PORT ANGELES — Gracie Long had a remarkable track season, beginning it with 24 first-place finishes through the regular season, then ending it by breaking two 33-year-old Port Angeles school records at the state 2A track and field meet.
Long also won in a variety of events all season. An excellent cross-country runner, she also excelled in distance events such as the 1,600 meters and 3,200 meters — the two events she set the Port Angeles school records in (she also won both events at the West Central District III meet that qualified her for state). However, she also ran some middle distance races and did very well in the high jump all season, finishing 12th at the state 2A meet.
As a testament to her versatility, Long won the 400 meters twice, the 800 meters once, the 1,600 six times, the 3,200 six times, the 300 hurdles once, the 1,500 steeplechase once and the high jump five times.
And as a member of a 4×400 relay team, she picked up two more first-place finishes. That’s 24 first-place finishes in eight separate events.
For her success, Long has been selected as the All-Peninsula Girls Track and Field MVP by the sports staff of the Peninsula Daily News.
Long said she has been thinking about setting school track records all the way back to the eighth grade. The fast pace at the state 2A events helped her set these records, she said. She spent much of these races hanging back of certain packs and couldn’t believe her times when she crossed the finish line.
“I did better than I expected,” she said. “When I saw my times, I was really kind of shocked.”
That kind of mental toughness it takes to pace oneself is what Long likes about the distance events. That and the strategy. When she’s in a 12-minute-long 3,200 race, she has plenty of time to size up her opponents and make a plan of attack on the fly. A lot of choices face her while she’s out running a race.
“With all the time you spend out on the track, you’re thinking about what your goals are,” she said.
Different events
Long ran a wide variety of distances all season. While she specializes in the really long events (which are still shorter than the 5Ks she runs as a cross-country runner), she still won three intermediate races this year.
While the 400 is considerably shorter than a 3,200, it’s still not a sprint and can’t be approached like a sprint. “You still have to conserve your energy or else you’re going to die,” she said.
It isn’t unusual for a sprinter or a long jumper to also take up the high jump, but it’s rare to see a good distance runner also be good at a high jump, which is such a different discipline. Because of all the time she spent running distance events, Long didn’t really get to practice the high jump much, yet she won this event five times this season.
Long said the high jump was a great pressure-free event for her. “I really enjoyed the high jump. I wasn’t stressed at all,” she said.
Her coach Robert Sheedy said Long is a unique great all-around athlete who could have also gone to state as a hurdler or a middle-distance runner.
“She is unique among the top distance runners in the state in that she plays basketball all winter. Most runners of her caliber train all year-round,” said her coach Robert Sheedy. “She is also unique in that she is an all-around athlete. She is a great high jumper without really having the time to work at it.”
Long also led a strong group of distance girl runners at Port Angeles High. The Roughriders had several meets this year in which four girls — Long, freshman Kynzie Deleon, Lael Butler and Maddie Dougherty — would all be in the top five places in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 distances.
Sheedy said Long showed a lot of leadership with the other distance runners, especially with freshmen like Deleon.
“She is a quiet leader with all the distance runners and very gracious in making sure our younger girls have success. I don’t always assign events for a meet so the girls will work out between each other who runs what events. The girls were a very close-knit group this year.”
Long thinks the Port Angeles girls helped lead each other. “I think we were all mentors to each other,” she said. “[Long distance] is a family that’s really cool.”
Sheedy thinks Long could definitely run track in college. He thinks her best event because of her athleticism is the steeplechase. Long also holds the school records in the 1,500 and 3,200 steeplechase though these events are rarely held at high school track meets.
With another year left to possibly set even more records for the Roughriders, Long said she would definitely like to run track at college. For now, she doesn’t have any firm plans of where she wants to attend, thought she has started looking at track programs.
