the New Bremen track program has been building for six years in the hurdle events.
The Cardinals have had a hurdler at state each of those six years, that spans from 2003 when Troy Lammers first got to state.
Lammers won back-to-back titles in the 300 hurdles at New Bremen.
Now Bergman is carrying on that tradition.
Bergman is headed to Air Force next year to run track and study at the Academy.
He’ll have two medals and quite a story of personal achievment to take with him.