2021 Jesse Owens Classic - HS Girls
All-State #2 Jessica Cartwright (2427)
Moving over to the girl's races, we had the #1 girls in the state Hernando High School in the Silver Division. I missed the first half of the race, from what I saw in the 2nd half and the finishing results, Hernando had a really good day as a team. Jesse Owens can be a difficult meet to navigate through as a team, but Hernando found a way and put 4 in the top 30, and had a 2-4 spread of 4 seconds. In big races like that, it is great to rely on your teammates like that to get you through.
Their 3 and 4 Delaney Hopkins and Madison McMillen also hit some huge PR's, as Hopkins ran 20:19, crushing the 21-minute 5k barrier. Their low stick finished in 7th, just 6 seconds off of her PR and only 20 seconds off of the winner in the very deep field. I think this sets Cartwright up very nicely for MC Watson in a couple of weeks.
Finally, in the last race of the day, we had Long Beach Senior and All-State Brooklyn Biancamano in the Gold Race. This was only Biancmano's 3rd race of the season - her first 2 both being 19:11 5k's for the win. Although 19:11 is a respectable time for 5k, Biancamano was ready to get back into the 18's - or maybe even under.
All Brooklyn focused on in the first mile was going out relaxed, and that's exactly what she did. In an interview after the race, Biancamano stated that she could sometimes get anxious/nervous running in a pack, which was what she struggled with at RunningLane Track Nationals back in May. However, she took the experience away from that meet and worked on it all summer, and it paid off on Saturday.
After the 1 mile, the pack started to string out as Brooklyn took multiple blows from Chelsea's Cady Mcphail who kept yoyoing the pace down. Biancamano was the main one that kept bridging the gap.
In the final 1200 meters, Vestavia Hill's Crawford West burst into the lead. Only Biancamano and Bella Guillamondegui from Tennessee remained. Biancamano kept falling back slightly, but would claw her way back, and found herself in the mix with 500 meters to go.
All of that fighting combined with a relaxed start paid off in a big way for Biancamano, as she finished 3rd overall in a very deep field. This was perhaps one of Biancamano's greatest finishes in her career and huge breakthrough performance.