Class 4 Girls Distance
800 Meter Run
The first state track meet for Hannah Long looks to be a good one. The Eureka freshman has been consistently amazing on the track. She enters with the fastest time, 2:13.97, which puts her 12th among freshman in the nation. When she ran that time, she was pushed by Francis Howell's Valeska Halamicek who finished only .21 seconds back from Long in that race. She is no stranger to success at the state meet in the 800. She was fifth in the state meet as a freshman and just missed out on the finals last year. Watch for her to give Long a run for the title. Another girl who was mentioned in the track preview in March was Emily Warner. Now in her second year of competitive track, the Ladue senior has had even more success, running 2:16.42 at the Sectional 2 meet, only .1 seconds behind Long. She has the advantage of being a good 400m runner, as well, coming in with a PR of 58.39, as well as the fact that she was on the state record-setting 4x400m squad from last year. Staying in this sectional, Kayla Hall, who finished sixth two years back, ran 2:17.42, putting her in fifth for Class 4. From the KC side, teammates Lane Maguire and Courtney Coppinger look to score a good number of points for the St. Teresa's squad. Maguire is currently ranked fourth with Coppinger seventh. While talking about teammates, Jessie McNeal, Hannah Long's teammate, has been running well lately, finishing in 2:18.07 to make it to State.
1600 Meter Run
Just like the 800, Hannah Long comes in with the best time but will face stiff competition. This time it will be from Samantha Nightingale, one of the more successful distance runners in state history. These two are no strangers as they raced at KU Relays with Long coming out on top. Nightingale has been showing she is the real deal in the mile, running a 4:56.91 at her district meet. A surprise for many, Jill Whitman sits in the third spot coming into the weekend. The Cor Jesu sophomore only competed once last season but has had tremendous success this year. Another girl who did well in XC was Nicole Mello. The Hickman junior has blown through her qualifying meets, winning both the 1600 and 3200 at both districts and sectionals. Marie Taylor from Liberty, has run 5:06 and was second behind Nightingale at sectionals. My dark horse is Hannah Richardson. While she sits at eighth in the rankings, she was the only all-state returner in the 800m. The long, competitive District 2 meet kept her from advancing in the 800m, but she came back the next week to run a PR at sectionals in the 1600. This is the only open event for the KU signee; watch for her to go out in style.
3200 Meter Run
Samantha Nightingale looks to write some history in this event. Her time from the KU Relays of 10:33.55 would put her fifth in the Missouri State record books. That time also puts her almost 30 seconds ahead of the next competitor, Nicole Mello. These two met earlier this season at the Springfield Girls Night Out, where Nightingale won decisively. Mello and familiar competitor King will be duking it out just as they have had for a couple of years now. Neither one of these runners ran an open event last spring at state but they will surely have an impact on this year's. A couple of other names to keep an eye on are North Kansas City's Hannah DeVries and Alyssa Jones. Devries ran an 11:09 at the KU relays and was second behind Nightingale at sectionals. Jones opted to drop the 1600m and focus on the 3200m. She won Sectional 1 and has been consistently in the 11:10-11:20 range. One more name to watch out for is Sam Garrett of Rock Bridge. She was 11th last year but with all of the graduates, she will likely move up this year. Her time of 11:10 is only one second off of her PR from State, so watch for her to be in the mix this weekend.
4x800 Meter Relay
A trio of Kirkwood girls have finished second in this event for two years, and entering this weekend, they are second in the rankings. Hannah Richardson leads Kirkwood, along with teammates Lianna Doty, a sub 2:20 open 800m runner, and Elizabeth Luciani, 2:23. These three have all been to state and have experience. They have all been close, but never quite been able to win. They have run under 9:20 this season, but still sit second. If they hope to win and finally stand on top of the medal stand they will have to overcome Eureka. Eureka was the team that with Hannah Long's amazing anchor leg at districts, hawked them down at districts, running a state-leading time of 9:17.80. Eurkea's team will most likely include the top 800m runner in the state, Hannah Long (2:13.97), another 800m state qualifier, Jessie McNeal (2:18), and a state qualifier in the 1600m, Angie Sumner (5:10). That will be hard for any team to beat. Another team with two 800m state qualifiers is St. Teresa's. They have the duo of Coppinger and Maguire and will challenge these teams for a shot at the plaque. A couple of other teams to watch out for are Lafayette, led by Kayla Hall, Lee's Summit North, Ladue, led by Emily Warner, and Lee's Summit West , another team that has three runners at 2:20 or better, Annika Sisson (2:19.56), Elizabeth Nolke (2:20.64), and Kennadee Williams (2:20.77) (could we possibly go through a distance preview and not mention the Titans?). I think this will be one of the best races of the weekend. Can Kirkwood finally overcome the challengers and stand on top this time?