Highland's Lauren Ellsworth turned in some pretty fast times her freshman and sophomore years in the 1600 and the 3200 but the 800 was HER race. A PR of 2:13.45 as a freshman set her on a pace to break the Arizona State Record.
Last spring as a junior Lauren had a breakout year and started the season with a 2:12.03 800 at the Basha Co-Ed relays. Two weeks later at the Hohokam Invitational she popped a 2:10.97.
Wednesday night at the Arizona State Meet her coach clocked her at a sub 2:07 during the final leg of the 4x800 for a Highland win.
Saturday night at the finals she toed the line next to Dani Jones (Jr., Desert Vista) who had recently PR'd in the 800 with a time of 2:09.24. It was a race everyone was waiting for.
Jones led for 500 meters until Ellsworth unleashed a kick giving her the win and a new State Record of 2:07.61. The old record of 2:08.61 was set by Natalie Johnson (Xavier/Notre Dame University) in 2007.
Lauren was having an outstanding 2014 cross country season until the October break when she tore her ACL in a non-running accident.
To the heartbreak of many who love watching Lauren run, her cross country season ended and possibly her track season. She had surgery the day of the the cross country sectionals but showed up at the Arizona XC State Championships a week later. According to her coach Monty, if she could have run with crutches - she would have.
We are all hoping for a speedy recovery!!
Lauren will be running for BYU next fall.
