Shawnee grad Kristen Niedrach blew away her 800 PR by more than a second Thursday evening at the Stumptown Twilight Invitational in Portland, Ore.
Niedrach ran 2:07.85 off a slow-ish early pace, out in 64.2 and back in 63.6. Her previous PR was 2:08.88 at the same meet two years ago in July of 2019. Although she PR’d at 1,500 meters earlier this spring with a 4:22.06 at the Portland Twilight meet at Griswold Stadium in Portland in April, this was her first 800 since August of last year, when she ran 2:11.47 in a meet at Nijmegen Atletiek, Atletiekbaan Brakkenstein, Nijmegen.
Niedrach’s time is fastest this spring by a South Jersey high school graduate, a fraction of a section faster than Sterling graduate and University of Virginia junior Sydney Coppolino, who ran a personal-best 2:07.96 three weeks ago in Raleigh, N.C.
Niedrach graduated in 2012 from Shawnee, where she had PRs of 2:21.55 for 800 meters at the 2010 Group 4 sectionals at Egg Harbor and 5:01.86 for the 1,600 when she won the state Group 3 indoor title at the Bubble in Toms River.
Niedrach competed collegiately for Cornell, where she ran 2:10.28 and 4:22.45
competes these days for the Bowerman Track Club in Portland.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 