Abby Miller placed 11th in the 800m Championship Final at Nike Indoor Nationals with a 2:14.74. She also placed 12th in the 400m with a 57.08.
An Inconvenient Triple
Last year, we discussed the risks involved in attempting the 400m and 800m in the same meet during championship season. Last May, seven tried but only one, Dwayne Morris of Austin-East, came away with a state title. With some meets spanning multiple days and with the number of heats exceeding 20 per gender at certain events, during indoor season it's a little easier to dabble in both distances successfully. This was the case for Summit High School's Abby Miller who, after Nike Indoor Nationals, is ranked #1 overall in the 400m with a 57.08 and #2 overall in the 800m at 2:14.74. One may look at indoor times as a preview of what's to come during outdoor season, but for Miller, she may not focus on either of these events because the event that separates these in the order, the 300m Hurdles, was her best ranking last spring.
Last May, she won the Section 3 Class AAA 300m Hurdle title (above) and likely places top three in the event had she not fallen on the 2nd to last hurdle at the state meet. She returns this season ranked #4 overall. It's just a very unique situation where an athlete with high state rankings across a spectrum of distances is in such a predicament she may only take to the track in one event. Even the 200m dash (which she raced 6 times in 2022) would be a difficult double with only the 800m between that and the hurdles. The likely possibility is she transforms into a true hurdler for outdoor taking more of a focused approach on the 100m distance but she's only raced that event once in high school and it was a 17.01. So while some may have concrete plans for the next two months I imagine Miller's will be more fluid and I'll be curious to see which events she's competing in week to week.
