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Even with a heavy wind bearing down on them in the back stretch, The San Lorenzo Valley girls distance medley team ran the fastest time in the country at the Saint Francis Invitational Track Meet in Mountain View on March 17.
Claire MacMillan, Jen Housek, Abby Sherman and Anna Maxwell put together a national best time of 12 minutes, 8.18 seconds in the four-event medley and defeated their nearest competitor by 40 seconds. They shattered the previous meet record of 12:28.47.
“They did great all things considered,” said Cougar Head Coach Rob Collins. “It was so freaking cold and miserable out there I was amazed at how fast they finished.”
The young team consists of three sophomores and a junior but still pulled together a time that bested this year’s previous mark set by Woodlands High in Texas of 12:11.10.
MacMillan opened the event in the 1200 meters with a time of 3:49. Housek, a junior, then took control in the 400 meter dash finishing in 59.8 seconds and turned the race over to Sherman in the 800 meters. Sherman’s time of 2:22.5 left the field wide open for Maxwell who powered through her 1600 meter race in 4:55 and nearly lapped the next finisher at the event.
“This team is growing so strong, so confident,” Collins said. “For such a young group of girls, they are very experienced and come together really nicely. It looked effortless in the last two events as Abby and Anna pulled farther and father away, I felt they were taking it easy but their times said otherwise.”
Collins also coached a group of girls to the school record of 11:41.25 in 2000 by Raquel Barrientos, Lindsay Scarborough, Shiloh Whiting and Alejandra Barrientos. The time stood as the national record for four years.
Three of the runners on that team were seniors and all of those runners had successful collegiate careers in track.
“We definitely all feed off each other,” said Sherman. “There is almost an expectation that we will push each other to run harder and faster every time we go out there. It is not about us versus them so much as us versus ourselves.”
