Track and Field State Runner Up

Amazing!!!  Truly Amazing - the goal of the NOHS girls track team was to try to take 3rd place.  6 years ago we were 14th or so, then 3 years ago we were 4th - big jump - new coach - new approach - excellent results ... that was Jessica's senior year.  That year there were 11 seniors and we lost a huge talent pool, but a new talent pool came in - namely we got Marissa!!  Last year, even without those 11 seniors we took 5th.  It was a little disappointing knowing we had 4th last year but still 5th in the state.  This year our goal was to take 3rd.  We have several amazing athletes, 7 seniors, and athletes in every event.

We took 1st place at Regionals (again) so the fight is on.  Right from the start the team did amazing.  The girls 4x800 team came in 3rd place with a time of 9:58.99.  Interestingly they took 3rd but had a better time than Jessica's teams that took 2nd place with at time of 10:01.16.  They broke the school record.  Then Bri took 2nd in the hurdles ... and the day went on like this.  Haley Oliver took 4th in Pole Vault, Bri took 4th in the Long Jump, Nicole Moeller took 3rd in the 400 and Erin Olsson took 5th.  Erin Edmondson took 4th in the 800 and Ali Hall took 7th with a PR of 2:26.

At 7:50 the 3200 M started.  Marissa got off to a fantastic start.  She is ranked 15th - she has the toughest competition of the whole meet; Gabriella Karas, Paducah Tilman, Grace Whitroth, East Bullitt, Presentation ...  all amazing runners that she faced at the XC State Championship where she finished 13th.  

Great start

Amazing - Marissa in in front of Grace!  Go Marissa!

Right behind Grace - good place

Right here Marissa got trapped on the inside of about 11 runners with 4 in front of her.  She was devastated, but still ran her heart out.   You can see the pack starting to trap her.

Keeping a good pace

Just one more lap to go

Sprinting the finish

Go Marissa

And look at her stride

Passing

Great Job!!!

Marissa took 14th place with a time of 12:07.  It's crazy because a time of 12:11 took 7th place last year.  She did great.  She didn't medal but she is still in the top 15 state fastest distance runners.  She ran against some National Elite runners - Gabbie ran 11:07.

After her race the 4x400 is the last race.  We had a dramatic finish for the girls to take 3rd place.  In a total team effort - the NOHS Girls take 2nd place at STATE.  They are the STATE RUNNER UPS!  It's just so unbelieveable because we didn't even know we could do that.  It's just like 2 years ago when we went from being 14th to 4th place.  AWESOME!!!  AMAZING!!!

Team Photo

STATE RUNNER UPS!

Distance Runners

Katie, Marissa, Makenzie and Kelsey

Marissa is so excited - not only are they state runner ups, but she can lift Makenzie!

Celebrating a VICTORY!