As she took the final handoff for the girls 4×200-meter relay at the Oregon Relays on Saturday afternoon, Mia Brahe-Pedersen found herself with a nearly impossible mountain to climb.
Ma’Nia Tidwell of Wilson (Long Beach, California) had a three second head start in the final leg of the race. A rough handoff earlier in the race put Lake Oswego’s team behind and hope was nearly lost.
“I was really determined, then I realized the gap,” Brahe-Pedersen said. “I’m not going to lie, I doubted myself there for a little bit.”
Brahe-Pedersen, just a junior, is already Oregon’s top sprinter. She holds the state record in the 100-meter dash (11.17 seconds), is tied for first in the 200-meter dash (22.95) and is a leg on the Lake Oswego girls 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relay teams that is second all-time in Oregon history.
She’s a state champion, a national champion and has competed at the world championships.
So if anyone is going to win this race despite Tidwell already being halfway around the final bend, it was Brahe-Pedersen.
“No gap is too big. Don’t count yourself out and tell them it’s over. So I kept pushing. Kept pushing until that gap ran out.”
When Brahe-Pedersen started sprinting at full speed, the crowd at Hayward erupted. The gap closed and the cheers grew louder. Lake Oswego faithful in the southern end of the bleachers knew what was coming.
With 15 meters left, Brahe-Pedersen knew she had it.
Lake Oswego (which included Brahe-Pedersen, Riley Ha, Josie Donelson and Marina Turpen) finished the race in 1:39.86 — a new state record. Wilson was second in 1:40.00.
The previous state record in the 4×200-meter relay (which is not an OSAA-sponsored event) was 1:40.5 set by Benson’s Ashley Taylor, Brandi Probasco-Canda, Deborah Jones, Sara Callier in 2003. The Lakers are not yet done looking at the Benson records. The 2003 Techsters hold the state record in the 4×100 (46.53) and the 4×400 (3:49.97). Lake Oswego’s teams, both featuring Brahe-Pedersen, are both within a second of those times.
The 4×200-meter relay is a tough event for Lake Oswego, as Oregon doesn’t have it during the regular season. Brahe-Pedersen said she ran the event once last season and has done it a few times indoors.
Competing in the 4×100 and the 4×400, there’s different strategies for the two races since there’s a large difference in the distances. Brahe-Pedersen, obviously no stranger to running the 200-meter dash, said she just puts her foot on the pedal in the 4×200.
“I run it like a 4×100,” Brahe-Pedersen said. “I’m just aggressive and get out there. There’s no pacing involved.”
Brahe-Pedersen was a highlight all weekend at Hayward Field. In the 100-meter dash, she finished first in 11.35 seconds. She was first in the 200, with a time of 23.01. The Lakers’ 4×100 team of Brahe-Pedersen, Ha, Donelson and Turpen finished second in 47.15.
Last season, Brahe-Pedersen spent the year chasing the state records in the 100-meter dash. Churchill’s Margaret Johnson-Bailes set the previous record of 11.30 in 1968 and every time Brahe-Pedersen took to the track, everyone held their breath as they hoped for a record-breaking effort.
Now that Brahe-Pedersen holds the record, she said she is not just going to be able to coast. She said she puts more pressure on herself than anyone else does. Without chasing Johnson-Bailes’ time, Brahe-Pedersen is chasing her own.
“Now I have to bring my own (pressure) right?” she said. “I have to set a new standard for myself. And that’s probably the best thing I could have done for myself, because I need to keep striving for something bigger. For me, there’s nothing bigger that what standards I have for myself internally.”
And now that she’s a junior, Brahe-Pedersen said her biggest change in 2022-23 was a higher level of confidence than she’s had in the past.
“More confidence,” she said. “Just knowing that I trust my training and if I do my thing, I can do whatever.”
— Nik Streng, nstreng@oregonian.com, @NikStreng