SAN DIEGO — When Molly Grabill was asked which she'd rather do, break the 10-minute barrier for 3,200 meters or win the California state championship, she didn't hesitate.
"I'd rather run 9:58," said the
Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) senior, quickly, rolling her eyes at the prospect.
Rancho Bernardo's Molly Grabill (left).
File photo by Kirby Lee
Then she was asked if that meant losing to runners like wunderkind Sarah Baxter, the ninth-grader from Simi Valley High who beat her in the California State Division I cross country championships, and Grabill hesitated.
She paused a little longer, mulling the question carefully.
"I'm really competitive and when you put it as losing, I don't know," Grabill said, reconsidering what would be a rare setback on the track.
Then she suggested that maybe the most fun would be winning the state title in something less than 10 minutes, the best of both worlds.
There have only been a handful — five — of high school girls runners who have cracked the 10-minute barrier but she and her coach Terry Dockery both think that under the right conditions, the smooth-striding 18-year-old who will attend the University of Oregon in the fall could join the list.
Grabill's in the right neighborhood if she wants to join an ultra-elite list. After all, she could talk to Tim Danielson, who is often credited with starting the running boom in San Diego after he became the second runner in high school history to break the 4-minute mile barrier when as a senior at Chula Vista High he sped to a 3:59.4 in 1966. That came two years after Jim Ryun of Wichita, Kansas, became the first, running 3:59.
That spawned some pretty fair distance runners like Olympic marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi of San Diego High on the boys side and 1987 Foot Locker National cross country champion Kira Jorgensen of Vista for the girls.
After winning the state 3,200-meter title last spring in 10:20.25, she and Dockery started pondering the assault on 10.
"We've talked about it," Grabill confirmed. "It sounds exciting. Up to now we've been real cautious but we've considered opening it up to see what happens. The conditions would have to be perfect and there would have to be great competition, so it would depend on who's in the race.
"During the course of the season, you only get a couple of opportunities. I know this, if I could get in a race and be pulled in a 9:50, I wouldn't care if I finished last."
Grabill knows it would be a very narrow window of opportunity.
So does Dockery, who has been a girls distance coach for more than two decades. While he likes a challenge as much as anyone, he tries to keep things in the proper perspective and has brought her along like a runner named Julie Manson 11 years ago.
Dockery held Manson back the first three years of high school, wanting her to drop time every year and then, like a frisky horse, turned her loose her senior year where she made a 25-second improvement, dropping her best to 10:36.83.
"That was good back then but times have changed," says Dockery. "Molly ran 10:20 last year and barely slipped into on the Top 10 on the Track and Field News list. That isn't why I think she has a chance to break 10."
It was Grabill's training heading into the state meet that got Dockery pondering what might have been last year and could be this season. Heading into the state championships, after taking a break midway through the season with a scary but not especially serious injury when she collapsed to the track during an invitational, her training pointed to a 10:08 to 10:10 time at the state finals.
But race day in Clovis, Calif., dawned hot, as usual, and the wind around the stadium was howling.
Grabill decided to see what the others in the field were going to do. So did everyone else and the pack crawled past the midway point in a pedestrian 5:17. Her patience gone, Grabill picked up the pace and while several runners stayed with her for a while, she negative split the race at 5:03.
Since she appeared barely winded at the finish, it was another indication that given the right circumstances, she could dip under 10 sometime this season.
"It would be tough, maybe impossible, to do it alone," she said. "What I went through last year, though, I know if the conditions are right I can do it."
Clearly, Grabill has other goals — like posting fast 1,600 and 800-meter times before starting to focus on the longer distance late in the season. And it is also obvious her world will not come to an end if she falls short of 10.
She is confident that Dockery can get her to that point and if the opportunity comes, she'll have a good shot.
"I trust him completely," said Grabill. "He has it all figured out and I'd trust him with my life. That's one thing I‘m going to miss."
Grabill doesn't get all choked up over the fact this is her final high school track season. She has been assured that the coaches at Oregon will be in touch with Dockery to make sure her transition will be a smooth one.
Dockery said he recognized Grabill was something special when she came out as a freshman to run to get in shape for soccer, never having competed with a club team but showing some decent speed in junior high runs.
It wasn't the speed, though, that impressed Dockery then and now.
"She was obviously talented, beyond the norm, but it was her willingness to be coached that was the key," he said. "Early on, she just went out and ran and really didn't know about who was good and who wasn't. The truth is, before a race she is probably more intimidated by who she's running against now than she was then."
But then that competitiveness kicks in and it's no longer a choice between a sub-10:00 or a state title. No, it's both.
