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5A Girls 800m
Lucas Lovejoy's Kailey Littlefield made it a three-peat in
the 5A Girls 800m. The meet record holder, Littlefield left no doubt as to her
intentions. She took the lead at the break and hit the 200m mark in 29 seconds
and went through the 400m in 60 seconds. She continued without being challenged
and won in 2:07.70.
In the race for second place, Hallsville's Avery Perkins
held off a move on the final back stretch and ran a great final 200m to take
runner-up honors in 2:11.45 just ahead of Montgomery Lake Creek's Hailey Johnson who was two steps behind.
Senior McKenzie Bailey (Georgetown) entered with the top seed time of 4:58.93. That was exactly the same time as freshman Elizabeth Leachman (Boerne Champion).
That was destined to make the race interesting. Add Lucas Lovejoy trailing Lancaster and Smithson Valley in the team standings. Lovejoy has two entries in the event, sothe 1600m race became even more intriguing and having a lot more on the line.
Leachman would fight her way through the early tight pack and on the home stretch she escaped and came through the 400m split in 60 second and settled in at 600m at 1:36. She then ran a mouth opening 2:11.35 for 800m.
Bailey was nearly 50 meters back and the field was 10 meters further back from her.
Leachman dropped another 71 second lap and continued to run at national record pace heading into the final 400m. She would finish with a 83 second last lap, but the damage was done and a 4:47.28 PR and state championship was now hers.
Maddie Jones (College Station) would run past Bailey on the final 100m for second place in 4:56.95 to Bailey in third in 5:00.39.
