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New York City New York - - First it was Eastbay South, followed by RunningLane Nationals, and then Eastbay Nationals. All of that led to winning the Gatorade POY for girls cross country. You can now add the New Balance Indoor Nationals to the list of national level meets that Natalie Cook has not only won, but won convincingly.
Saturday afternoon, she set a facility record at the Armory in New York City when she ran a 9:44.44 to win the two-mile by nearly eight seconds over runner-up Ellie Shea. Cook got out to a fast start with a 1:12 first 400m, but trailed Shea and Angelina Perez through nearly the 1,600m mark.
It was right before the midway mark that Cook took charge by moving into the lead by passing on the outside of Shea and Perez coming through in 4:57.78. She then opened up the lead stride by stride as she accelerated the pace from 75 second laps to 74 and then dropping a couple of 72s, which enabled her to run to the facility record, bettering the previous 9:51.05 set by Katelyn Tuohy.
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This is just the second meet of the season for Cook, who finally opened up last weekend at the Coppell Relays. Even though she proved her fitness level is high by running 2:12.52 in the 800m and 4:44.70 in the 1,600m, she didn't quite see 9:44 coming. The Flower Mound senior said, "It was like whoa, I didn't expect to run that fast. My plan was just to see how the first mile feels and just go from there."
"It was like whoa, I didn't expect to run that fast. My plan was just to see how the first mile feels and just go from there."Natalie Cook, Flower Mound senior
Cook has come full circle; she was once the girl cheering for other big names in the running world and now has become the one and breaking records set by them, "it is crazy knowing I ran a championship race and I ran that fast," she said.
Other Flower Mound Jaguars had notable performances: Samantha Humphries - 10:19 (2 Mile), Alison Buemi -10:58.80 (2 mile), Alexandra Fox - 5:01.61 (Freshman 1 mile).
Cook, the Oklahoma State commit will team up to run the 4x1-mile relay with teammates Nicole Humphries, Samantha Humphries, and Alexandra Fox. The meet record for the event is 20:00.97 and the national record is 19:59.24. Both records are well within Flower Mounds grasp as Cook and the Humphries twins have already run sub 5:00 in the 1,600m at last weekend's Coppell Relays (Cook - 4:44, S. Humphries - 4:54, and N Humphries - 4:57) and Fox ran 5:01 today. The Lady Jags could head back home to Texas with a national record.