Four laps.
That’s all an 800-meter race is on an indoor track. A lot can happen in those four laps. Runners can start strong and fall off or they can stay conservative and have a strong finish. Sometimes runners trip and take a punishing fall that they can’t recover from.
Other times they are laser focused and hit the splits that have been drilled into them all season.
“I’m running and running, and I hit my pace for the first 200 meters,” said senior bio-chemistry major Ellie Loch on her performance in the 800-meter race at the 2016 indoor conference championships. “And then we came through the 400 and [the clock] said 68 [seconds] and I’m like ‘wow we’re going fast’ and I just kept going,”
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Loch has been a member of the women’s track & field team all four of her years at Waynesburg. As a bio-chemistry major she has to balance a full class schedule with going to practice.
Loch said it hasn’t always been an easy task, but one that she has improved on since coming here according to head coach Michelle Cross.
“I don’t understand how [Ellie] does all the stuff that she does,” said Cross. “Throughout the years we’ve discovered that less [mileage] is more with her.”
Cross said that Loch is the type of person that really gives her full attention and puts her faith in the coaching staff. This is not always a guarantee when it comes to the type of athletes that coaches see.
“She’s incredibly trusting and willing to do what you ask,” said Cross. “And it’s taken a while to figure her out.”
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With just 400-meters left, that’s all Loch had before the race was over. With a quarter mile left she still had a lot people to pass. A quarter mile to prove that she was the best. A quarter mile that would define her career.
“As I’m running, I just had this feeling that the people in front of me are not going fast enough and I can go faster than them,” said Loch. “So, I just started passing people.”
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Loch has won awards for performing well in middle distance running, but this is not the only event that she excels in. Throughout her time at Waynesburg, she has competed in almost every event on the track and even a field event or two. Within the last year, they had her train for sprints during the indoor season and have her run the 3,000-meter steeplechase during outdoor.
“She can do everything,” said Cross. “She can go and not train for it and still score in steeple every year.”
The versatility of an athlete like this is rare and plays a huge role in the success of the team, according to Cross. During the 2018 indoor championships, Loch proved her capabilities once again. She competed in a wide variety of events where she posted a seventh-place finish in triple jump, a sixth-place finish in the 1600 and 800-meter runs and was a part of the 4×400-meter relay which placed fourth.
“There are certain areas that are very stacked,” said Cross. “So, you can swing someone into an area that is not as stacked, you can pick up points and you can do it with an athlete like her and its very rare.”
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The last 100-meters. It all came down to this. Just one last push and the finish line is there.
“I passed the last person with a 100-meters to go,” said Loch. “And I was like ‘well there is the finish line I’m just going to run.”
She was now in a clear first, but the race wasn’t just against athletes from the conference. There was another opponent that Loch had to face: the clock.
“I remember going around the last turn and thinking I might be able to go under 2:20,” said Loch. “I didn’t but it was that moment of ‘oh my goodness I actually might be fast.’”
The time wasn’t there, but what was there was a PAC title in the 800-meter run. A race that solidified her legacy at Waynesburg.