Columbia River freshman Lucy Ianello gets her kicks on track

To her friends, Lucy Ianello is a standout soccer and a blazing fast distance runner.

To Columbia River distance coach Josh Christensen, she was unknown going into the season.

In fact, it took some nudging from her friends to get Ianello, a freshman, to even come out for track.

Boy, are the Chieftains glad she did.

Her speed and confidence were on display on Friday, when she won the 1,600 by four seconds and the 800 by five in front of a home crowd at Columbia River’s John Ingram Twilight Invitational.

Those wins helped the Chieftains to a second-place team finish.

By the cool, collected look on her mid-race face, it would have been hard to predict the reason she almost didn’t join the track team two months ago.

The idea of competing against so many talented upperclassmen seemed daunting to her.

“It was so nerve-racking for me,” Ianello said.

Nevermind that Ianello, a defender for River’s soccer team last fall, has already started in a 2A state soccer championship.

She added that notch in her belt just four months after beginning high school.

The individual aspects of track were more daunting than a sport where she shares the field with 10 teammates.

Plus, soccer is more familiar to her. She’s played since age four. She started running track in sixth grade.

But Ianello cooled her nerves by reminding herself that as a freshman, the stakes might not be as high.

Whatever expectations there were, she shattered them.

She walked away from her first high school meet — a March 15 jamboree with Hockinson and Fort Vancouver — with two first place finishes in the 1,600 and the 800.

Ianello was sold.

“After (that) I was like, ‘I really like this,’ ” she said.

A week later, in a more competitive Tiger Invite, she finished fourth and fifth, respectively, challenging the very upperclassmen that gave her pause before the season.

If she’s nervous, Christensen said, she doesn’t show it.

That sure appeared to be the case on Friday.

During the first two laps of the 1,600, Ianello stayed with the pack. During the third lap, she made her move.

In the bell lap, she separated.

Not far behind her was Washougal’s Amelia Pullen, who had won the 3,200 an hour earlier.

Ianello heard supporters yelling for Pullen, and others behind her.

That fueled her.

“It’s best to hear the people around you screaming, ‘go, Amelia!,’ and to everyone else,” Ianello said. “It’s kind of like, oh, I need to go faster. It’s motivation.”

It shows how far she’s come since she ran her first timed mile in a sixth grade P.E. class. She won that too, of course.

But ask her if she was a good runner back then, and her humility shows.

“There weren’t a lot of runners who were sure what they were doing yet,” she deflected. “But I was like, ‘this is what I want to do.’ ”

Her personal best in the 1,600 to this day came in sixth grade, when she ran a 5:26 — a second faster than her time Friday.

She also finished the 800 in 2:28.33, beating her personal best by half a second.

Before the season started, Christensen did not know who she was. After all, she played soccer as opposed to running cross country, which he also coaches.

Midway through the season, “Now we know where she is,” Christensen said.

Ianello’s performance helped the Columbia River girls finish second with 110 points. Kelso’s five first place finishes led to a meet win with 123 points.

Washougal showed out on the boys’ side. The Panthers won with a 160 team score and seven first place finishes — Ryan Davy and Troy Prince-Butterfield each tallied two of them.