Pair blisters two-mile record

The first day of District 8 track and field came to a quick end.

At least the quickest 3,200 meters ever run at this meet.

State leader Amy Dahnke ran the best two-mile of her life – and lost.

Sensational Mt. Spokane sophomore Megan O’Reilly pulled away in the final 800 meters to destroy the District 8 record with a time of 10:33.68, five seconds faster than Rogers star Jessica Fry (10:39.5) ran 10 years ago. Their times were among the top 30 all-time, O’Reilly now 14th on the state prep list. Dahnke’s 10:41.80 ties her for 27th.

“I have no idea (why),” O’Reilly said breathlessly. “I just felt really good. Oh my gosh! All I can say is God gave me a lot of strength. Oh my gosh! I didn’t know I was going to do that.”

O’Reilly and Dahnke, a senior at University, ran together for six laps. They were side-by-side after one with Dahnke a step ahead for the next five. Then O’Reilly swung out and surged into the lead, opening up a four-second advantage after the seventh lap and winning by eight, which still gave Dahnke a PR by about 10 seconds.

Though disappointed, Dahnke is still ready to battle.

“It’s the first time I’ve had competition since two months ago almost,” she said. “It’s good to get good comp in the two-mile. I know now not to lead. I’ll learn from it. It will be fun tomorrow (in the 1,600).”