Illinois Valley Times

Rachel Hickey's 2017 track season so far is going a lot like how her 2016 campaign ended.

Right about the date that spring officially arrived this year, Hickey — last year's Class 2A girls 800-meter run champion for LaSalle-Peru High School — already had two indoor 800-meter crowns on her glowing and growing resume. Hickey, a junior, won that race both at the Northern Illinois Big 12 Championships on March 18 in Sterling and the Illinois Top Times Championship for 2A on March 25 in Bloomington.

Her time on March 18 was 2 minutes, 17.64 seconds, while her March 25 time was 2:17.52. In both cases, her times were at least 1 1/2 seconds faster than her times in those races in 2016.

“It went really good. I can't be happier about it, really,” Hickey told the Illinois Valley Times about her indoor season.

This offseason, Hickey added weightlifting as well as speed and agility work to her usual swimming regimen. All that is in preparation for attempting to defend her outdoor state title in addition to going after the Class 2A record in that event, 2:10.73, set by Karina Liz of Aurora Central Catholic in 2014. Hickey's best 800-meter time is 2:14.12, which she ran last June at the Festival of Miles in St. Louis.

“It would be really cool to break that,” Hickey said.

Her decreasing times in the 800-meter are a reflection of her cross-country season. Hickey finished 20th at the 2016 state meet in a time of 17:48, which was an improvement over her 2015 effort of 46th place and 18:17.

Winning the 800-meter state title was a key in her fall showing, Hickey said.

“It definitely helped me a lot going into my fall cross-country season because I had so much confidence, and it helped me to have one of my best finishes at cross-country state,” she said.

Hickey, who started running track competitively in the sixth grade, said she got interested in track by watching her brother, Connor, succeed at the sport. Connor won the conference outdoor title in the 800-meter in his senior year in 2015 and took eighth place at the state meet shortly after.

As for what she likes best about track, Hickey said it is the feeling that comes with knowing she has run a good race.

“There's absolutely nothing that can compare to that feeling,” she said.