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US Nationals - Indianapolis IN June 24, 2007 - DyeStat on-site coverage

Highlights - Event Summaries -

Chanelle Price 2:02.38 moves up to US#3 all time

She Belongs - The four-day, three-round test against the pros
let Chanelle Price know that she can compete at this level


by SteveU

Chanelle Price belongs. If there was ever any doubt, let it be put to rest. She may not be ready to turn pro,
though that may not be far off, but she can definitely run with the pros.
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At left, Chanelle Price leads the 800 semi. At right, Tori Anthony in Sunday's final. Photos by Vic Sailer, photorun.net

Sticking with her natural and winning formula in both the semi and final, which had worked for against all competition to date, Chanelle hammered her basic 27-mid, 57-high 200 and 400 pace to lead the field half way. In Friday’s semi, she led through 600 and when the next three caught her, the quartet cruised in together as the Easton PA jr. ran her #2 time ever, 2:03.09. Her fourth-place finish made her an auto-qualifier and she was two seconds clear of fifth.

Sunday was a bit tougher. Leading at 400, just as she was in the semifinal, Chanelle was passed by sub-2:00 pros Alice Schmidt and Hazel Clark, and sub-2:00 NCAA champ Alysia Johnson of Cal on the curve going into the backstretch of the second lap. She still held fourth until the final stretch, then was passed twice more and finished 7th. But it was a very strong 7th, with a PR 2:02.38 that moved her up to #3 all-time.

While she didn’t quite get an ultra-fast time in the 1:59-2:01 range to which she aspires, the experiment, or test if you will, was a raging success. “I proved I belonged,” she said.

The 4-day odyssey began with Price running the first of three rounds Thursday. She moved gradually into the lead, but not with the forcefulness one is used to seeing from her. She led the pack through 30.2 and 61.77 splits, then slipped to 3rd. She was just behind the leaders’ 1:33.1 mark at 600, where she was passed again to put her in 4th. There she stayed down the stretch as she finished in 2:05.27.

Chanelle Price leads the first round race. Photo by Davey, runmichigan.com
The only concern was that there were just three auto-qualifiers and she would have to make it on time. Fortunately, few were eliminated in the first round and she made it with about a second to spare.

“It was the beginning of the biggest meet of my life and my nerves had me a lot,” she said. “I just prayed I would make it to the next round and I did.”

The second round was vintage Chanelle, running as hard as she can without redlining. In almost a carbon copy of her NON race, she hit 27.3 and 57.9 with the pack in tow. She was able to ease slightly to 600 (1:31), where pro Alice Schmidt began to push for the lead. Price held her off at first as the pace picked up again. Then, in the straight, the top four auto qualifiers – Price included – had established themselves and they eased up in the final meters. Chanelle still ran her second-best time ever at 2:03.09 as she wound up fourth.

“I had a lot more confidence in that race,” she said, “and was able to cruise in for fourth.”

The strategy didn’t work quite as well in the final, at least as was hoped place-wise. While no one was quite as fast as the best years in the meet, the race was deep. Chanelle’s pace was 27.5, 57.9 again, but around the next curve the eventual top three of Schmidt, Clark, and Johnson began to slither past her. “My coach told me that if I was 1:28 at 600, I should still be in the lead, and then just to keep trying and keep going into the finish,” Chanelle said, with a bit of a rueful laugh. “But that turned out to be wrong; I was not in 1st.”

That turned out to be the recognition point for the Price team, finally, of just how tough the professional level is. Two more runners would get by her down the stretch. Still, she hung on for another PR. “When you get passed like that, you start to lose hope a little,” Chanelle said. “That’s never happened at the high school level; I’m always dominating.

“I would have liked to have been closer to 2:00, but I’ve never done three hard races in a row like that. I’m still young and it was an honor to be here.”

Chanelle said she was well-received as a high school kid among the sport’s elite. “When you’re getting ready for the race, no one talks to each other; everyone’s trying to get in that zone,” she explained. “But afterwards, a lot of them were hugging me and saying ‘You have a lot of speed in those 16-year-old legs,’ and stuff like that. Nothing negative. I’m right with them and I’m 5-15 years younger than them.”

