From the YakimaHerald.com Online News.
| Published on Saturday, May 27, 2006 |
PASCO — For Chelsea VanDeBrake, one overriding goal has occupied her mind all season.
Eight laps under 11 minutes. One way or another, whatever it took.
Friday night, in her last high school race, the Eisenhower senior blew that goal to pieces in an historic
3,200-meter race in the Class 4A state championships.
VanDeBrake went out with bold intentions, cruising through four laps in 5:20, and held form over the second half to clock 10:56.20 for a fifth-place finish.
"I wanted to break 11 so much, definitely that's what I wanted," she said. "I'm so happy about that. It would've been nice to place a little higher, but the time is what was important."
VanDeBrake gave a scare to Eisenhower's school record, but Robin Bryson's 1990 time of 10:53.1 survived the challenge for the Washington State recruit.
The crowd at Edgar Brown Stadium stood and roared over the final mile of the race as Mount Spokane's Megan O'Reilly chased after the state's all-time record. After a 5:04 opening half, O'Reilly
responded to the support and ran a faster second half en route to a national-leading time of 10:05.81.
That erases Patty Matava's 24-year-old state record of 10:08.0.
"She's just incredible," VanDeBrake said. "I knew something big was happening the way the crowd was cheering."
It had an effect on the whole field as seven runners broke 11 minutes and 12 were under 11:10.