BY DAN STICKRADT
CORRESPONDENT
dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com
Twitter: @LocalSportsFans
HUDSONVILLE — Chloe Abbott is not shy by any stretch.
She can sing. She can act. She has great stage presence and has quite an outgoing personality.
And boy can she run.
The Northville senior enjoyed “the best day of (her) life” June 4 when she claimed a pair of individual state championships, anchored another state championship relay and placed on another relay to help her Mustangs finish third overall at the Division 1 state finals with 50 points at Hudsonville High School.
“She’s an amazing athlete,” said Northville co-coach tim Dalton. “You look at what she did in the (1,600) relay. She’s a born competitor to be able to make up that much ground.”
Abbott, who ran with Morgan Kloosterman, Yasmine Affes and Lindsay Walters, received the baton in 1,600 relay in fifth place and quite a distance behind the leaders. The Purdue-bound Abbott chased down the front pack to help her team win in a photo finish with a 52.9-seconds split. The Mustangs clocked 3:50.581 to post an upset by three one-hundredths of a second.
Favored Oak Park, the defending champs in the event, clocked 3:50.584.
“It means so much, to be able to do this for my team. I’ve never done something like this before,” said Abbott, who owns a multitude of school records for Northville, including the 100, 200, 400, 800 relay and 1,600 relay. “I just knew I had to do it.”
Abbott sang a championship tune in the 200 meters (24.03) and 400 meters (53.10), while anchoring Northville’s 800-meter relay unit to a fourth-place finish (1:41.31) to emerge as the top performer at the D-1 state meet.
In the 200, she dethroned three-time state champ Sekayi Bracey of East Kentwood. In the 400, she surpassed defending state champ Taylor Mason of East Lansing during the final 100 meters of the race with another stellar performance.
“I could have never imagined this,” said Abbott. “I mean winning three events this way…it’s a special feeling.”
Dalton said her state finals performance will be legendary.
“We told her that she’s not only one of the best in the state, but one of the best sprinters in the country,” he said. “She’s going to the Big Ten for a reason.”