Admiral Farragut's Brittany McGee Set to Defend Heptathlon Title at New Balance Nationals

 

The 2014 Class A state finals might not have gone quite as well as Admiral Farragut's Brittany McGee had hoped. She only got in two jumps in long jump on a wet track and she injured her ankle during the 300m hurdle final and both hurdle marks in the 100m and 300m were off her personal best of the season. Still, McGee took home a third place medal in long jump and she was still plenty better than the rest of the field in the hurdle events, winning both. Winning state titles has become par for the course for the rising senior. The dilemma for McGee has been which events to enter for the high school track season. She won most of the high jump competitions throughout the year but elected not to do the event for her run at the 2014 FHSAA state finals.

 

For her senior campaign, she's already entertaining trying the triple jump, the 400m and the 200m. There are almost no limitations to McGee's athletic prowess. She's good at everything and great at several things. It's no wonder she's the reigning heptathlon champion at the New Balance Nationals held at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro. The girls heptathlon consists of 100m hurdles, high jump, shot put, the 200m, long jump, javelin, and the 800m. Nearly half of the events are in McGee's wheelhouse and she typically scores big in them. Javelin is a hidden strength for McGee. While she doesn't participate in javelin in high school, the FHSAA doesn't have the event, she's actually quite good at it.

"I like it (javelin) because it's fun and people joke around like I'm spearing people," McGee said. "My personal record is over 100 feet."

 

McGee said she struggled first learning it, gripping the spear too tightly but it's become a clinching event for her in the heptathlon. Javelin is the second-to-last event in the competition. It lets McGee know where she's at, usually how far she is ahead, and let's her know what she has to do in what is admittedly her weakest, also the final event, the 800m. 

 

"I wish it were the first event so I could get it out of the way but it's (800m) the last event, the make-or-break event, the die-or-win event," McGee said.

 

The heptathlon spans two days. The 100m hurdles, the high jump, the shot put and the 200m round out the first day. Then, 12 hours later, heptathletes finish with the long jump, javelin and 800m. Last year, McGee amassed a 75-point lead over the next competitor heading into the final event, the 800m.

 

"Last year, after the javelin, I was so tired I just sat down on the field and tried not to think about it," McGee said.

 

The 800m is weighted a little heavier in the complex computation that makes up a heptathlon score. Every second an athlete finishes in front of another is 10 points. A 75-point lead can evaporate very quickly if something goes wrong in the final event. 

 

"I've seen people go from 11th to fifth with just their score from the 800m," McGee said. "I actually ate some honey, which I can't really stand but we shoved it down my throat and a was pinging off the walls and ran a personal record (in the 800m)." 

 

Some of the events work against each other. The choppy steps that make her uncatchable in the 100m hurdles make her strides slow in the 200m. 

 

"I have to really think about sprinting, it's hard to get out of the hurdle habit," McGee said. 

 

She has a certain stride for the 300m hurdles, too, but that is irrelevant and even a hindrance for either the 200m or the 800m. 

 

McGee scored a 4,627 last year and has aims at 4,800 this year. There's immense pressure to repeat as champion. McGee went from ninth place after her freshman season all the way up to the top after her sophomore high school season. It's a high bar set for a young woman that hasn't even been cleared to speak with college coaches yet.

 

"It's funny, you have all these coaches looking at you but they can't say anything to you," McGee said.

 

College coaches can speak with McGee's father or her coaches but none are allowed to approach McGee until next month. McGee is planning for a, "whirlwind of adventure" this summer. With all the success in just three years of high school track, it would be easy for an athlete to hit cruise control. Not McGee. She's always striving for those extra inches or to shave those extra seconds off her time. While McGee attends Admiral Farragut in Pinellas County, she lives in Brandon and has been training for the New Balance Nationals at Armwood High School with coaches Mike Zelazo and Phil Barnhill. There she honed her technique with the javelin and even shot put, which she can throw over 30 feet.

 

"People look at me and wonder how I can throw it (shot put) that far but it's all about how quick you move and your technique," McGee said.

 

Javelin actually comes pretty naturally to McGee as well. She likens the approach in javelin to the approach in long jump, where she recently won the Golden South title with a jump of 19-5. Again, never one to settle, McGee is hoping to reach 20 feet in long jump by the end of her senior year. McGee's intensity on the track is rivaled by her intensity in the classroom. She has a few AP classes lined up for the fall term, not including Spanish 5. She also isn't done experimenting with other sports. McGee said she's terrible at volleyball but plans to try it anyway and get this, she plans to run cross country this fall, a brand new endeavor for the ever-reaching McGee.