On April 19, Hailey Sellers ‘27 broke the girls’ 800-meter school track record with a time of 2:12.40. The record was previously 2:14.40 and was set by Adeline Johnson ‘23. On May 10, her teammate, Farah Allen ‘27, ran a 4:48.13 in the 1,600-meter, crushing the previous record (also set by Johnson) of 4:53.91 by over five seconds.
Sellers was surprised that she was able to get so close to the school record, let alone break it, but felt excited about the accomplishment.
“When I broke it I was truly astounded, my jaw literally dropped. I was so happy,” said Sellers.
Sellers thinks that her success is thanks to the strength of her coach’s program, but also credits Allen.
“Having Farah push me and encourage me has helped so much,” she said. “She works so hard and is always pushing me to finish each rep with energy. Her love for running is really inspirational.”
In April, Allen ran a 1,600-meter time of 4:53.92, one-hundredth of a second away from the record. Afterwards, she felt determined to break it.
“It would mean a lot to me,” she said. “As a freshman, my goal was just to break five [minutes] by senior year, and now that I’m under five minutes, I would love to break the record.”
Now that she has accomplished her goal, Allen hopes that she will continue to get better, improve and grow.
Sellers and Allen are also a part of two Branson girls relay teams, the 4,000-meter distance medley relay and the 4×800 relay. Along with Maya Gidney ‘28 and Imogen Brown ‘25, they have raced times that are currently in the Top 10 fastest times in California. At the Stanford Invitational, the relay team raced the 4,000-meter distance medley relay and finished with a time of 12:06.87, the fifth fastest time in the state.
Both Sellers and Allen believe that much of their relay team’s success stems from the close bond they developed while running cross-country together in the fall. All four of them were scorers on this year’s girls cross-country team, which placed first at the Division 5 CIF championship.
“We’ve known each other for a while through cross-country, and it’s just a strong group,” said Sellers. “We’re all really good friends, which I think helps a lot.”
She also thinks the support and encouragement they all have for each other are important to their success.
Allen emphasized the importance of the team spirit and sense of community in track and field: “Everyone has to be close to one another and everyone has to be running for the team rather than themselves.”
Sellers said, “Even though track is somewhat of an individual sport, I think it’s super important that everyone truly wants everyone else to do their best.”
As the regular track season comes to an end, Sellers hopes she can make it to the CIF state championship meet individually in the 800-meter race and with the 4×800-meter relay team, but she knows it won’t be easy.
“We have to be in the top two in all of NCS to qualify, which is hard. We are third right now, and the team in front of us is five seconds faster, so it depends on a lot of things, but I’d say that would be the goal,” said Sellers.
Allen said that losing seniors, like Brown, will be hard on the team next year. “It’s going to be a big loss, but I think everyone needs to take on the responsibility the seniors have and continue to bring the good vibes they brought,” she said.
