14.58 in the trials. 14.28 for the record in the Semis.
(Photo by Karen Ward)
Two-time Class 2A 100 meter high hurdle champion Lindsay Dolan said something unique when interviewed by a group of reporters after collecting her gold medal at Shippensburg last Saturday.
"My coach once told me I hurdle like a dancer," the Center High senior said.
It turns that's because she used to be one. Beginning at age three and for about 12 years Dolan did ballet, jazz and tap dance.
"When dancers take off they flow through the air," said hurdles coach Dave Drake. "We have a saying that you hurdle the hurdle, not jump it. Although she's fast and powerful she's also graceful."
But at 5-11 Dolan is also uncharacteristically tall for a hurdler and since taking up the event six years ago has had to learn how to keep herself graceful.
"Most people say I have an advantage but it's harder because I have a shorter space to get my legs over the hurdles," she said.
Yet over the past four years Dolan has been able to put everything together. Her freshman year she failed to advance out of the preliminary round, her sophomore year she finished second and then last year she took gold.
According to Drake the goal this year was to break the state record of 14.37 set in 2000 by Cassie Richards and tied in 2004 by Jasmine Rogers when Rogers beat Dolan for the win.
Dolan ran 14.01 in the finals, however she was one of several unlucky victors who were told their times were wind-aided. But Dolan did luck out because she had run a legal 14.28 in the semis. So the record is now her's.
"As soon as I passed the line I flashed back to all the hard work I put in," Dolan said on Saturday. "I had broken the record and that was enough for me."
Drake finally let the record set in when he watched her race on Sunday.
"As a coach I don't really get to watch her run," he said. "I never doubted she could get the record but it's overly amazing. When you think that she has a record in the state that's pretty phenomenal."
Next up for Dolan is the junior national meet in Indianapolis and then it's off to East Carolina University on a full athletic ride this fall. She plans to major in speech language pathology.
Dolan isn't just good at the high hurdles, she also took eighth in the 300 intermediate hurdles and competed in the high and triple jumps. The soon-to-be graduate also played soccer and softball in her younger days.
So she said her new coach plans to take advantage of her versatility by having her compete in the heptathlon as well as the 100 hurdles.
"She's adventurous," Drake said. "She's bugged us about trying the pole vault and javelin. I'm sure she could do well in just about anything."
14.01w in the finals. (The record of 14.37 had been shared Cassie Richards '00 of Winchester-Thurman
and Jasmine Rogers '04, of Quaker Valley)
(Photo by Karen Ward)
