In her first 800 of the indoor season, U.S. champion and state record holder Natalie Dumas of Eastern ran just 5-100ths of a second off her indoor PR in beating a loaded field at the U.S. Marine Corps Holiday Classic at the Armory.
Dumas, who set the South Jersey indoor record of 2:07.68 this past March at Armory Nationals on the same track in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, won the race in 2:07.73.
Dumas was out in 31.58, took command of the race with a second lap of 30.67, then came back in 32.42 and 33.08.
She finished 20 meters ahead of two runners from an all-star team located in Scotch Plains. A freshman who lives in New York State but competes for the Scotch Plains all-star team was second in 2:11.37. Five girls ran under 2:14.
Dumas set the state outdoor record of 2:00.11 at West Philly Nationals, where she also won the 400-meter hurdles in 55.99 and 400 in 51.14 and anchored Eastern’s 2nd-place sprint medley team. She’s the only woman in world history to run that fast for those three events.
Dumas’s 2:07.68 from last winter is No. 9 in state history.
Dumas’s time is No. 2 in the U.S. this year, just behind Ellie Barada of Bloomington South High in Indiana, who ran 2:07.19 in a meet in Ypsilanti, Mich., last week. Barada did not compete for a high school in that race, and it looks like a club meet more than anything. But since it was in-season race and she competed against (I think) only high school only competition and she’s currently a high school student, it counts as a high school performance.
From the Backstretch by Reuben Frank 