For incoming Menlo School freshman Madeline Price, the future is now.
That was plenty evident last Friday in the USA Track and Field Junior Olympic Championships at Hughes Stadium on the campus of Sacramento City College. Competing in the 400-meter race, Price finished in 10th place in a career-best time of 57.94 seconds in the intermediate girls’ division category (athletes born in 1994-95). Price’s time was the best by a California athlete in her age group.
“I was ecstatic and so happy to hit the 57 (second) range for the first time,” the Hillsborough resident said. “It was just amazing.”
Amazing would be one way to describe Price’s burgeoning athletic career. Price only started running competitively in the sixth grade at Menlo’s lower school, having grown up playing basketball and soccer at age 4. But it was quickly evident that the 14-year-old wunderkind was on the path to running success.
To wit: Her time at the Junior Olympics would’ve put her in sixth place at this year’s Central Coast Section Championships. Pretty heady stuff indeed. But talking to Price over the phone, one gets a sense of a person who is well beyond her years, both athletically and mentally. Price’s precociousness is part of the reason why she put it all together in Sacramento.
Her previous personal record (PR) came three weeks ago at a regional meet in Modesto, where she clocked a 58.55. Price has improved her 400 time by three seconds from a year ago,which has impressed her middle school and club track coach Jorge Chen. Price actually entered Friday’s race with the 20th-best qualifying time, but she surpassed all expectations with a breakout performance.
To read the rest of this article, go to the following link (picture courtesy of Geoffrey Parker):
http://www.smdailyjournal.com/article_preview.php?id=137457&title=A+burgeoning+star
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