CAL Invitational

Saturday, March 24 - Usually these are early mornings were we are going to see Jessica run or jump, but now it is Marissa.  She is running the 4x800 m and the 1600 meter run.  Ironically, those are the same events Jessica ran her senior year.  Marissa is running the 4x800 meter relay with Ally Hall, Hannah Gray, and Christina Ausley.   I love the relay events - there is a tremendous teamwork effort and camaraderie that brings the girls together.  

Ally Hall (junior) runs the first 800 - she hands off to 

Hannah Gray (senior).  Right before the hand off an official stepped in front of Ally making it difficult to pass to Hannah.

Hannah passes to Christina Ausley.  Last meet Marissa ran in the third position, but this meet Christina Ausley (Freshman) is the third runner.  Unfortunately, an Manual runner stepped in front of Hannah trying to pass the baton to Christina.  Luckily they made the exchange but it took up time.

Marissa is the anchor of the relay (same as Jessica).

Marissa's split time was 2:41 and the team finished 11th with a time of 10:46.  This is a 4 second PR from their last race.

Marissa and Christina after the 4 x 800 meter relay waiting for the 1600 meter run.

Marissa starting the 1600 meter.  She had to start in the very last position of the race in the 8th lane.  YUCK!!!  She had to sprint to get into a good position for the race.  

She did a great job getting into a better position, she was about 8 back from the lead as they headed into the first turn.

She has excellent strides and worked extremely hard to start in a good position.  

For the rest of the race, Marissa held a steady pace.  She has had to race against this girl from OCHS twice.  She is a good runner.  This is Marissa getting ready to start the second lap.

On the third lap Marissa passed the tall girl from Presentation, but maintained the same pace as the girls from Elizabethtown  until the last lap.  

On the last 100 meters of the race, Marissa decided to sprint the ending - passing the girl from Elizabethtown and drawing very close to the girl from Manual Dupont.  She had a fantastic race finishing with a new PR of 5:46 (a 4 second PR) in 11th place against three AAA teams.  She might have been in 1st place for AA teams.  I will have to see. Way to go Marissa!!!