Meet Report: 2023 Mountain Laurel Invitational

I was back in Sewanee, Tennessee this weekend for the Mountain Laurel Invitational. Last year, I set my 200m personal best at this meet, so I was excited to see what I could do here.

My back has been feeling much better since the Stanford Invite. All that’s left is occasional stiffness, weakness especially when loaded up in the weight room (I’m still not over ~50% of my old maxes when deadlifting and squatting), and seemingly worse hip proprioception at max speed—my hips have been a lot more anteriorly tilted after the injury.

I didn’t have a great week of training leading up to meet day—I’m back to working out extremely early, which definitely takes adjustment, and I had just completed the ~25 hour drive from Montana to Tennessee the previous week. Meet day, on the other hand, was pretty much ideal: mid-60s, sunny, and with a slight tailwind.

100m: 10.81 (+1.2) (video)

• I had a pretty tentative start, after watching a girl in the heat before me faceplant because her blocks weren’t properly clamped down into the track.
• I felt much better at max speed than at Stanford, pretty much back to my old self.
• In the last 20 meters, as I ran out of steam, I overstrided to compensate for the lack of force production. I’ll have to keep that in check in future meets.
• I finished second in my heat and second overall in the meet.
• 10.81 is the third-fastest wind-legal time I’ve ever run.

200m: 21.82 (+1.1) (video)

• This time, in my practice start, I almost face planted. The starters didn’t let me get another practice start in, but were kind enough to let somebody sit on my blocks.
• That considered, I had a good start, and quickly gained the stagger on the athletes to my outside.
• I floated through the second half of the curve, and didn’t run out of gas through the end of the race. In fact, I probably floated a bit more than I should have.
• I finished first in my heat and overall in the meet.
• 21.82 is the fourth-fastest time I’ve ever run.

Overall, this was a great bounceback meet for me. I’m happy to be back in the ballpark of times I ran last year. With a few meets left in the season, I’m hopeful that some really fast times are in store!