Hipple sweeps at Poland
McDonald senior wins distance events at Poland Invitational
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POLAND -- With track season in full gear, area athletes are preparing for the final push in local events before district and regional qualifications. One of this area's top girls track performers and a defending state champion is McDonald senior distance runner Megan Hipple.
She would finish with a mark of 10:38.43, overtaking Maplewood's Caleigh Richards to capture the girl's 3200m race at the Poland Invitational on Saturday. Hipple is the defending Division III state champion in the 3200 where she ran a 10:55.9. She is also a standout on the Blue Devils' cross country team, where Richards is also her biggest rival in that competition as well.
"This was a personal best for me," a satisfied Hipple said. "This was the first race that I have had with the competition. It was exciting to come to a race and know that I had people who were going to push me and make me run a better time than I could run on my own."
Hipple and the McDonald girls took fourth in the team standings at Poland.
With CVCA winning the boys team title, Boardman was the top local team, taking second with 85.5 points, half a point behind CVCA. On the girls side, Salem took home the team title with 110 points, while Boardman was the girls runner up. The Warren G. Harding boys finished third, while the girls tied for fourth with the Blue Devils.
Hipple was one of 20 participants in the 3200 that opened the Poland Invitational at Dave Pavlansky Field on Saturday. With the victory, she captured the Don Smaltz Award. The honorary award is for Don Smaltz, who was a dedicated track coach at Poland. Twenty-five schools competed in the event, allowing area athletes to see competition they probably haven't seen up to this point of the season.
With it being such a cold rainy day, many athletes had to make sure that they were properly warmed up. But for Hipple, she had another concern that might affect her performance on the day.
"We had prom last night, so I was a little concerned about my calves with me being in heels," she said. "I knew there was a lot of good competition today, and so my goal was just to hang on to the group. But I was able to gain control and take the race."
"I knew my calves were going to be super tight going into today being in spikes for eight laps. I was a little worried, but it was fine," she added.
"When we started, I was just trying to hold on to Caleigh and Bella (Graham from Marlington), to stay between them," Hipple said, describing her strategy. "Then, as the race progressed, at lap three, I realized that I could gain control. So, I got myself in front and started to move ahead."
Hipple was able to hold off Richards in the final five laps. But it wasn't without knowing that Richards would make one final push on the last lap.
"I knew she started to make her move at the 500 mark, so I knew I had a gap to make up," Hipple said. "To the 100, I knew I had to leave it all out there or else I was going to take second."
Hipple would also capture the girls 1600m run with a time of 5:11.9, holding off two Salem challengers in Maggie Hall at 5:15.71 and Megan Stafford at 5:17.36.
"I just want to keep getting better and improve as the season moves on," Hipple said.