Girls relay team seeks repeat win

This month, St. Louis Express girls relay team starts a drive to repeat as national track champions. The girls won the midget 4x800 meter title at the 2005 AAU Junior Olympic tournament.

The team of Natalie Pattin, 12; Jazmine Johnson, 12; Kendra White, 13, and Courtney Powell, 12, will move up to the youth division this year. The track team is based in Florissant. But, club members come from a wide area and the four relay runners attend school in different districts.

Regular meet competition for the 2006 season starts in the first week of April.

The 2005 4x800 champions: (top row, l to r) Courtney Powell and Kendra White; (bottom row, l to r) Natalie Pattin and Jazmine Johnson

The Express team members will compete in about 10 meets in the regular season. Then, they must earn spots in the national meet through regional elimination meets.

In regional competition, the Express team will compete against athletes from Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Top four finishers in each event qualify for nationals.

Twelve-year-old Natalie Pattin said winning the national relay title last year was her best athletic experience. But, it certainly wasn't her first experience in national competition.

She got her start in track at age 7 by her father, Rickie Pattin, now one of the Express coaches. Mr. Pattin competed in track in high school and at Grambling University.

Natalie was in her first national Junior Olympics tournament that first year. And she's been a regular since then.

Last year, the 4x800 relay team was ranked first going into the nationals. They went on to win the finals at 10 minutes, 10.2 seconds in the 2005 meet in New Orleans. They were 15 seconds ahead of the second place team.

But, they'll have their work cut out for them as they move up in age.

Last year, the winning time in the youth division's 4x800 relay was 9 minutes, 40.08 seconds. That's about 30 seconds faster than the Express' winning time in midgets.

Express runners train with the conditioning coach from University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Natalie said they use both short distance sprints and longer distance running in practice.

"The sprints are to help us with speed for the finishes. The longer distances help us maintain our pace in the middle," the 7th grader said. She's is a student at Cross Keys Middle School.

Natalie said, for her, some of the hardest work comes "when we have to compete against each other in practice."

The Express runners are busy during meets. In addition to the 4x800 relay, the team also competes in the 4x400 relay. They finished fourth in last year's nationals, just 7 seconds out of first and only 3/10ths of a second from third.

In addition, Natalie was 5th in the 800 meter run, at 2 minutes, 26.72 seconds. That was less than seven seconds behind the winner.

Kendra White was 6th in the 400 meters, at 58.82 seconds. That was just three seconds behind the winner.

In the national meet, the first eight place finishers in each final get a medal.

This year's team is planning to qualify for nationals in both the 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays. Also, the girls are planning to qualify in individual running races.

The AAU Junior Olympic tournament is a big event, with competition in 26 sports.

Coach Pattin said there might be as many as 10,000 athletes participating.

The 2006 meet will be held at Hampton Roads, Va., from June 26 to Aug. 5.

Natalie said running the relays is more than just a question of speed. She said the coaches also use different strategies. Some coaches like to save their fastest runner for the last leg of the race.

However, Natalie said the Express team runs its fastest girls in the early legs. The idea is to get so far ahead in the first parts of the race that other teams' runners get discouraged.

Also, with enough lead, their final runner can run a steady pace and not have to make a frantic effort to catch up.

In the 4x800, Natalie runs the first leg and Kendra the second. Then, Courtney runs third with Jazmine running the final leg. In the 4x400, Kendra and Natalie switch places but Courtney and Jasmine run in their same positions.

The runners are going to be working hard for the next three-plus months to see if they can match--or even exceed--their success of last year.