The Lady Raider track team came one step closer to becoming a threat for a relay title Friday night at the Illinois State Indoor Championships. Coming in as the 4th seed in the 4x800, we ended finishing 12th against a very strong field. Senior stud Emily Gustafson gave a great lead off leg handing off in 3rd place. Rookie sophmore Rachel Innes ran a superb leg, holding 4th position and running a PB of 2:36. In her first track season Junior Marley Brimberry, filling in for an injured Autumn Andrews, was a little unnerved by the energy of the crowd and the stiff competition. The hard working sophmore Ashley Schmitt got the baton quit a bit out of the competition but still ran a PR leg of 2:43 to put us in 12th.
Emily Gustafson, seeded second, came back to finish 4th in the mile. After waiting around for a 3 hour delay, Emily got out great. Three laps into the race she got a little bump and didn't respond when the pace picked up. From there she fell back to 8th and trailed the leaders by 30 meters. But with 100 meters to go she found a gear shes never had before. With a freshman-like crazy big finish she battled back to fourth place, just missing third. Afterward she could read my body language and said "I cant believe how much I had left!" and I wont repeat my reply. Needless to say the consistent winter training is paying off and she needs to start learning how to race with all the new tools she has developed. She did run another school record of 5:22 and got a great feel for what it is like to race at the next level.
I am still putting away with my running. Just 15-20 minutes a day as the achey pain in my left big toe is giving me problems. My podiatrist, Dr. Grady, says it is still going to take some time to clear it all up as it was so full of scar tissue for so long.
We are headed west to the Moline Invite next Saturday for our first outdoor meet of the season. I am really looking forward to seeing how junior Hugh Gill and some of the others will run after a consistent stretch of winter training. Coming off a winter of IT band tendonitis, junior star Cassie Lohmeier will also make her 2009 track debut in the 3200. Freshman ace Autumn Andrews will also be back running after missing the state indoor meet with tendonitis in her foot.
Hopefully next time I write we will have banked a wholebunch of prs and my foot will be feeling a little better! Go Raiders
tb
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment