Griffin gears for third and final trip to track state
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Aftin Griffin has been proven to be a true marvel when it comes to being both a star sprinter and a star distance runner in her Lewis Cass career.
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She is set to make her sixth IHSAA State Finals on Friday — three in cross country and three in track.
In track, her freshman year she made it to state in the 400-meter dash. Her sophomore year she made it in the 800 run. On Friday she is set to compete in the 100 dash and 200 dash, making it four separate events where she competes on the state’s biggest stage.
After missing out on state last year, she made sure that was not going to happen again this year, so she studied the times and decided to compete in the 100 and 200 at the Lafayette Jeff Regional. It’s the most difficult regional in the state with the northern Indianapolis suburban schools included as well as the Lafayette and Kokomo area schools.
“Each year I look at what my best odds of getting out in every event is. And really this year I thought it was looking like I might not make it out in anything,” she said. “After sectionals I looked at it and was like, well, the 100 and 200 aren’t really out of my reach anymore and I actually have a shot.
“So it was a really tough decision dropping the 400 because I really think that’s definitely one of my best events, probably better than the 100. It just happened to be that this regional wasn’t as competitive in the 100. So I just took my chances and decided to do the sprints and I think I definitely made the right decision.”
The regional was moved to Lafayette Jeff last year and the regional field changed as well.
“Since we moved regionals, you have to look at what I would be best at getting out in,” she said. “I definitely wouldn’t have made it out in the 800 this year at my regional. And it would’ve been hard to make it out in the 400 too. So it’s just kind of weird how it worked. I didn’t initially think I would be running the 100 and 200 at regionals this year. If you would have told me that at the beginning of the season, I would’ve been like no way. But I just try to see what event I have the best shot in each year. I never really planned for a certain event, I just see what my best odds are. But it’s kind of neat to run different events at state.”
Griffin said her most consistent events this year were the 100 and 200 as well. She PR’d in both events at the regional. She could have probably have PR’d in the 400 this year had she focused on it, but she did not. And she always had to run the 200 right after it and had to keep that in mind as well.
She’s the Cass record holder in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 in track and the 5K in cross country.
She’s not sure what events she will run in track next year at IU Indianapolis.
“I have no idea,” she said. “It’s kind of funny. My coach at the beginning of the year, because it’s the same coach for cross country and track, and so he saw me run the 5K and was like, ‘OK, maybe for track I can maybe just put you in like the 1500 to try it out.’ And I was like, ‘oh, I don’t know about that.’ But then he sees me in track and he’s like, ‘oh, maybe I can get you in the 4x1 or 200, not the distance stuff.’ So I’m actually really curious to see what I’ll be running.
“I’d really love to run like maybe like 4x4 relay and the 200 would be neat. I think the most I’d like to do is the 800 but we have some really good 800 runners coming in, so I think it’d be neat to specialize in the 400 and 200, but I guess we’ll just see.”
She credits her parents for her ability to run both sprints and distances at a high level. Her mother, Corinna Stilwell, ran both cross country and track at Pioneer, where she was the 400 dash record holder for a time.
“I kind of took after her and I was like I kind of want to switch it up for track. I don’t want to be running distance all year round,” she said. “And I think it’s more fun doing that.”
“I was actually just talking with my dad (Brent Griffin) about this. He said I got the quick genes from him, from like 50 meters max. And then after that I got the rest from my mom.”
Griffin is hoping to have a good showing at her final State Finals.
“I feel like I’ve trained through this whole week and I still want to run a PR definitely in both events if I can. And hey, who knows, maybe even make it to the final, that would be the best-case scenario. If anything, I just want to run PRs. That’s a good goal.”
The 100 dash trials get underway at 5 p.m. and 200 trials start at 5:40.