| March 2002 Newsletter |
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Molly - Dudette - It's Been Just Sick!!!
I don't know about you, but I've been transfixed on two different athletic feats of wonder this winter: the Salt Lake City Olympics and Elmira Notre Dame's Molly Huddle.
24/7, I find myself thinking about Jimmy Shea, Apollo Anton Ohno, Sarah Hughes, those cat-fighting bobsledding gals -- and Molly. In fact, after a while everyone and everything just becomes melted into one big X-Games movie inside my brain. So, excuse me if I've picked up some snowboarder/aerialist slang talk ,while I tell you about Molly.
Maybe we couldn't get tickets to the Games, but some of us got ring-side seats inside Barton Hall for the Molly Olympic Games.
Molly "Big Air" Huddle, and dad/coach Bob Huddle, came to our January indoor all-comers meet to lay down some attitude in the 2-miler and one mile races.
The girl, 4th at Footlocker XC nationals, looks like a choir girl, but soars like an F-16.
She put the landing gear down on the Barton oval -- twice!! First she won the 2-miler overall in 10:19.8, then juiced the mile in 4:56. Both times were No. 1 performances in the U.S. by a high school girl this season (the 4:56 has since been surpassed -- for now!). The bigwigs who keep the record books accepted our results. Sweeeeet!!!
At that time, Molly thought she was preparing for the Millrose Games scholastic mile, but she was soon barred from participating in that by NYSPPHSAA rules, way too complicated to explain here. (No fault of hers, though.)
Let's just say, most of us thought she would have won that Millrose Mile, and left a girlie yard sale (translation: leave arms, legs and spikes scattered all over the track) on that famed New York City track.
Molly, Bob, mom Kathy and twin sister Megan all returned for our February meet. Molly's McTwist (trick) was gonna be the 1500 meters and another No. 1 seasonal U.S. best. We lined the track to watch Molly roll down the windows. It would be tight!
Molly stood on the half-pipe, side-by-side with the fast dudes, like masters dude Casey Carlstrom, high school dude Tom Hammer, N.D. classmate dude Andy Cloke ("Why do they keep calling me Clark?") and scribe-on-the-run and baddest dude of all -- Adam Engst. It was clear from the gun, Molly would be taking the bad boy line to the finish.
Wow, Molly was lookin' liquid! Going through the 1,000 in sub-3 -- a time which would win States, she slammed the dinner roll down on the plate, and toasted it.
Molly finished in 4:22.1 -- the second fastest 1500 meters ever recorded by a high school girl. Who owns first since 1978? Some sick chick named Lynn Jennings, who put a 4:18 into the dusty pages of gal sports history.
Put that triple lutz on your curly sheet! And add a No. 1 U.S. season's best 9:31.97 3,000 meters to the swingy ice, which Molly ran at Sunday's GVH track meet.
We wish you the best Molly girl, when you go ridin' goofy in the mile at the Nike Invitational March 9-10 in Landover, Md.
Molly, this has been one sick trip. We'll have to hook up and do it again!
-- Diane Sherrer
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