By Richard Smith

West Valley Preps

The top two girls athletes on the Ironwood track team entered their senior season with big goals.

Following an early-season injury, however, one of those dreams will have to be deferred.

Senior Allison Mooney won the state heptthlon meet as a junior last April. This is not an official AIA event or title but follows the normal seven- event heptathlon program.

But Mooney tore her ACL during the Eagles’ season- opening meet Feb. 28. She will miss the rest of the season and had surgery Tuesday, saying she hopes to return to the track after six months of rehab.

“I’m just going to work my butt off with rehab and physical therapy. I tore three ligaments in my ankle four months ago and had surgery on that, toward the beginning of volleyball season and I just kept playing through it. That recovery was expected to take longer. So I’m hoping to be blessed with a quick recovery so can I can come back and be stronger,” Mooney said.

Her injury casts a larger spotlight on fellow senior Mikaila Lockhart, the program’s top distance runner. Lockhart finished fourth in the Division II 3,200-meter race last May.

Ironwood coach Rich Antal said the concentration was originally on the 1,600 meters (one mile) and the impressive 3,200 showing was a bit of an unexpected byproduct. The school 1,600 record, in the 5 minute and 14 second range, remains the goal this year.

“I think she has a lot of grit. That’s a work you don’t hear much anymore,” Antal said. “She has the attitude to listen to what her coaches are telling her, and then she has the grit, which sometimes you can see in her face that she’s hurting but she’s still pushing as far as she can go.”

Lockhart is rejoined by her sister, Kylie, also a senior distance runner who took last year off.

The Lockhart sisters will run track and cross country at Paradise Valley Community College. Mikaila said that school’s impressive track history was a major draw.

“We have a really good support system. We are always encouraging each other,” Mikaila Lockhart said.

She said she did not think she would place in the top five or set the school record in the 3,200 at state last year. But Lockhart did both, finishing with a time of 11:30.42.

The competition in that race helped push her, and will again. Champion Abi Archer or Scottsdale Chaparral and runners up Rachel Turner (also of Chaparral) and Alania Kautz (Gilbert Campo Verde) also are back.

Antal said with that in mind, Lockhart ran more often in the winter.

“They help me a lot. They’re kind of my goal. I strive to run with them,” Lockhart said. “I’m going to try to fous more on the mile (1,600) this year. I hope the team improves. It’s really cool to see everyone get better.”

Much like Lockhart’s performance in the 3,200, Mooney’s heptathlon win the week before was a major surprise.

In her younger years, Mooney competed in triathlons and pentathlons. But the 2017 (unofficial) state meet marked her first (official) heptatlon.

“Track was my first main sport, before volleyball. I’ve been running since I was 9. I always knew I wanted to try the heptathlon because I wasn’t really good at one event, I was kind of good at all of them,” Mooney said. “That was the first heptathlon I did. I knew the previous state champions and those girls were insanely good, so I never thought it was a possibility to win it. It was super overwhelming when they announced I was the winner.”

An experienced high jumper and hurdler from her early years of track, Mooney said the 800 meters was a struggle for her. She nearly lost a 400-point lead in the meet’s final event.

“I don’t run. I jump and I kind of throw but running is not my favorite thing. That was rough. This season I was going to train to be a 300-meter hurdler so I could get my endurance up in preparation for the heptathlon,” Mooney said.

Her best option, she said, is the University of Northern Colorado. Womens track coach Amanda Schick doubles as a top heptatlon coach, and told Mooney the school is not backing off recruiting her, even after her injury.

If finances do not work out for four years, Mooney said she may attend Glendale Community College for the first two years.

In the meantime, she is acting like an extra coach for the Eagles’ jumpers and hurdlers.

“She helps out and works with other kids on events she has done. They look up to her a lot,” Antal said.