Lauren Cleary
Lauren Cleary came close to not even competing in track and field this spring.
She ultimately decided against playing soccer because of her love for running.
And that’s a decision that coach Tim Simpson and the Lansing Catholic girls track team are more than happy with.
Cleary has followed a strong freshman cross country season with a strong one on the track. She heads into this weekend’s Division 3 regional with some of the best times among Division 3 girls in both the 3,200 and 1,600 runs. Cleary clearly owns the state’s fastest time in Division 3 in the 3,200 (11:00.93) and ranks 10th in the 1,600 (5:19.30).
“I had expectations to run fast,” said Cleary, who was voted the latest Lansing State Journal prep athlete of the week. “My two former teammates who normally push me in cross country season don’t do track. I definitely was looking to kind of help the team and just run pretty fast times.”
Cleary has done just that, recently breaking the Lansing Catholic school record in the 3,200 meet during a meet at Shepherd with her time of 11:00.93. That broke a record previously held by Megan Heeder, who went on to run a Notre Dame.
“It’s really awesome,” Cleary said. “I’ve been really working hard at practices. I wasn’t really going into the season thinking about breaking records. I was definitely just trying to stay in shape for cross country. I didn’t think it was really going to be a big season. Once I started racing more, my coaches knew that it was probably going to be a possibility and we just never really thought about it. At that race, it was perfect weather and I had really good competition. Once I did break it, it was a really cool night and a good experience.”
Simpson said Cleary has exceeded his expectations with what she has been able to accomplish in both cross country and track in her debut year of varsity competition.
“I think we expected her to do well,” Simpson said. “There’s a big barrier between middle school and high school and the kids have got to get over it too. There’s more pressure, the meets are bigger, there’s a lot of people at the meets. She’s just performed well in those situations. That time she ran (at Shepherd) broke the school record that was held by Megan Heeder and she was all-state three years and went on and ran at Notre Dame. She broke that record in her first year of running in high school. That’s pretty impressive.
“I don’t think I expected her to necessarily go out and run that fast. I wouldn’t have said ‘No, there’s no way,’ but you’re not going to expect that.”
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
Lansing State Journal prep athlete of the week