Even if she is the last to realize it, take it from others, Chesterton sprinter Allie Anderson is ‘so fast!’ and will compete in two events at the Portage girls track and field regional Tuesday

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Reenacting what she did when she had the girls run sprints during workouts, Chesterton volleyball coach Lindsay Nibert tracked her widened eyes to the right and dropped her jaw.
In her mind, Nibert was watching Allie Anderson darting ahead of the pack, leaving teammates in her jet trail.
“My jaw would literally drop,” Nibert said. “She is so fast!”
And then she used her jaws to impart a message to Anderson: “You should run track,” she would tell her, meaning in addition to volleyball, not in place of it.
So Anderson signed up for the first time this spring as a sophomore. The speed shown in one sport doesn’t always translate to the track. In Anderson’s case it certainly did. She’s seeded sixth in the 200 meters for Tuesday’s regional meet at Portage.
Anderson’s 26.32 at the sectional meet earned her a callback after she placed fifth in by far the fastest sectional for sprinters of the four that form the Portage regional. She didn’t make the field in the 100 but has run as fast as 12.75 in her first year sprinting.
Anderson said that the first hint that she might be blessed with unusual speed came in volleyball workouts, but even then she thought that might have had as much to do with “always pushing myself hard,” as anything else. No, some other girls might have been pushing themselves just as hard, they just didn’t have quite the same horsepower.
Anderson said nothing in her childhood suggested to her she had exceptional speed.
“I would race my dad and my older brother (Alex) sometimes, but they always beat me,” Allie said.
So, Anderson came into her first season of track with low expectations for herself.
““I didn’t think I’d do too well because I hadn’t really run too much,” she said.
She’s a much better sprinter then self-forecaster.
The only upside to not making the regional field in the 100 meters is that she will be afforded a rare opportunity to watch her favorite runner burn down the track, and not from behind this time.
Senior teammate Kenedi Bradley’s 12.02 seed time makes her the favorite.
“She’s my idol,” Anderson said of Bradley. “I want to be as fast as her one day. I just love watching her.”
Bradley also is seeded first in the 200, based on her 25.02 at the sectional.
The other four sprinters seeded ahead of her also run for DAC schools: Brianna Fincannon (25.25) and Mia Smith (25.55) of Valparaiso, Merrillville’s Sanye Williams (25.58) and LaPorte’s Kyria Zapaia (25.75).
“I told Allie, she’s seeded sixth, you never know what can happen. You never know,” Chesterton coach Lindsay Moskalick said.
Bradley will anchor the third-seeded 4X100 relay and the 4X400, the No. 6 seed. In order, Lilly Duracz, Anderson and Avah Rajski will join her in the shorter relay, McCrovitz, Aubrey Bamber and Daisha Lewis in the longer one.
Hannah Haring, Evie Fortney, a freshman teaming with three sophomores, Natlie Williams and Paige Clancy are seeded fifth in the 4X800 relay.
Other regional qualifiers competing Saturday and their seeds:
400 meters: No. 8 McCrovitz.
300 hurdles: No. 8 Russell Harper, No. 14 Lux Mountford.
1600: No. 8 Clancy, No. 11 Fortney.
3200: No. 3 Natalie White seeded third, No. 12 Natascha Lepinasse.
800: No. 4 Haring, No. 10 Taylor Kisic 10.
Pole vault: No. 8 Claire Thomas.
Discus: No. 15 Alina Micchia.
Long jump: No. 11 Bamber, No. 15 Haney.