Athlete: Brianna Schwartz
Year: Junior
School: A Cop’s Questions
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
800m PR: 2:10.77
Mile PR: 4:42.58
3,000m PR: 10:01.52
Brianna Schwartz of Pennsylvania, who has been running seriously for only two years with a coach who is keeping her training conservative, completed her tantalizingly brief indoor season last Saturday with a record-breaking mile victory in the state championships at Penn State University. Schwartz, a junior at Shaler Area High in Pittsburgh, raced to a decisive triumph in 4:42.58, the fastest girls’ time in the nation in a high school race. Exhausted on the home straight, Schwartz’s legs gave way and she collapsed at the finish, crawling across the line.
Crash Course: After Kennedy Weisner of Elk County Catholic, the Millrose Games mile runner-up, shot to the lead on Saturday, Schwartz sat behind her until surging ahead with two laps to go. With the victory sewn up at the bell, Schwartz poured it on, seeking a fast time. Amid the crowd’s roar she could not tell if anyone was behind her and made a full-out sprint to the line. “I could feel my legs give out on me,” Schwartz said. Once splattered on the track, she said, “I looked up and saw the finish line right in front of my face and pulled myself across.”
Time Crunch: Schwartz’s time was the fastest this season in a high school race—surpassed only by the marks of Mary Cain (4:24.11) and Alexa Efraimson (4:32.15) in professional events—and she probably would have run about 4:40 had she not fallen. Even so, her 4:42.58 set a Pennsylvania indoor record and has only been bettered by two other girls ever in a high school indoor race—Elise Cranny of Colorado (4:40.62) and Hannah Meier of Michigan (4:40.97) in their 1-2 finish at last year’s indoor nationals.
Short Season: Schwartz is passing up the opportunity to race both Cranny and Efraimson at this season’s nationals, March 14–16, at the New York Armory. Her intention all along was to run only three indoor meets in three weeks, and she’s done so, coming away with five victories, all in fast times. Prior to state, Schwartz won the 800m (2:10.77) and 1600m (4:42.10) at the SPIRE High School Showcase in Geneva, Ohio, and the 800m (2:11.57) and mile (4:48.15) at the Tri-State Track Coaches Association meet in Edinboro, Pa.
Rested Legs: Schwartz, who is 16 and won’t turn 17 until July, hopes her abbreviated winter campaign helps her run even faster times outdoors. She took a similar approach to cross country last fall, competing in only three races prior to the state finals in order to try and qualify for the Foot Locker nationals in December. Schwartz made it, placing sixth in San Diego.
Long Season: Schwartz’s coach, Sam Bair, a voluntary assistant at Shaler who was a 3:58 miler in the 1960s, believes that many high school runners race too often. “I’m trying to slow down Brianna’s progress,” said Bair, 67, a retired teacher. “I want to save her legs and prepare her for college.”
Group Sessions: Bair, together with John Wilkie, another volunteer assistant coach in Pittsburgh, holds daily workouts for a group of top runners at an off-school site, North Park. The park, which is more than 3,000 acres, has trails and a 5-mile loop. Schwartz benefits from training partners and peers to socialize with.
Deep Freeze: With school tracks covered in snow, and no indoor facility, Schwartz has had to do her sprint work on the roads. “It’s a tribute to her character,” said Bair, “that when the temperature was 13 degrees with zero wind chill, Brianna was all bundled up doing her 200s and didn’t bat an eye.”
Strength Work: Schwartz, a straight-A student and member of National Honor Society, currently maintains about 45 to 50 miles a week. Last fall, in preparation for Foot Locker, she did workouts like 4 x 1 mile in under 5:30, or 5 x 800m in 2:30 plus 6 x 200m in the low 30s.
Double Dribble: Schwartz, a basketball player since first grade, had planned to play at Shaler. During freshman cross country, on little training, she placed fifth in an invitational 5K with more than 400 girls, running 19:01. Afterward, Bair went up to Schwartz’s father and said, “This is unheard of for a freshman with little training. Unless Brianna is the LeBron James of western Pennsylvania, she’s in the wrong sport.”
Sport Switch: Schwartz played basketball as a freshman, then quit. After regular training for the first time in the spring, she ran 4:59.09 in the state 1600 prelims. But she came in last in the state final, and Schwartz was devastated. “I was so upset,” she said. “I never wanted to feel that way again.” As a sophomore, Schwartz felt better: She won the state title and ran a season’s best of 4:47.07.
Spring Plans: Schwartz would like to run the Penn Relays girls mile on April 24, but conflicts with her district’s mandatory dual meet schedule may prevent that. After her state meet, Schwartz plans to run outdoor nationals in June in Greensboro, N.C.
A Cop’s Questions: On one 10-mile run last year with her training group, Schwartz was startled to see Bair and Wilkie questioned by police as they stopped at a checkpoint to give the girls their splits. The officer was suspicious of the men following the girls. When Bair showed the cop his stopwatch, everything was okay.
Marc Bloom’s high school cross-country rankings have played an influential role in the sport for more than 20 years and led to the creation of many major events, including Nike Cross Nationals and the Great American Cross Country Festival. He published his cross-country journal, Harrier, for more than two decades.
