More than 100 athletes compete in time trials every year. Some athletes get their first taste of racing, some fight for varsity spots, while others come to try and break their personal bests. Sometimes, despite being at the very beginning of training, school records are even broken. However, what almost never happens is having underclassmen beat these school records. This is exactly what happened on time trials this year on March 19, by a freshman girl in her very first high school race.
Grace Alexander (9) came into time trials with zero high school running experience, and also with lots of nerves.
“I was really nervous,” Alexander said. “I wanted to be as good as people were expecting of me after my time in middle school.”
Despite this, Alexander ended up not only breaking the 300-meter school record, but also destroying the 100-meter school record, previously held by Lelani Green (class of 24). She beat her teammate Piper Wietbrock (9) by more than a second to not only claim the time trial victory, but also two prestigious first place spots on the Liberty all-time lists. These races were also less than an hour apart, giving Alexander little time to prepare for her 300-meter dash.
Liberty hosted the Eagles’ first meet of the season on March 25. Still being off of short training, and being in the beginning of the season, many athletes used this meet as a tune-up, getting some rust off to prepare for later meets.
Alexander refused to let these factors stop her from dominating her races. In the 100-meter dash, Alexander not only beat her closest competitor by almost half a second, she also got a second all-time Liberty best, only getting beat by her own record she set in the time trials.
However, in the 200 meters, she presented her versatility in a bold and explosive way, once again dominating the rest of her competitors.
Alexander also claimed her third school record, beating the previous record once again held by Lelani Green. With a time of 25.96, she both beat the previous school record by over half a second and became the first athlete to break into the quarter minute club.
Since these two impressive showings, Alexander has done anything but slowing down. On April 11, the Eagles were faced with much more competition than the first meet, not only in the sheer number of schools attending, but also in the times some of the athletes attending were carrying. Even though there were much stronger opponents for the freshmen to face, she once again ran a first place finish in the 200 meters, speeding past North Point senior Alyssa Anderson.
Alexander once again beat the 200 school record with a time of 25.85. If you believe that it’s just talent carrying her to her success, you would be wrong. According to Coach Tutterow she gives her all when it comes to the sport.
“She listens and tries her hardest to apply what your teaching,” Tutterow said.
So far into the season, every single open race Alexander has run beats every other runner in Liberty history, not only holding the top two spots in the 100-meter all-time list, but also holding the top 3 spots in Liberty’s all time 200 meter list. She has high ambitions for this season.
“My goals for this season are to run 11.9 by the end of the season,” Alexander said. “I also want to qualify for state my freshman year.”
Even with these ambitions, Alexander and her coach are making sure to not focus entirely on the outcomes, and to take it one step at a time.
“Track is supposed to be fun,” Tutterrow said. “We’re just taking it one race at a time.”
