Morgantown WV Senior, Who Earned Eastbay All-America Honors Last Year, Picked Out A Goal And Stuck To It During Breakout Spring And Was Rewarded With 9:50.72 2-Mile At Brooks PR Invitational
By Mary Albl of DyeStat
Photos by Zeth Peterka
It’s not easy for a high school athlete, especially one the elite caliber of Irene Riggs, to turn down an opportunity to compete at the prestigious Millrose Games.
But during her first indoor track season in January, Riggs was notified the Millrose Games had an open spot in the esteemed Girls High School Mile.
The world’s premier indoor track and field event held annually at New York’s The Armory, communicated to Riggs that if she could hit a certain time in the mile, the spot was hers.
Yet Riggs, a junior from Morgantown High in West Virginia coming off a cross country season that saw her earn All-American honors at the Eastbay Cross Country Championships, had something bigger in mind with a goal more than four months down the line.
“She was really anxious because this is Millrose calling you, saying, ‘We got a spot for you if you can run this time,’” Morgantown head coach Mike Ryan said. “We had the conversation, ‘Your goal is Brooks PR and if that’s really what you want, let’s keep focusing on the training and not adjusting to chase a time to just go to an indoor race.’”
That decision to stay the course was worth it.
Riggs arrived in Seattle, Wash., in June for the Brooks PR Invitational 2-mile. On an overcast late spring afternoon at the University of Washington, Riggs ran the race of her life, clocking a junior class record and No. 2 all-time outdoor mark of 9 minutes, 50.72 seconds after being edged by recent graduate Dalia Frias of Mira Costa High in California, who prevailed in a national prep outdoor record of 9:50.70.
“It was really hard because these things (Millrose Games) are super fun and you want to be able to do them, but at the end of the day, it’s also realizing there are sometimes bigger goals and sometimes you have to stay on track and not get distracted,” Riggs said. “It was hard, but worth it.”
Riggs, now a senior, has a chance to again do something special on the trails this fall as one of the top returning runners in the country.
Morgantown will get a big early test Oct. 1 at the Great American Cross Country Festival at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C.
“She wants to come in and win the state championship again and go to one of the big national races, and in…
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