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The Cambridge Christian School girls made history on Monday at the FHSAA Class 1A District 9 meet, becoming the first team in Florida high school track and field history to field four runners from the same team under the five-minute barrier in the 1,600m.
Mary Ellen Eudaly led the way -- as she just missed running the fastest 1,600m in Florida high school history, only behind Caitlin Collier's 4:44.51 performance in 2018 -- with a personal best time of 4:44.76.
Her senior teammate Caroline Lehman, who led Eudaly through the first three laps -- Lehman went 71 seconds at 400 meters, 2:23 at 800 meters and 3:34 at 1200 meters -- also achieved a new personal best time of 4:45.86 to reaffirm her spot among the top five all-time in state history for the event.
Another duo for Cambridge Christian worked together throughout the race to drop lifetime bests and help make the combined history together. Eighth-grader Eliana Black broke her own eighth-grade state record in the 1,600 with a 4:56.45 performance and finished third while sophomore Madeleine Gear made the biggest PR drop among the quartet, finishing in 4:58.18 -- which was for her first time under five minutes and a six-second PR.
It would be very intriguing to see a group like Cambridge Christian run against some of the other nation's best top programs right now in a 4xMile or 4x1600 meter relay.
Pine Crest has the state record for the 4x1600 at 20:24.73, and they last achieved that mark at the Arcadia Invitational in 2018. The national record in the relay event was just recently set at the Arcadia Invitational by the Newbury Park girls from California at 19:48.81.
If you added up all of the times by Cambridge Christian at districts, the girls times would project to a 19:25.25 total time for a 4x1600 meter relay. Could we see a national record attempt by them at some point in the post-season before the University of Arkansas commit Eudaly and Notre Dame commit Lehman depart off to college?
Girls 1600 Meter Run
