Girls Track: Alyssa Dolan to lead young Reapers, eyes hurdles records

Alyssa Dolan is an ideal leader for a young track team.

Dolan, still only a junior, has already been to state in individual events and relays. She qualified in both hurdles races last year.

On top of that, she’s a standout multi-sport athlete, a star hitter in volleyball.

“She’s one of the best leaders we’ve had,” Plano coach Brad Kunz said, “and a hard worker. She does whatever is asked of her.”

She will be asked to lead a Reapers’ team that’s quite young this spring. On Plano’s 35 girls out for track, perhaps seven were on last year’s team.

“I think the common thread on both of our track teams is we’re really in a youth movement,” Kunz said. “We’ve got a lot of young people. Our oldest are juniors.”

That leads, logically, to Dolan.

The Plano program has a good history in the hurdles. Jenin Robinson was a four-time medalist and two-time state champion in the 100 hurdles, and swept both Class A hurdles titles in 2002.

She went on to run at Northern Illinois, and eventually coached at Plano.

Now Dolan is chasing her records.

“I don’t know if the 100 is within reach this year, but the 300 might be,” Kunz said. “If she gets those records it would be pretty special.”

Dolan took ninth this past weekend at the Top Times indoor state championships in Bloomington.

“She’ll tell you she didn’t run her best race,” Kunz said. “She just missed the Top Times finals by a smidge. She’s also battling injuries, which kind of limited her. She’s kind of banged up; old injuries have been bugging her.”

Besides Dolan, sophomores Kelsey Edwards and Alyssa Smith are two returning sophomores Kunz has high hopes for.

“Kelsey is awesome in the 400, was really close to qualifying, and she’s a big part of our 4x4 relay that I think will be pretty good,” Kunz said. “Smith ran in the 4x2 last year at state. She’ll be a big part of our relays and our high jumpers, and maybe some other events.”

Among the youngsters, sophomore Omarri Bradley and freshman Kayah Miles have been strong in the sprints. Freshmen Anna Gonzalez and Rachel Martinez have also looked strong on the track, Miya DeBolt has come on in pole vault and high jump, and sophomore Marina Mercado and Rachelle Gomez are the top two distance runners.

Anisa Landrum and Judy Chavez are top throwers.

“We learned a lot during indoor season,” Kunz said. “We have a lot of people new to track, that decided to try it this year. We are heavy on the fresh-soph.”