Nicki Southerland leads 1600m and 800m wire-to-wire
Delta's Nicki Southerland and Warsaw Community's Josefina Rastrelli got out strong in the 1600-meter race, emassing a three-second lead over the rest of the pack through lap one. From there, Southerland churned out 1:11 laps to run 4:41.98 and win by over eight seconds.
Rastrelli held on to take second place for the second year in a row with Kaitlyn Stewart of Floyd Central charging hard down the final stretch to finish only 0.36 seconds behind. Stewart, who had the seventh-fastest time coming into the race, ran to a 4:50.81 and makes Indiana's all-time top-25 list.
Southerland did more of the same in the 800-meter race, leading a parade of runners to PRs. The next nine runners in heat two ran faster than they ever had, including second-place finisher Ellie Barada of Bloomington South who has had an exceptional breakout season.
Barada ran a 3.71 second personal best and the sophomore is currently No. 16 in the nation and sixth on the state's all-time list. Her time also places her as the fastest sophomore in the country in the 800m according to the MileSplit database.
Nicki Southerland talks about getting the win in the 800m what lays ahead for her.
