Grant sophomore Annelies Quinton waited a long time to get into her first high school 3,000-meter race, and she made the most of her debut.
Quinton ran 10:08.42 on March 15 at the Cotton Invitational. That held up as the state's leading time for more than two weeks, until Sunset's Lucy Huelskamp ran 9:57.89 on Wednesday in a dual meet at Westview.
Huelskamp is a state meet veteran who was the 6A runner-up last year.
Quinton, who missed nearly all of her freshman season with a stress reaction, is just getting started.
"We wanted to see how the winter training had worked out and I was feeling pretty good," Quinton said Wednesday at the PIL Relays. "And it was good (running) conditions, so we started off strong."
Quinton placed 17th in the state cross country championships as a freshman and improved one spot to 16th last fall. She went on to Nike Cross Northwest, where she opted to compete in the open (non-championship) race, which she won at Eagle Island State Park west of Boise, Idaho.
Her older brother, Philip Quinton, finished third in the state finals of the 800 meters last year at Hayward Field.
Quinton took part in two relays for Grant on Wednesday at the annual PIL Relays, which were held at Wilson. She led off the Generals' distance medley relay with a 1,200-meter leg, and then came back later to run in the 4x400 relay.
Looking ahead, Quinton is excited to explore her potential this spring in the 3,000.
With just one race under her belt, she is the third-fastest runner in school history, behind all-time state record holder Ella Donaghu (9:24.86) and Parkes Kendrick (10:00.18).
"I'm looking to shaving off some seconds and continuing to learn the race more, and have fun with it," she said.
Quinton has a couple of big opportunities on the horizon to face strong competition. Grant will compete at the Willamette Falls Invitational at Oregon City on April 13, and then the team is going to Bend on April 20 for the Summit Invitational.
At Summit, Quinton could theoretically get into a race with members of the Storm's national championship cross country team.
"I think it could be a really fun race. Lots of competition there," she said.
Doug Binder is the editor of DyeStat.com
