3A Girls State Meet Day 1: Neale 10:31.75 New Meet Record, Knight 10:31.86, Weber 5-8 HJ

The girls’ 3A 3200 was to be a showdown between freshmen superstars Glacier Peak’s Amy Eloise Neale, NC’s Katie Knight, and Shadle’s Kendra Weitz, all of whom had run under 10:50. Neale with her 10:31 was expected to take the lead but opted out of the early pace setting. After a slow mile Weitz burst from the pack to take the lead and push the pace.  The quartet of Wetiz, Neale, Knight and Juanita’s Lystad broke away from the rest of the pack. With 600 meters to go Knight pulled around the others to take the lead but could not shake Neale or Wetiz. Knight still held the lead going into final turn forcing her classmate to run wide.  The two finished stride for stride at the line with Neale getting narrow victory and 3A meet record in 10:31.75 over Knight in 10:31.86 and Weitz in 10:37.13. The three freshmen (now 1-2-4 on the All-Time Freshman list) laughed at how slow the pace was the first mile and commented “how glad” they are to be racing each other.