Mill Creek runners excel in distance races

Mill Creek Middle School’s track team is typically known for its sprinters and hurdlers, but this year two of the top distance runners in the conference were part of the team.

Eighth-graders Allison Baerny and Sergio Saldivar emerged as leaders of the team this season, both on and off the track.

“Our distance hasn’t always really been a standout but this year has been totally different,” said Kami Terris, co-head track coach at Mill Creek. “We had a strong group of distance runners led by these two (Baerny and Saldivar). It was fun to see our distance group getting stronger.”

Terris said with more than 100 students on the team and only three coaches – Jeff Kuolt, serves at co-head coach alongside Terris, and Donald Miller is an assistant – having experienced runners like Baerny and Saldivar is helpful.

“Kids like Allison and Sergio help us out huge because they’re always encouraging their teammates and helping their teammates get better,” she said.

Mill Creek wrapped up its season with the Kent-Tahoma Conference meet on June 2-3 at French Field.

The girls team came away with the title at the conference meet for the third year in a row, in addition to a first-place finish in the league. The boys team placed sixth at the conference meet and finished second in league standings.

“They still had a very good season,” Terris said of the boys team. “I will give a lot of credit to Sergio. He was definitely a leader for that team.”

Saldivar finished second in the conference meet in the 800 meters and mile, sixth in the 400 and 15th in the long jump. He is ranked second in the country in the mile with a time of 4 minutes, 40.1 seconds, 16th in the U.S. in the 800 with a 2:09 time and eighth in the state in the 400, with a personal best of 54.85.

On the girls side, Baerny finished first in the mile and 800 with personal records of 5:40.34 and 2:33.33 seconds, respectively. She placed sixth in the 400, setting a personal record of 1:05.78 in the prelims the day before.

All in the family

Distance running runs in the family for Baerny. Her older sister, Olivia, is a top distance runner for Kent-Meridian High School and both her parents attended college on track and field scholarships. Baerny’s father, Todd, still holds several records in distance events at K-M. Baerny’s mother, Lisa Kaye, volunteered as distance coach for Mill Creek.

“I was running before fourth grade, but fourth grade was when track started so that’s when I started it, but I had been running with my dad and my sister and brother because we are kind of a running family,” Baerny said.

The Baerny family has left its mark on Mill Creek’s track program, Terris said.

“In our school records it is interesting because her (Baerny’s) sister is No. 1 and she is No. 2,” Terris said.

Baerny has always liked distance running.

“I like the fact that you have time to think about it,” Baerny said. “There is so much strategy in it. With sprinting you are just going as hard as you can. With distance it is all mental. You could be a really good runner but if you don’t have strategy, you’re not going to win.”

Terris said Baerny was like a coach to many of the girls on the team, encouraging them to do their best.

“We didn’t have that many girls running distance,” Terris said. “She (Baerny) would help her teammates at practice. She would run at maybe a slower pace so that she could help them increase their time.”

Baerny said she enjoyed the camaraderie on the team.

“We’re all like a giant family and I love that,” she said. “All my friends this year that I’ve had I made during the track season last year.”

Baerny said she will miss her Mill Creek coaches next year.

“They are just always really encouraging and they push us to be our best,” she said. “Even when kids don’t think they can do something, they have them try it just to see if they can do it and it turns out they can do it and they are really good and end up loving it.”

Baerny said she plans to participate in cross country and track at K-M and looks forward to running with her sister, who is a sophomore.

“All of the other teams have groups of girls that are running together and my sister really hasn’t had anyone,” she said. “I am going to be up there with her so we are going to run with each other and kind of work with each other…. She’s not going to want me to beat her and that is going to push her more.”

Baerny said she hopes to get her mile time under 5:20 during high school and would like to follow in her parents footsteps by getting a college scholarship for track.

Multi-sport athlete

As an all-around athlete, Saldivar faces a dilemma when it comes to which sport to play.

His favorite sport is baseball, which conflicts with track season. Last year, Saldivar started out with track but quit to play baseball.

“I felt bad when I quit, so this year I promised myself not to quit any sport,” he said. “So now I am doing (club) baseball and track at the same time.”

Saldivar started running in fifth grade, and began running distance in middle school.

“When I first ran the mile here I noticed I got 4:52 and I just decided to do track since I had a good time,” he said.

Despite his success on the oval, Saldivar doesn’t plan to run track in high school.

“People told me I could get a scholarship in track but baseball is my favorite sport so I am just going for baseball,” he said. He plans to play football during cross country season.

Terris said she believes Saldivar could have a successful track career if he decides to continue in the sport.

“He could probably play any sport and be the best athlete but we are trying to convince him to do track and cross country, only because we think he would have a better chance of getting a scholarship,” Terris said. “Although he may get a scholarship in anything he does because he works extremely hard… Ultimately, you want to leave it up to the kid and what the kid wants to do, but he is very talented.”