MEET OF CHAMPS : 15-year-old Russian rolls to a record time
BY PETE PERKINS ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
CABOT ? Runners are accustomed to time trials, solo attempts against the clock without competitive concerns. They are usually run instead of practice, on afternoons after school or work. Few people observe ? perhaps a handful of teammates and a coach with a stopwatch.
Jonesboro sophomore Katya Kostetskaya ran two time trials Wednesday night.
The setting was atypical of such efforts.
Kostetskaya, a 15-year-old native of St. Petersburg, Russia, won the 100-meter hurdles and the 800-meter run at the Arkansas High School Meet of Champions. But all she, her coach and most of the other 1,000 people at Cabot?s Panther Stadium cared about was her times.
The most notable obstacles in either of Kostetskaya?s efforts were 10 33-inch high hurdles. Only those white, wood-and-aluminum barriers, and a wind from the north would challenge her in the first of her trials.
Nothing would in the 800.
Kostetskaya broke the Arkansas girls? high school record in the 800 by 7.30 seconds. She won in 2 minutes, 6.44 seconds. Bryant sophomore Brooke Higgs finished second in 2:18.23.
"That was good," Kostetskaya said. "I was just hoping to run faster than I had indoors."
Kostetskaya had the best high school time in the U.S. in the indoor 800 at 2:07.57. She now has the best time outdoors, surpassing Mackenzie Pierce of Lewisville, N.C., who ran 2:06.67.
Kostetskaya led the field by almost 20 meters after the first turn. She went through 400 meters in 62 seconds, a bit slower than her coach, Tatyana Bell, had requested.
"We wanted a 60, so that was too slow," Bell said.
As Kostetskaya turned into the homestretch, the crowd roared. Athletes on the infield sprinted toward the rail.
"Is she awesome, or what?" said Springdale?s Paige Farrell, who earlier broke the state record in the 400.
"I was pleased with her time," Bell said. "We would have to be happy with the best time in the U.S."
Kostetskaya said she had no idea how much faster she could run, or what other records might fall to her.
"I?m not sure," Kostetskaya said. "But I love this. This is what I do all of the time. I love to run."
She said competition could help.
"It?s not easy to run alone," Kostetskaya said.
"It was like a time trial," Bell said. "She needs someone to push her."
An hour and 10 minutes earlier, Kostetskaya slid over the hurdles in nearly perfect rhythm and won in 14.84. Sylvan Hills sophomore Sadrina Shaw finished second in 15.38.
Shaw appeared in contention until the fifth flight of hurdles, when Kostetskaya began to pull away.
"[Kostetskaya] is awesome," Shaw said. "I?m glad she?s not running the 300 [hurdles]."
Russellville?s Whitney Anderson, who defeated Kostetskaya at the Cabot Panther Relays last month, was disqualified with a false start.
Kostetskaya set the overall state record in the 300 hurdles at the Class AAAAA preliminaries at Fort Smith Southside on May 9. Her time of 41.57 broke the record by 2.57 seconds.
"If not for the wind and the rain that fell, she could?ve broken the 100 [hurdle] record, too," Bell said.
Kostetskaya also qualified for the Meet of Champs in the 100 and the long jump, but skipped those events and the 300 hurdles to improve her chances of a record performance in the 800.
Kostetskaya came to the U.S. as a 13-year-old sophomore in 2001 at the invitation of Bell, a friend of Kostetskaya?s mother from their days as international track and field stars in the former Soviet Union.
Bell, the former Tatyana Zelentsova, married Bill Bell, brother of Jonesboro native and former pole vault world recordholder Earl Bell. The Bells live in Jonesboro and share their house with Kostetskaya and Kostetskaya?s mother, Olga Dvirna.
Kostetskaya?s record was not the only one at the Meet of Champs.
Mount Ida junior Stephanie Irwin pole vaulted 12 feet to break her own record of 11-10 1/4, which she set last year. Jodie Mayes, a junior from Fayetteville, finished second at 11-6.
Farrell ran 55.88 seconds to win the 400 and break the overall record of 56.14, set by Pine Bluff?s Inetta Lee in 1984.
There were three other double winners. Fayetteville?s Wallace Spearman won the 100 and 200, Russellville senior Chase Feltner took the 1,600 and 3,200, and Isiah Rucker of Camden Fairview won the shot put and the discus.