Lake Oswego’s Mia Brahe-Pedersen continued her red-hot pace on Friday at the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays, coming away with four first-place finishes, four event backpacks and a new wind-aided personal best.
While the temperature was high on Friday afternoon in Beaverton, so was the wind during the girls 100-meter dash. Brahe-Pedersen clocked a 11.07 in the event, but a 3.2 meter/second gust of wind put an asterisk on the time.
The finish is an all-conditions state record, which was previously 11.09 set by Brahe-Pedersen at the state championship meet last spring.
The state record in the 100-meter dash is 11.17, which Brahe-Pedersen set at the Arcadia Invitational in California earlier this season.
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Mia Brahe-Pedersen backpacks at Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays 2023
Brahe-Pedersen was also a leg of the Lake Oswego girls 4×100-meter, 4×200-meter and 4×400-meter relay teams on Friday.
The Lakers finished first in all three events, with Riley Ha, Brahe-Pedersen, Josie Donelson and Marina Turpen winning the 4×100 in 47.43 and the 4×400 in 3:51.32. In the 4×200, Ha, Brahe-Pedersen, Donelson and Naomi Robinson won in 1:40.51.
None of those marks were good for state records on Friday, but they were close. The Lakers already have the state record in the 4×200 (1:39.86) which they set at the Oregon Relays a week prior. The state record in the 4×100 is 46.53 and the 4×400 is 3:49.97, both set by Benson in 2003.
“Going in, all of us have been working really hard and really trying to come together as a team and as athletes. Every meet gives us an opportunity to do just that,” Donelson said. “I’m really proud of us. Every time we get out here, we’re tired and we leave it all out there. We try our best and you can see the results come from that. It’s awesome.”
The Lakers have experimented with different rotations in the relay teams in recent weeks. In the 4×100 and the 4×400, Brahe-Pedersen was moved to the second leg after usually sitting at the third leg. Experimenting with the order has been successful for the Lakers. Between Brahe-Pedersen, Ha, Donelson, Robinson and Turpen, 13 backpacks were won for first-place finishes.
“Things seem to be working,” Donelson said. “We’ve been exploring different ways to our training and different orders. So with that, I will say that things are working pretty well so far. We’re just going to definitely see how this goes and work up until the big meets coming up.”
The Lakers girls relay teams have had a serious two weeks, featuring competition at the Oregon Relays at Hayward Field and the Nike/Jesuit Twilight Relays a week later. Brahe-Pedersen said the two weeks of strong competition has brought the Lakers relay teams closer together.
“For me, it’s just kind of realizing that we have to always have each other’s back and support each other,” Brahe-Pedersen said. “We’re not always going to have perfect races and we have to support each other regardless and come together as a team no matter what the circumstances are.”
— Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng
