Indian Creek senior Abby Fleetwood leads the pack at the county meet in the first leg of the 4x800 relay.
Four athletes, three handoffs, eight laps and a once-in-a-generation combination of talent basically summarizes Indian Creek’s 4×800 relay.
With the postseason to begin Tuesday at the Franklin Sectional, the next few weeks present opportunities to exceed the hype.
Abby Fleetwood, who carries the baton first, this means you. You too, Dowty sisters, freshman Libby handing off to junior Phoebe, whose job description includes maintaining a place at or near the front so that senior anchor Paige Iaria can do her thing.
“All four of us, it feels so amazing to train together, and improve not only individually, but as a team,” said Iaria, who’ll be the salutatorian for Indian Creek’s commencement exercises on June 3. “All the time, work and effort we’ve put in.
“But coming from a small school, not a lot of people expect a lot from us.”
Perhaps it’s time to modify such a viewpoint.
At this time last season, Phoebe Dowty and Iaria comprised half of the quartet that advanced to the state meet at Indiana University. The Braves’ time of 10 minutes, 4.88 seconds was good for 22nd place.
Dowty ran the second leg, Iaria the final two laps.
The previous week, the Braves had qualified by running a 9:49.14 at the Franklin Regional.
As good as that group was, this one is better.
Indian Creek’s new-look combination blazed a school- and meet-record time of 9:31.93 in April to take first at the Johnson County meet. More recently, the Braves finished second to Northview in at the Western Indiana Conference meet this week, posting a 9:35.24.
“I like running for a team,” Fleetwood said. “It gives me more motivation, and I know once I hand off the baton, they’re going to be going through the same pain, so I’ve got to push it.”
This season’s time at county would have been good for 12th at the 2022 state meet. Indian Creek coach Brady Devine strongly believes this collection of athletes can fare better.
“Our goal in the postseason is to make the podium (at state),” Devine said. “I hope state is our best day, and we can sneak into the top five.
“Honestly, it’s a pretty cool combination of veterans and Libby. Seeing it all come together, it’s a special group. I’ll be surprised if this record is ever broken at Indian Creek. I think it will be a few decades, at least.”
Unless, of course, Fleetwood, the Dowtys and Iaria can lower their standard at the Franklin Sectional on Tuesday. Or, if the opportunities present themselves, the regional and, of course, state.
Iaria, meanwhile, isn’t about to shy away from the pressures of being the final runner.
“I’ve been running for seven or eight years now, and I’ve been in the anchor position most of my career,” Iaria said. “I feel like I’ve always been a natural-born leader, and it’s good that my teammates can count on me.”
Fleetwood, her classmate, wouldn’t want anyone else handling the baton in that situation.
“Because she never loses hope,” Fleetwood said of Iaria. “Paige is so determined when she runs. You can see it in her eyes. She’s always focused.”
