104th Article at the Independent

CLASS AA TRACK AND FIELD: Marshall’s Simpson paces herself to a ninth-place finish, qualifies for finals at Class AA meet

CHRIS DRUMMOND

cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

ST. MICHAEL — Exhausted and almost completely out of breath, Brianna Simpson felt like she gave everything she had in the prelims of the 400 meter dash on Friday at the Class AA meet at St. Michael-Albertville High School. Her hard work paid off, as the Marshall junior placed ninth and advanced to today’s finals.

Simpson started out of the blocks slow and paced herself around the track, but once she got in the final stages of the race she accelerated her speed and was able to track down her competition and finished strong with a time of 1:00:74. After the race, Simpson spoke about her strategy and performance.

“How I usually run is I would take long strides at the beginning of the race this season,” Simpson said. “I would sprint the last half of the race as hard as I can. As the season went on, though, I started to increase my sprints up to 220 [meters] on the track.”

Simpson was able to qualify for the finals in her first appearance at state. Head coach Marie Sample also chimed in on Simpson’s performance.

“I thought she ran a really smart race and Bri is normally cool as a cucumber, a little nervous [today] but not much,” Sample added. “She does her job, goes out and has a methodical plan of how she wants to race. She knew where she was in the heat and did what she had to do to qualify for the finals.”

The girls 400 meter dash final is this morning at approximately 11:22 a.m.