“I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW that I had gotten the record when I crossed the line because it wasn’t even a goal of mine going into the race,” says Mia Brahe-Pedersen (Lake Oswego, Oregon) of her HS indoor 200 record 22.89. “I walked off the track and one of my coaches is just like, ‘Hey, nice national record!’ And I was very taken aback because I was not expecting that.”
At New Mexico’s Kirby Elite Invitational on February 10, prep junior Brahe-Pedersen had dashed a lap of the track to place 2nd to Oregon soph Jadyn Mays’ 22.86 finish. Her unexpected result clipped an impressive 0.08 from the record then Mississippi high schooler Bianca Knight set back in ’07.
To hear the 17-year-old junior talk about her sprinting, one gets the immediate impression that here is someone who though she works very hard for success, keeps getting amazed that her legs are moving her faster and faster.
She is hoping to build on her smashing sophomore season, in which she continued to make a name for herself. (The name, by the way, is pronounced “bra-hey” and, she adds with a laugh, “I want people to know my name is spelled with an “en” on the end and not an ‘on.’”)
She hit outdoor bests of 11.25 and 22.95, plus a pair of windy 11.09s. She finished 2nd in both sprints at the USATF Juniors, and then made both finals at the World Junior Championships in Cali, Colombia, placing 7th in the 100 before her 4th in the 200.
Two races stand out to her, the 11.09s. The first one came at her State Meet, with a 3.2 breeze, as she won the title by 0.21. “When I ran that race at State,” she explains, “I ran with a few of my close friends and it was overall just a really amazing experience. I was surrounded by really good people.”
The second came in the USATF final, with a 2.7 wind: “Arguably making Team USA with the same 11.09, could have been No. 1.” But the State performance, emotionally, meant more to her, she says. Ironically, she got some of her biggest local headlines from a different race, her preliminary round at USATF, where she produced her PR 11.25. That took down the 54-year-old state record of 11.30 that Margaret Bailes had set at the Mexico City Olympics.
With a legal wind in that final, Brahe-Pedersen most likely would have gone faster than her prelim time. “We’re thinking it…
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