Photo by Dr Nanko Sports Photography
Just a few days after Barco made some noise for the boys mile/1600m there came another great race last night at the Hoosier Heritage Conference Girls Championship! The meet took place at Mt. Vernon High School with a highly anticipated matchup between two of the state's top distance runners with Delta's Nicki Southerland and Pendleton Heights' Ava Jarrell.
In the individual events they would dual in the 1600m and 800m. Southerland appears to have been also listed in in 4x800m and 4x400m lineup as well while Jarrell also looks to have competed in the 4x400m.
The 1600m saw an incredible matchup with both runners achieving new personal bests in the event. Nicki Southerland would cross the line with a 4:42.65, taking nearly a second off of her converted 1600m time from RunningLane Track Nationals last year. Jarrell would have an even more impressive PR with the Junior taking almost five full seconds off of her previous best with a 4:45.76. Her best came from a few weeks ago at the Zionsville Invitational where she would win the event there.
Southerland will remain at #3 all-time for Indiana with her improvement from last night. The only performers ahead of her are Addison Wiley at 4:26.16 from 2022 and Bethany Neeley with her 4:42.14 from 2013. Jarrell also made a massive leap in the state all-time rankings as she moves up from #21 to the #7 spot.
The duo would also run the 800m later in the evening which saw both run quick times that were both 2 seconds off of their respective personal bests. Nicki would win with a 2:07.64 with Jarrell earning runner-up with a 2:15.07.
Southerland also ranks #3 for the 800m event as well with her 2:05.06 performance from last year's state meet while Jarrell looks to be just a couple of seconds outside the state's all-time 25 with her recent time of 2:13.81 from the Zionsville Invitational.
With Delta and Pendleton slated to converge at the Pike Regional (Regional #5) there should be at least a couple more exciting races left this season for this duo to look forward to.
Related:
Hoosier Heritage Conference Meet Results
2024 Zionsville Invitational
2023 IHSAA Girls State Meet
2023 RunningLane Track National Championships
