By John Raffel
Alyssa Vandegriff made sure she left her high school track and field career in championship style.
The Fowler senior played a key role in the team’s drive to another Division 4 title with a 71-63 margin over second-place Pittsford.
She took a pair of first places, a second and a seventh in the state meet on June 1 at Jenison. Vandegriff won the 100 hurdles in 50.12 seconds with a personal record of 15.17 seconds. She won the high jump at 5-2. She was seventh in the 300 hurdles (50.12). She anchored the 4×200 relay, which was second (1:47.30).
Vandegriff had won the high jump three straight years and the 100 hurdles two straight seasons.
“I was definitely excited to see what was going to happen at the state meet,” she said. “But I was also very worried because I looked at the rankings at all of my events and the people ahead of me and I kept comparing my times to theirs,” she said. “I was worried with how I would compete.”
Vandegriff felt she exceeded some of the expectations.
“It was a matter of me battling myself each race and pushing myself to get better and better,” she said. “There was competition in my meets earlier in the season.”
She won the high jump again but Vandegriff didn’t feel it was her best season in that event.
“But for the 100 hurdles, I definitely believe this is the best season I’ve had,” she said. “The key is practice and a lot of repetition and working on getting a form over the hurdles and stepping, and racing in between each hurdle.”
Winning a team state title was a sweet highlight for Vandegriff.
“I definitely think we met people’s expectations,” Vandegriff said. “Personally as a team, we were very nervous on where we would place in each event. We’ve had some amazing upperclassmen come through.”
She also competed in basketball and cross country.
“Track is definitely my best sport,” Vandegriff said.
She’ll be running track at Central Michigan University.
Fowler, “has prepared me a lot for the next level,” Vandegriff said. “College is definitely going to be a step up from where I’m at now.”