The experience of running rounds, and competing on her own in a meet like this, was definitely different than anything else, Chanelle said, even a meet like NON. You don’t have your friends around and there’s a lot of time in the hotel room, trying not to think too much about the races past or to come. “For me the thing is to try and keep my mind off the races. I can’t keep pondering them all the time. At most meets, it’s all about having fun, getting to talk with friends like Brandon Bing (PA) and Jessica Beard (OH). But I have to be mature enough to be able to run in meets like this.

Chanelle hinted that she and her coach might toy with the game plan a little bit at World Youth, not just because of whatever competition she’ll face there, but also in anticipation of future races against the pros. “Going out and hanging on works in the high school races, but here at this level, it might not be the best.”

Highlights
  • Senior W-800 -- Chanelle Price 2:02.38 makes her 3rd fastest prep ever, moving up one spot from her 2:02.76 victory at Nike Outdoor Nationals last week. Price took the lead on the break and led the field through a fast first 400 in 57.90. The seniors then made their moves and one by one passed Price, but the Easton PA junior held on gamely to set a PR in seventh place. Only two legendary runners are ahead of Price now on the all-time list (see Jack Shepard's HIGH SCHOOL TRACK annual): Kim Gallagher 2:00.07 and Mary Decker 2:02.29. Price also improved on the age 16 national record that she set last week when she broke Joetta Clark's 1979 record of 2:03.54.
  • Senior Women PV -- High School record holder Tori Anthony CA, who won the junior PV Friday at 13-3.25, cleared opening height of 13-9.25 on her second try, and then went out at 14-3.25, which would have bettered her national high school record of 14-1, set at the California state meet earlier this month. Antony placed 9th out of 19 competitors.

Event Summaries

by Mike Kennedy

 

 

Senior Women's 800 Meters
Chanelle Price, Easton, Pa., running out of lane one, went right to the lead passing 200 meters in 26.9 with Hazel Clark, Nike in second and Alice Schmidt, Adidas, in third. Price continued to lead at the halfway point in 57.90 closely followed by Price, Alysia Johnson, California and Schmidt. Down the back straight, Clark, Johnson and
Schmidt began to break away, passing 600 meters in 1:28.9. Price had dropped back to four, passing in 1:30.5. She hung tough around the final turn in fifth place before slipping to seventh but was rewarded with a time of 2:02.38 to become the third fastest prep of all time with the fifth performance of all time. The only runners ahead of Price are tow of the all-time greats. National record holder Kim Gallagher, Upper Dublin, Ft. Washington, Pa., at 2:00.07 and Mary Decker, Orange, Ca., at 2:02.29. Up front, Johnson and Clark separated themselves slightly from Schmidt at 600. With 100 meters remaining the two drove down the final straight. Johnson held a slight lead over Clark but with 50 meters remaining Clark pulled even with Johnson and began to pull away. Then Johnson, who was on the inside, did as she has done in the past, dug down deap and gradually pulled even with Clark and with five meters remain gained her winning margin, 1:59.47 to 1:59.60. Schmidt was third in 1:59.63.

Women's Pole Vault
The senior competition opened up at 13-9 ¼, a height that only current national high school record holder Tori Anthony, Castilleja, Palo Alto, Ca., and former national record holder Tiffany Maskulinski, Iroquois, Elma, N.Y., have ever bettered outdoors. Maskulinski has gone on to college but Anthony was entered and hoping to of bettering her high school and American Junior (under 20) record of 14-1¼. Sixteen vaulters entered the competition and after a first round miss, Anthony slithered over the opening height and as she was falling into the pit, watched the bar dance on the pegs before it settling down. There were still twelve vaulters left when the bar was raised to 14-3 ¼. Anthony missed three times at that height but had a decent second attempt. Anthony’s clearance, which gave her a tie for ninth in the competition, gives her six of the seven best high school vaults of all time, outdoors. The competition was won by American record holder Jennifer Stuczynski, Adidas, with first attempt clearance 14-7 ¼. It was her only clearance of the competition. Nicole McEwen, unattached, was second, with a second attempt clearance at 14-7 ¼. Jillian Schwartz and Lacy Jansen, both of Nike, tied for third at 14-3 ¼..




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