Staley ran the 800, 1600, and 4 X 400 relay throughout her season.
She improved all her times and PRs from her 7th grade year, as well as from the beginning of the season to the end. Her 800 PR for the season was 2:36, her 1600 PR was 5:57.54, and her 4 X 400 relay PR'd at state with a 4:31.07 with Staley running a 1:07 split.
Staley won her fair share of individual races and relay races throughout the season, with her highlights of setting a big PR in the 800 at the Hornet Invite, winning the 1600 at the Pontiac Invite with a new PR, and narrowly advancing to state in the 4 X 400 relay at Sectionals.
Staley made some new friends throughout the season with some of the girls she ran against on a regular basis including the distance girls from El Paso and Washington.
I volunteered to help out with the distance kids for track this season. I put together their work-out plans, helped out at practices when I was available, and cheered them on at the meets. It was a lot of fun to get to help coach Staley and enjoy her successes with her.
Staley chose to just run the 800 and 4 X 400 relay at Sectionals as those were the 2 events she was most likely to qualify for state. She placed 3rd in the 800, missing state qualifying time by less than 2 seconds. However, she used that as fuel to help propel her relay team to a qualifying state time by .01 seconds!
This was Staley's same state qualifying relay team from last year. It was so fun for them to get to enjoy another trip to the state track meet as a fun group of friends and teammates.
Qualifying for state is always a celebrated achievement. There is a state send-off, state goodie bags, state merchandise, state signs. And Staley and her relay friends also enjoyed a night-before state meal and hanging out at our house.
The weather at state was perfect and the girls ran an over 2 second PR to end the season on a high note, placing 15th in the state.
It was a great season, and I loved that it ended on a high note with big smiles from this group of girls.
I loved seeing Staley embrace this sport that I love, work hard, and then see the fruits of her labor in the successes she experienced on the track.
It was a great end to a great middle school running career.
Look out, high school. Here she comes!!
