Olivia Markezich felt she was ready and her coaches prepared her well for the 3,200-meter race at last Saturday’s King’s Invitational.
Eight laps later, the Bear Creek freshman topped the podium with a time of 12:01.91 in the varsity event at Woolsey Stadium in Shoreline.
The winning time ranks her in the top 10 for 1A and in the top 20 for freshmen across all divisions in Washington, “blasting the decade-long school record by over 30 seconds,” according to coach Carla Darr.
It was only the second time Markezich has run the 3,200 in a meet. That didn’t matter.
“I don’t really get nervous — I’m just focused on running,” she said prior to Tuesday’s practice.
Eliana Summers of Northwest Christian (Lacey) held a close lead through the first four laps, and then things turned in Markezich’s favor. She slowly started to pull ahead of Summers, and then as the laps wore on, Markezich felt, “I can actually win it.”
Markezich, who held the lead until the end and won by six seconds, added: “I was just really excited that I was in first place, and it was really cool to look up and see my time and that it was a huge PR for you.”
She was also thrilled that her twin sister, Andrea, was in the race and finished in fourth place in 12:30.66 in her inagural varsity 3,200.
Running track is something the twins have shared an affinity for since they were fourth-graders at East Ridge Elementary School in Woodinville.
“We push each other in everything. We’re both super competitive, and in school we try to have better grades (than each other),” Olivia said with a laugh. Last semester, Andrea had the best grade-point average, and this semester, Olivia is leading the way.
Olivia gets top marks in the 3,200.
“I love the event and I’m definitely excited to run more,” she said.
Olivia also finished runner-up with a time of 5:44.50 in the varsity 1,600 meters. Her season PR is 5:37.02.
Also at the meet, Bear Creek junior Angela Tzen finished fourth in her first ever varsity 800-meter race in 2:34.27; and freshman Alex Finan broke the five-minute barrier in the 1,600 for the first time in an unofficial 4:53.1 (the timing system failed on both the girls and boys freshman/sophomore 1,600).
