FRUITPORT – You know a kid is really serious about improving in a sport when she spends the winter practicing in her bedroom.
Chloe Anderson, a junior sprinter for the Fruitport girls track team, was pretty good in her events during her freshmen and sophomore seasons, then decided to take a big leap and become really good.
One of her issues was being too slow coming out of the blocks, which cost her precious time in the short-distance events she competes in.
Her parents bought her a set of blocks to practice with at home, but of course they aren’t much good when everything outside is covered with snow and ice.
So Anderson found a way to practice indoors in the winter.
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“My coach said, what if you set up the blocks in your bedroom and worked on jumping on to your bed for more explosiveness?” Anderson said. “I think it helped.”
Anderson was not a kid who grew up dreaming about becoming a track star. She only went out for the sport in the eighth grade, at the suggestion of a friend, mostly as a tag-along.
But she started to enjoy what she was doing, had some success in her freshman and sophomore years, then decided to push herself hard this season.
Anderson has had a great junior season, to say the least, and her hard work really paid off when she won a regional championship in the 200-meter dash and qualified to compete in three different events at Saturday’s Division 2 state finals in Hamilton.
“After last year I just decided this was something I wanted to do in the future, and if I wanted to be good and get to the next level, I had to start by putting in more work outside of the season.
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“I went on a lot of runs by myself, and I was getting in the weight room more, trying to build up my strength. I feel like I came into the season right where I needed to be, and that helped me be better.”
It’s been a trail of big meet success for Anderson in recent weeks.
She won the championship in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.98 seconds, and the 200-meter dash with a time of 27.30, at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association meet.
Anderson was also part of the Fruitport 4×200 meter relay team that took first place, along with teammates Gen Franklin, Bailey Garner and Layla Phan.
Next came the O-K Silver Conference Championship Meet, where Anderson again won the 100-meter dash (12.45 seconds) and the 200-meter dash (26.74 seconds).
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She was also part of Fruitport’s conference champion 4×200 and 4×400 relay teams, along with Franklin, Phan and Garner.
An extra thrill for Anderson came in both the 100 and 200-meter finals, when she edged out her main rival, Hopkins’ Riley Homrich.
She beat Homrich 12.45-12.52 in the 100, and just edged her out in the 200, with both runners clocking in at 26.74.
“I think she beat me every time before this year,” Anderson said. “Now to beat her when she is a senior and I am a junior was exciting. It was pretty close.”
A big thrill for all of the girls was winning the O-K Silver team championship, which was the first conference title for the Fruitport girls track squad in 17 years.
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“That was really exciting,” Anderson said. “We knew it was going to be really close and we had to perform at our best. It was really cool because we only have one senior on the team, so we know we can come back next year and do it again.”
Anderson’s biggest day so far came at the Division 2 regional meet at Allendale High School, where she won the championship in the 200-meter dash with a time of 26.20 seconds and automatically for the state finals in that event.
She also finished fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 13.19 and qualified for state in that event, as well.
The Trojans’ 4×400 relay team of Franklin, Garner, Phan and Anderson also finished fourth and qualified for the state finals.
“I was kind of prepared for it, but kind of surprised that I qualified for three things,” Anderson said about punching her ticket to the state finals. “I am definitely excited because I worked hard for this.”
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Anderson also had a great day at the West Michigan All-Star Meet with first-place finishes in both the 100 with a time of 12.82 seconds and the 200 with a time of 26.06.
Fruitport head coach Randy Johnson thinks Anderson has a real shot at winning All-State honors on Saturday, which go to the top eight placers in each event.
“When she first came out she had pretty typical freshman times, last year she blossomed a bit, then she got really motivated this year and has been a tremendous workhorse in getting her times down.
“She’s got good speed and she’s able to maintain that speed, and she has that extra power. She isn’t really built like your typical sprinter, but she can go.
“She has the potential to be All-State. She’s ranked in the top 8 in the state in the 100.”
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