Cambridge Christian School's Mary Ellen Eudaly and Caroline Lehman made the trip all the way up to North Carolina on Saturday night to race against some of the nation and Southeast's fastest when it comes to the 3200 meter run in the Dash for Doobie event held at Ronald Reagan High School in Winston-Salem.
Eudaly was coming off a breakthrough US #3 and state leading 4:47 1600 meter run last week in St. Petersburg, while Lehman had a great indoor season including establishing the Florida state record for two miles (10:20) and winning the adidas Indoor Nationals 5K title (16:53).
In a crowded and loaded field that was strung out thanks to the hard pace set from the onset by one of the US high school all-time greats at the 5K and 3200/two-mile distance in Jenna Hutchins, the two teammates from Tampa found themselves running together inside the top 5 for the majority of the race.
It was not until the end and the final lap that Eudaly was able to create a gap between her teammate Lehman to finish third overall behind Hutchins (9:52) and North Carolina's top runner in Carmen Alder (10:07) with a brand new personal best time of 10:17 chopping off 27 seconds from her season-best (10:42) and 11 seconds off her personal best from a 2019 FSU Relays performance (10:28).
Lehman was a great kick and final 400 meters away from joining Eudaly under 10:20, but didn't have it at the end on this evening to finish in fourth place with a respectable time of 10:28 and just off her 10:27 season-best in a victory at Bolles Bulldog Classic. The two runners from Cambridge rank second and third respectively in the state of Florida behind only state record holder Caroline Wells (10:10) of Winter Springs.
The remarkable thing to note about the top three ranked girls right now in the state of Florida at the 3200-meter distance is that they are all juniors, so we will have 2022 as well to see how fast they can drop their times.
Teammate and junior Moriah Freedman joined them on the trip to the Tarheel state with a personal best effort of 11:31 to finish 42nd overall from a slower heat in the meet.