JEFFERSON CITY - When your name's Tianna Valentine you just gotta have heart.
The Hazelwood East junior sprinter does. In spades.
She's got speed, too. Lots and lots of speed.
In case anybody was skeptical about how fast Valentine was, she demonstrated it yet again Friday and Saturday at Lincoln University. After winning four medals at state last year as a sophomore, Valentine proved that was no fluke by doing it again. She won the 100, took second in the 200 and anchored relays to first- and second-place finishes.
"She was a beast," said McCluer coach Phil Wollbrinck of Valentine, who is the North County Journal Athlete of the Week. "She impressed me more than anybody out of the conference."
She impressed herself, too.
"I'm happy, of course," she said of her effort at state. "My times went down a lot."
As if her performance in the 100 final wasn't impressive enough – Valentine flirted with the state record, running 11.69 seconds – she appeared to take flight in her anchor leg of the 800 relay soon after. She got the stick with a nice gap between her and Raytown South's Amiris Warren. However, Valentine was able to beat Warren to the tape and give East a big win.
"I just had to get it," said Valentine. "Regardless if I was tired, I just had to get it."
"She tried so hard because she wanted the team to improve its performance over last year," said East coach Linwood Barnes, whose team finished fourth again as it did in 2010.
"We did improve point-wise (from 34 to 41)."
Valentine was a big reason for that. She later helped the 400 relay to a solid runnerup finish despite the fact that there was a bad exchange between the second and third legs. Valentine finished her weekend of racing by placing second in the 200, crossing the line .08 of a second behind Nerinx Hall's Peyton Chaney.
"I was tired," said Valentine. "I ran all day. I ran my hardest all day. (Chaney) deserves it also, and I do, too."
Although Valentine didn't reach her goal of being in four winning events and getting a team title, she still was smiling when the meet ended.
"It went well," she said. "It could have gone better, but it went well. We came close."
Another one of her goals – setting the state record in the 100 – went unfulfilled. This year, that is.
"I came close to it," she said of the 11.66 state mark held by Muna Lee, who is a world class sprinter now. "I should hopefully get it next year."
Barnes thinks she will. She ran a 11.58 at one point during the spring – that was the fifth fastest time in the country by a high school sprinter this year – but didn't qualify as the state record since it wasn't at the state meet.
"By sometime next year, she might be close to 11.4 in the 100 and the 24.2 range in the 200," said Barnes. "I'm going to give her more rest time. I'm thinking about taking her out of the (800 relay) and putting her on the (1,600 relay)."
Valentine, who will compete in the Great Southwest Track and Field Classic soon, is excited about that.
"I love the 400," she said.
Barnes loves that Valentine's not a senior.
"I'm happy she's got one more year so we can try to make a run at a state championship," said Barnes.
