By Michael Newman, ILXCTF.com editor

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Hillside --- Five minutes before the start of the Varsity 3200 Meter Run at Saturday’s Proviso West Lady Panther Invitational, athletes that were scheduled to be in the race were in the check in area chatting, smiling, and laughing before they took the track.

20 feet away from that group stood Katelynne Hart of Glenbard West by herself. Her arms were folded and she had a blank stare visioning what she was going to do before she stepped to the line. This would be the second time this year that she has competed in the event. The first time was on February 18 at the University of Kentucky High School Invitational. She set an indoor national record for the 2 Mile Run after winning the 1 Mile Run. She stepped to the line Saturday not having running a race before it.

Hart was by herself, just like before the start, 100-meters into the race. She went onto run the best time in the nation (10:15.95) to win the race lapping the field more than once. Teammate Katie Hohe ran 11:48.71 to finish second. Hart’s time of 10:21.41 at Kentucky converts to 10:17.81 for 3200 meters. Saturday’s race betters that national class record other than the time.

Glenbard West Coach Paul Hass set the goal to hit “sevens” for Hart. They paced the race out for Hart to hit 77 second 400’s during the race. That would get her to 10:16 goal.

The freshman tends to get a little excited in the first couple of laps before settling down into her pace. She did that in the 3200 Relay Tuesday at North Central College when she went through the first 200 in 30 seconds. In this 3200-meter race, she went through the first 200 in 34 seconds and the 400 in 71.6 seconds.

“In my mind the entire race I was just trying to stay relaxed,” Hart said after finishing. “Obviously, there is a lot of laps so saying relaxed was just the name of the game.”

That may have paid off in this race as she put herself six seconds ahead of her pace goal. He went through the first 1600-meters in 5:03.6 five seconds ahead of her pace. The Kentucky race had the element of some quality runners in the field that had the potential of catching her even though she won by 30 seconds. By the time she got to the 4^th of 16 laps in this race, she had already begun to lap the competition.

The solo race that she was running began to take its toll as her 400 started slowing down to 78 to 79 seconds from 1600 meters to 2800 meters. The first fast 400 paid off as she had some room to for he pace to slow. With 400 meters to go, she was at 9:00 just one second behind pace. A final 75 second 400 brought her to the 10:15.95 that she ran.

“I could have slowed down a little the first mile of the race,” added Hart. “Overall, I am happy the way the race went.”

The two races at this distance demonstrates the potential she has for it. She put up some great times in middle school in the 800 (2:13) and 1600 (4:56). The 4:54 for the full mile is interesting to see how low that time goes. The 3200 / 2 Mile Run could be an acquired taste for Hart.

*I like all the events (800, 1600, 3200) for different reasons,” Hart said. “I was never a big fan of the 2 Mile Run. Actually, after I ran it in Kentucky, I thought that I really liked it.”

Katelynne Hart Race Splits: 71.6 – 2:27.9 (76.3) – 3:45.2 (77.3) – 5:03.6 (78.4) – 6:22.3 (78.7) – 7:41.6 (79.3) – 9:00.6 (79.0) – 10:16.0 (75.4)

Other Meet Notes

The story of this meet (other than Katelynne Hart) was how strong East St Louis-Senior is in the sprints that took them to the team title. The Flyerettes scored 120 points to finish ahead of Glenbard West (79 points) and Proviso West (58 points).

Jariah Hunter led Eastside with a double win running 42.04 to win the 300 Meter Dash by more than a second ahead of Tearra Winters of Proviso West. The sophomore came back to win the 400 Meter Dash and the only athlete to go under 60 seconds (59.84). She also anchored her team to a win in the 1600 Meter Relay (4:01.43) seven seconds ahead of Proviso West. Nicquayleeonntea Moore also was a winner for East St. Louis-Senior in the sprint disciplines running 27.07 to win the 200 Meter Dash.

Evangelynne Harris and Jazzmine Poole finished 1-2 in the Shot Put. Harris had a winning put of 43-3 just 2.5 inches off her seasonal best.

Proviso West broke up the sprint dominance winning the 800 Meter Relay (1:45.96) by over two seconds ahead of East St. Louis-Senior. Tanayea Kimbrough, who led off the relay for Proviso West, ran a personal best 7.26 to win the 55 Meter Dash.

The other star of the meet was Imani Carothers of Brooks College Prep who was impressive in the two individual events that she competed in. The junior jumped 18-10 on her first attempt to easily win the Long Jump. She came back to run a state best 8.34 seconds to win the 55 Meter Hurdles.

If Hart’s race in the 3200 Meter Run was dominating, so was the 1600 Meter Run where Evelyn Michelin of Evanston Township showed her dominance. She took the lead the first 200-meters of the race on her way to finishing in 5:11.84 (IL #10) to win by 20 seconds ahead Of Glenbard West’s Katie Hohe.