Schools

McIlroy Finishes Summit Winter Track Season As County, State Champion

Gillian McIlroy's primary race is the mile and it's no surprise why. Here, Summit Patch's Athlete of the Week talks about this season, her teammates and her high school running career.

Junior Gillian McIlroy just finished a strong season with the Summit Girls’ Winter Track team.

A member of the team at Summit High School since her freshman year, McIlroy primarily races in the 1600-meter run. She says her strategy is to try and stay with whoever is in the front and that seems to be working well for her.

McIlroy placed 2nd in her heat and 21st overall in the mile run at the Meet of Champions last Saturday with a time of 5:12.31. She also ran 5:13.13 in the 1600-meter run at the State Group Championships, placing 7th overall, and placed first at the Union County Championships on Jan. 20, running the mile in 5:15.13. She was also a part of the first place Distance Medley team at counties.

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But McIlroy pulled out her best performance of the season at the State Sectional Championship in early February, where she placed first in the mile with a time of 5:09.50, her best 1600-meter run time for indoor track this season.

“I wanted to try to break 5:10 in the mile indoor [this season] and I did,” McIlroy says. “It was a big accomplishment to win the mile at sectionals. It wasn’t a goal of mine but that day, I said ‘I want to win this.’ I hadn’t thought of it before because I thought I was running the 3200 [that day].”

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McIlroy is no stranger to winning big.

During her cross country season last fall, she broke 19 minutes in a 5K race with her team. She also won her 2nd straight Union County Title and led her team to its 4th consecutive Union County Title.

“It felt good. We really just wanted to win it as a team again because there are always teams that could possibly win it and we lost a couple of the varsity runners to graduation last year,” McIlroy told Patch. “JV also ran well that day. There were a bunch of personal records.”

McIlroy joined the cross country and winter track teams during her freshman year. Although she played Lacrosse growing up, she decided to stick with running by joining the spring track team instead of the lacrosse team.

Despite a hip injury that took her away from the track last season, McIlroy says she’s feeling well right now and plans to compete in the 800, 1600 and 3200 meter races this Spring.

She says her family is very supportive of her high school running career. However, she says the people who influence her the most are her teammates.

“If you see your teammates running really well, I’m like, ‘I want to run really well,’” McIlroy says. “We always motivate each other during practice and in meets. We’re really close. My team is really nice and supportive, and my coaches are really supportive.”

After graduation in 2014, McIlroy says she plans on running in college but she hasn’t decided where yet. However, McIlroy knows she wants to stay in the northeast.


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