Flower Mound's introduction for the 4 x Mile Relay At New Balance Indoor Nationals
Photo Credit: Joe Swift/MileSplit NY
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Prior to the girls 4 x 1 mile relay, I said the national record was in jeopardy with Flower Mound and their ability at the New Balance Indoors Nationals. Before they got their opportunity, the record had already been broken the day before by Saratoga Springs (NY).
Only one team had ever ran sub 20 minutes for the event; the previous record was 19:59.24. Saratoga Springs reset the mark by pushing the new standard to 19:49.10, crushing the previous record by 10 seconds as they became only the second team ever to break the 20 minute barrier.
Saratoga Springs has been one of the premiere high school distance running programs in the country. The school which runs as Kinetic Track Club owned half of the US all-time top 10 performances in the event.
Furthermore, this group knew they had an opportunity to get the record Saturday, in fact the quartet had record breaking aspirations dating back to 2019. That season, they won the Cross Country Team National Championship in Oregon. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 caused a last minute meet cancellation to that meet, so their attempt was not to be.
After breaking the outdoor national record last year by running 19:40,67, the New York crew was poised for another push for the indoor record, but for a second time, the meet was cancelled due to the pandemic.
This squad is the team's best ever. That's why they broke the national record and in the same race their B team finished second in the meet by running 20:24.28, a top US No. 25 all-time performance.
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Flower Mound poses with finish line banner after breaking 4 x Mile Relay National Record
Photo Credit: Joe Swift/MileSplit NY
The Flower Mound girls know they are good, but how good are they? Compared to the best team ever from a perennial national ranked school, for most, the goal of topping them would be overly ambitious.
However, not for these Flower Mound Jaguars. They are led by the Gatorade National POY for girls cross country in Natalie Cook . The Oklahoma State commit dominated the national cross country championship season and on Friday, she ran a US No. 2 all-time 2-mile performance of 9:44.44.
She helped her team take down the day old national record and claim it for themselves as they ran 19:37.78, breaking Saratoga Springs mark by almost 10 seconds and nearly 20 seconds better than the previous record. A week prior, Cook opened up her track season by running 2:12.52 (800m) and 4:44.70 (1,600m) at the Coppell Relays. With that fitness, she would just need three teammates who could run 5-flat.
As simple as that sounds, conversely, that is an extremely tough task. With the national record prior to this weekend being less than one full second faster than a five-flat average, that is proof of how hard it is for four girls on one team to average that pace for an indoor mile.
Flower Mound Hugs it out after breaking the 4 x Mile Relay National Record
Photo Credit: Joe Swift/MileSplit NY
Coach Andrew Cook and his team believed they could do it, they have a set of immensely talented twins. The Humphries twins entered high school two years ago with high expectations and they have lived up to it. As freshmen last year, Nicole Humphries had PRs of (58.41,2:08.30, 4:53.22, 18:38.99) and sister Samantha Humphries had PRs of (62.54, 2:16.60, 4:53.65,10:41.66,and 18:26.40)
The twins also had good season openings last weekend at the Coppell Relays with Nicole running 4:57.89 in the 1,600m and Samantha running 2:11.65 in the 800m and 4:54.24 in the 1,600m.
With three girls already running sub-5 minutes outdoors in the 1,600m, the chances to run the same indoors were good, but they'd have to rely on a freshman to help carry that load.
Alexandra Fox proved she was the right girl for the job. She had just run 10:50 at the Coppell Relays for the 3,200m and on Friday, she ran 5:01 to win the freshman girls 1 mile race.
Saturday, the group was golden and as they flip the page back to the Texas outdoor track and field season, they'll do so as national record holders.
Exhaustion, disbelief, and excitement settle in for Flower Mound
Photo Credit: Joe Swift/MileSplit NY
New Balance Indoor Nationals Coverage:
