JOHN O'MALLEY

Post-Tribune

Bailey Beckham glanced at the proposed event participants sheet two days before her track meet and couldn't believe her eyes.

Her seventh-grade coach at Taft Middle School, Sharron Hilliard, had written her name in to compete in the 400-meter run.

"I wasn't a 400 runner and had no intentions of being a 400 runner, but my coach needed girls in the event so she put me in that race," said Beckham, now a freshman competing at Crown Point for coach Lindsay Hattendorf.

"I was really nervous because I had never ran that race. My coach just threw me in there to see what I could do."

Beckham was used to running the 100 and 200 dashes, and maybe a relay.

She was so worried about competing in the 400, she could barely sleep for two nights.

She went to the track with her mother (Jill) in her spare time and practiced running the 400. She wanted to make sure she was as prepared as she could possibly be to run the 400 for the first time.

Beckham not only ran the race well, she won.

"Ever since that day, I've been focusing on the 400," she said. "It's a really tough race, but I like it, because it's fun. I still get nervous before the 400 and I still don't really know why. I guess it's because it's the race I know the best, and I just try to do what I know best."

Beckham, an honor roll student in advanced placement classes, has turned plenty of heads on the track already this season.

In a Duneland Athletic Conference meet last week against Valparaiso and Merrillville, she ran the 400 in 60.78, narrowly finishing second to Vikings' star, Blaney Keough.

The time is impressive when you consider she was running in the wind tunnel created off I-65.

"I'm thinking, if the weather permits, where it's not windy, who knows what she can do," Hattendorf said. "She's a freshman and just learning everything, but if everything goes right, I don't see any reason she couldn't run a 58, or 59."

Beckham placed fifth out of 24 competitors in the 400 (61.0) and also helped the 'Dogs to a fifth-place finish in the 1,600 relay at the prestigious Lawrence North Midwest Invitational Saturday.

Crown Point's 1,600 relay team, with Beckham as the anchor, could eventually be good enough to qualify for the state meet.

"Bailey's efficient and has a great work ethic," Hattendorf said.

"She's young and still developing, but talented. She's going to keep getting better and improving. She's a competitor. Day in, and day out, she evaluates herself after she runs. She comprehends and absorbs everything. She definitely wants to get better.

"She's transitioned from middle school very well and she's exceeded my expectations, which is great."

Beckham said her aunt, Merrillville Assistant Athletic Director Amy Beckham, is one of the many relatives and friends who support her.

"She's always encouraged me and been with me all the time," Bailey said. "She tells me to always go for my best. She's always told me that it's me against the clock, so go for your personal best. I follow that advice all the time."

 

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