FHSAA 1A State Meet Girls Recap

FHSAA 1A Girls 1600m Run
 Mary Ellen Eudaly (Cambridge Christian) 4:48.27

There were 3 potential opportunities for the FHSAA state meet record for the girls 1600 meter run to be broken last week with athletes who already had faster personal bests or near the record time of 4:48.90 set in 2004 by 3-time Olympian and Oviedo High great Jenny Barringer Simpson.

It turned out to be the first race of the week in which the record would be broken and then stand the rest of the week from the other state champion winners in the 1A girls race.

It certainly helped that the top two seeds in the race were teammates in Cambridge Christian's Mary Ellen Eudaly and Caroline Lehman could work off each other to push each other to keep the pace often.

In typical fashion for most of their 1600 meter races, Lehman would be the one to set the pace thru the first 3 laps with Eudaly tucked in behind her as they split 400 meters in 68 seconds, 800 meters in 2:20, and 1200 meters in 3:36.

What was more surprising was to find The Master's Academy sophomore Ava Wyant stick right with the two from Cambridge Christian with a lap to go and at the bell. Wyant had a breakthrough season up until this point with a season best and PR sitting at 5 flat prior to the state meet, but was making the two sub 4:50 milers in Eudaly and Lehman feel her presence much later in the race than they expected. 

In the final 400 meters, Eudaly would scoot ahead of teammate and Notre Dame commit Lehman to repeat as the 1A state champion in the 1600 meter run with a new state meet record time of 4:48.27, while Lehman would record the 4th fastest time in meet history at 4:49.67 as the state runner-up behind only Eudaly, Barringer, and Caitlin Collier. 

Just as impressive as Eudaly's state meet record run was Wyant holding on for third place in a new personal best time by 7 seconds at 4:53.39. After her, Cambridge Christian would rack up serious points (27 in total) with 8th grader Eliana Black (4th, 5:01.57) and Madeline Gear (5th, 5:05.44) doing what they need to do for team points while conserving for their next races.