Running a New Record: East’s 4x1600M record for track was broken for the first time since 2002

Senior Kate Kowalik exploded off of the starting block, racing toward her teammates junior Grace Meyer, freshman Lida Padgett and senior Grace Strongman. They were cheering her on while preparing to be thrusted the baton for their mile sprint. Before Kowalik finished the first mile, they’d already envisioned shattering the 4x1600M East record. 

As the runners lapped around the track — precisely marked with lanes and distances — their coaches’ ebullient claps and their parents’ enthusiastic cheers filled the air as Padgett crossed the finish line completing the final leg of the race. 

“Everyone was pumped of course, but we were all confident going in that we could do it,” Strongman said. 

Kowalik, Meyer, Padgett and Strongman broke the record during the April 9 track meet at SM Northwest with a 22 minute and 22 second final time.

The runners broke the 24 minute and two second girls 4x1600M relay race record previously set in 2002 by a minute and 40 seconds. 

“Our sport is a lot of work and basically every other sport’s punishment, but crossing the finish line and seeing the improvement in your final time makes all the time we spend training worth it,” Meyer said.  

Kowalik set the tone for the relay by getting a headstart in the first mile and freshman Padgett finished up the race as the anchor.

The girls individually took part in a number of other events along with the 4x1600M such as the 400M, 4x400M, 800M, 4x800M, 1600M and 3200M runs after they’d finished their record-defining relay event. 

However, the 4x1600M is unique in that the event is only held once every season since it requires such a large block of time out of the already six-hour-long meet. 

Kowalik, Meyer, Padgett and Strongman were the only girls team to participate in 4x1600M out of all the Shawnee Mission schools present at the track meet, making themselves their only competition for the ‘02 record. 

Their race was combined with the boys’ 4x1600M race, since they were the only girls team competing in the event. However, they weren’t running against the boys, just alongside them on the track. 

“Having other teams on the track can really boost your motivation, even if you aren’t necessarily running against them,” Kowalik said. 

All four runners practice for two hours six days a week, did off-season training and ran cross country together in the fall to stay in shape for track season, which is their main sport and priority.

The girls find the most difficult thing about track to be the races that don’t turn out as well as they’d anticipated, which can be detrimental to team morale. 

“We only have so many opportunities in a season to do what we love and when that doesn’t work out a time or two, it can be really frustrating,” Strongman said. 

The team and community mentality of the sport is what the girls consider to be the most motivating aspect of being a track runner. According to Strongman, this particular track season the “distance squad” — the group of track runners who take part in races over a mile — has enjoyed running and being there to support one another because of last season’s abrupt end due to COVID-19. 

“It’s so satisfying to cross the finish line even a second faster in each new race,” Strongman said.  

Improvement is also a huge motivator that the girls’ training is geared toward in diligently studying their times and continuing to work hard during extra long practices. 

“Once you finish a race you really just want to die, but once your time starts to improve and begin to break records, it starts to ease that feeling,” Padgett said. 

Because of their extensive training and ability to work well together, the team went into the meet confident that they’d be able to set a new record time for the 4x1600M race. 

According to distance coaches Tricia Beaham and Rikki Hacker, Kowalik, Meyer, Padgett and Strongman are all easy to coach and run well together because all four of them are equally passionate and driven when it comes to the sport. 

“They all understand that whenever we point out areas to improve on it’s not personal, but ultimately to make them better runners,” Beaham said.

The girls’ parents and coaches take immense pride not only in that they’ve all made the Varsity track team every year they’ve run for East, but also that they’ve set the standard for future female track athletes.