FARMINGTON – The blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail bobbed up and down as Mt. Blue sophomore Lisa Hartung circled the track. The air was palpable, and a light drizzle started to fall, but Hartung barely seemed fazed.

“That’s how she is,” Mt. Blue coach Kelley Cullenberg said. “She gets nervous like anyone else, I am sure, but she has a silly side, too, and certain things just don’t bother her.”

Hartung began last season as a sprinter, running in the 100- and 200-meter races and in the 4×100-meter relay. Now, urged by her coach to expand her event schedule, she runs the middle distances – almost.

“I’ve been a sprinter all of my life,” Hartung said. “Last year, at the end of the year, (Cullenberg) told me to try the 400 after I ran a good 4×400 relay. It was kind of a mutual decision.”

“She’ll probably try to tell you that I forced her to switch,” Cullenberg said. “Really, though, I don’t think she minds too much.”

The 400 isn’t necessarily the problem for Hartung. The 800, on the other hand, another discipline toward which Cullenberg nudged her, gives her fits.

“I don’t know about the 800,” Hartung said as she rolled her eyes. “(Cullenberg) likes me in that event, but that is a long race for me. I still like the 200 better.”

But the fact that she is good at the middle distance races may be working against Hartung for now. Mt. Blue is undefeated this season despite having just 19 girls or less at each meet, and a large part of that is because of Hartung’s versatility.

“We have another runner that can stay with her in the 200,” Cullenberg said. “And even in the 400, but in the 800, no one has even come close to her yet in a meet.”

Her first effort in the 800 was a modest time in the middle 2:30s, but as the season has progressed, her time has dropped to 2:26, one of the best known times in Class A.

“It’d be nice to see her get pushed,” Cullenberg said. “With our schedule this year, though, she won’t, I don’t think, until the KVAC’s.”

But don’t think that the sudden improvement from last year to this year combined with a change in discipline has been easy. Hartung admits she “may be a natural athlete,” but that alone couldn’t have driven her to improve.

“I needed structure, I think,” Hartung said. “This year, the workouts are much harder and more structured, and I think that helps me. Also, I like to run with the boys because they are faster, and that helps me get better, too.”

With this year’s state meet and still two more to follow, Hartung’s maturation process as a Class A runner may just be beginning. Both she and Cullenberg hinted that the 1,600-meter run is in the future, maybe even as early as next season.

“I don’t want to take the 200 away from her if she truly loves it,” Cullenberg said. “But I think she will do well in the distances as she gets older. We just don’t want to push it.”

jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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