No one has been faster in Edward Little girls indoor track and field history than Makenna Drouin, and she has the records to prove it.

Yet the junior is not content with being the best Red Eddies girls runner ever, she wants hardware to go along with the historical honors.

Some of that will have to wait. But she can add Sun Journal Girls Indoor Track Athlete of the Year to her growing list of accolades.

“It was a difficult end of the season for me, so for me to be Athlete of the Year means more to me than anyone knows,” Drouin said. “I’m actually shocked and appreciate it very much.”

Drouin won the Class A state championship in the 55-meter hurdles this season, crossing the finish line in 8.75 seconds in the final after beating the rest of the field by a half-second or more with a time of 8.49 seconds in the prelims.

Neither of those were Drouin’s best times of the season. She ran her fastest time, 8.43 seconds, during a regular-season meet, and, for the third this season, set a the Edward Little program record in the event.

She entered her junior season already owning the 55-meter dash program record (7.20 seconds), and nearly equaled that with a season-best 7.22 seconds while winning the KVAC Class A title. At that same meet, she also set the program record in the 200-meter dash, lowering the bar to 26.38 seconds and winning another conference championship.

“I’d say, historically speaking, what has made Makenna’s achievements so special is that most athletes don’t break one school record throughout their four-year high school career, let alone several of them,” Edward Little coach Angie Jalbert said. “And they most definitely don’t break four of them in one season. All of that is just unheard of.”

As a whole, it was the kind of season Jalbert was expecting from Drouin.

“Our expectations for Makenna this season was to dominate her events as she did in the year prior. We also were expecting her to break more school records, all of which she did,” Jalbert said.

Drouin, meanwhile, tried to focus on what she could control, which was “to go in and do the best to my ability, and to take each meet one meet at a time, and I feel I did that.”

The season got off the right foot. In her first meet of the season, Drouin broke the hurdles record for the first time, which was one of the highlights of her season. She said that showed her that all her hard work in the offseason had paid off.

Jalbert said Drouin worked on improving her running and hurdling techniques in order to bring out even more of the natural speed she already possessed.

Also in the offseason, Drouin competed against the country’s best youth runners at the Junior Olympics in California last July. She said that experience showed her that there are better runners than her, but that she can compete with the best.

It was the championship meets this season, competing against the conference’s and state’s best, that left Drouin wanting more.

Sure, she won the 55 and 200 dash titles at the KVAC Class A championships, and the 55 hurdles crown at the Class A state meet. But a sweep of the three events at either meet eluded her.

There was a disqualification in the hurdles final at KVACs after running nearly eight-tenths of a second faster than the next-fastest competitor in the prelims. Then there were a pair of DQs in the dashes at states, including having the would-be top time in the 200 wiped out.

The hurdles state title — her first indoor state championship — was still a season highlight for her.

She capped off her junior season by finishing the hurdles in 8.73 seconds at the New England Championships — good enough for 10th-best in prelims but just out of the top eight that advanced to the final.

“Indoor states was a rough one this year once, again, for me. It left me more determined than ever to redeem myself for the outdoor season, let alone next year’s indoor,” said Drouin, who last spring won two outdoor state titles, a New England title and set a state 300 hurdles record. “I have been working hard since states and New Englands, on and off the track. I feel this outdoor season will have people shocked at my ambition and comeback.”

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