FAYETTEVILLE — Amanda Dillon knows she has a tough decision to make soon.
It’s not about her college choice because the Springdale Har-Ber senior track standout has already signed a national letter of intent with Baylor. What she must figure out are her plans for the Class 7A state track meet, which takes place May 7 in Fayetteville.
Will Dillon run in the 400-meter dash or the 800? Or will she try to do the unlikely and run both events?
“I’m going to make my decision soon, but I don’t know that yet,” Dillon said Saturday after she ran the 800 at the John McDonnell Invitational.
Dillon is certainly a capable runner in both events, as she proved last weekend. She won the 400 with a season-best time of 56.37 seconds Friday, then came back to win the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 13.25 seconds on Saturday.
She already owns the Class 7A state meet record in the 400 with her 55.75 time last year, but she still has her sights set on the overall record of 55.54 set by Springdale’s Paige Farrell in 2004. Dillon ran a 55.55 on the Fayetteville track during last year’s Bulldog Relays, and she ran a 55.20 during a meet last summer in Albuquerque, N.M. — a time not recognized as a state record because the Arkansas Activities Association only allows records to be set during state meets or the Meet of Champs.
But now the 800 has entered the picture. Dillon’s time in that race Saturday is better than the 2:14.71 that Fayetteville’s Amanda Agana ran to set the Class 7A state meet record last year in Cabot.
This performance came just two days after Dillon was medically cleared to run at full speed after she had knee surgery done in January. She already cut more than 5 seconds off her season-best time, and she needs to cut 7 more seconds off in order to threaten the overall state record of 2:06.44 set by Jonesboro’s Katya Kostetskya during the 2003 Meet of Champs.
The only thing that has Dillon worried is the timing involved in doing such a feat. At the state meet, she would run both events on the same day, and there is only one event — the 300 hurdles — between the 400 and the 800, meaning little time for her to regain her wind.
“I don’t know if it’s literally possible for me to do both events,” Dillon said. “I want to, but we’ll see. It might be hard, but I might be able to do it.”
If Dillon needs any inspiration to pull it off, she could turn to the story of Kostetskya and what she did during the 2003 Class 5A state meet in Hot Springs. I saw that event, and I took some time to share that story with Dillon and her family during a break Saturday.
Kostetskya, who later ran for Texas State and competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics for her native Russia, won the 300 hurdles in 41.57 seconds — an overall state record that still stands today. She then returned to the track with limited rest and ran the 800 in 2:15.33, a time that stood as the Class 7A state meet record (and still stands as the Class 6A state meet mark) until Agana broke it last year.
Dillon plans to run both the 400 and the 800 this week at the Kansas Relays, with her decision still up in the air. Of course, it would already be settled if her younger sister had her way.
Julianne Dillon, a freshman on Har-Ber’s track team this spring, admits she has one good reason why Amanda should focus on only the 400. The younger Dillon also runs the 800 and wants a better chance to finish higher, especially since she finished more than 8 seconds behind her older sister Saturday.
Henry Apple can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @NWAHenry.