The Road To Hayward: Record Breakers & Future Teammates Irene Riggs & Sophia Kennedy
THE RUNNING EFFECT PODCAST
Dominic Schlueter
4.8 • 686 Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2023
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today on the podcast series "The Road To Hayward" is Irene Riggs and Sophia Kennedy, friends and future teammates at Stanford University this fall!
Irene Riggs and the word "history" belong in the same sentence. Over the past year, Irene has made history in her home state of West Virginia and on the National Stage. Irene became the first athlete from West Virginia ever to win a national cross country title, and she did so in remarkable fashion, overcoming cold, windy conditions at NXN to produce the No. 2 all-time mark of 16:40.9 at Glendoveer Golf Course in Oregon. She also ran the second-fastest high school girls' 5K cross country race in history with her 16:02.1 effort at the Nike Southeast Regional. Irene also made her first U.S. National Team by winning the 2023 USATF U20 XC title. This track season, Irene ran 9:45.97 in the 3200m at the Spire Scholastic Showcase Meet, became the Nike Indoor National Champion in the Mile, winning in 4:38.23, and won the Arcadia Invitational 3200m in a meet record time of 9:52.66.
Irene is also a fantastic selfless individual off the grass and track. She is the Vice President of the student body at her school, a student council representative at Morgantown, and has spent hours doing community service. Through these accomplishments, Irene became the 2022-2023 Gatordate National Girls Cross-Country Player of The Year.
Sophia Kennedy has slowly cemented herself as one of the greatest runners in Indiana state history. Last fall, Sophia placed seventh at the Nike Cross Nationals, a week after taking second at the Champs Sports Midwest Region Championships. Sophia is a two-time qualifier for the Eastbay National Cross Country Championships, placing seventh in 2021. Sophia, the daughter of U.S. distance great Bob Kennedy, was fifth in the two-mile at the 2021 Brooks PR Invitational and eighth in 2022. Running for Park Tudor School in Indianapolis, Sophia was second in the 3,200 at the 2022 Indiana state track finals and third in the state in cross country this fall. This indoor season, Sophia placed fourth in the Mile at Nike Indoor Nationals, running 4:45.60. She also ran an outdoor mile in 4:49 and a 3200 in 10:07, where she split 5:08 and 4:59.
Others may know Sophia's dad, Bob Kennedy, a two-time Olympian who set American Records and won four NCAA titles while at Indiana University.
In today's episode, we go through how they met each other, the decision to go to Stanford, exclusive insights and stories from NXN and NIN, how their outdoor season is going, how they're preparing for Nike Outdoor Nationals, and top things off with some listener questions!
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The podcast graphic was done by the talented: Xavier Gallo.
S H O W N O T E S
-Nike Outdoor Nationals Info: https://nikeoutdoornationals.runnerspace.com/
-My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therunningeffect/?hl=en
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Road to Hayward is presented by the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation. |
| 0:05.0 | NSAF has put on world-class events for the next generation of athletes for over 30 years now. |
| 0:10.3 | Over 400 Olympians earning nearly 200 medals have participated in the NSAF Championship events. |
| 0:17.0 | NSAF is presenting the Nike Outdoor National Meet June 15th through 18th at Hayward Field, |
| 0:22.6 | which is the greatest track and field stadium on the planet. |
| 0:25.6 | To get more info about this world-class meet, visit Nike Outdoor Nationals.com. |
| 0:34.6 | Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first ever episode of The Road to Hayward, a short series |
| 0:39.0 | leading into the Nike Outdoor National Meet. In episode one today, I have the great privilege |
| 0:43.6 | of speaking with the one and only Irene Riggs and her future teammate in Indiana legend, |
| 0:48.9 | Sophia Kennedy. For those who aren't familiar with these two fantastic individuals, |
| 0:53.6 | Irene Riggs won |
| 0:54.5 | NXN in the fall. |
| 0:55.8 | She won Nike Indoor Nationals this past winter, and she's set records, won races, made |
| 1:02.3 | U.S. teams. |
| 1:03.6 | She was also the Gatorade National Girls' Country Player of the Year. |
| 1:07.2 | She's constantly making history, no surprise there. |
| 1:09.5 | And then Sophia has slowly cemented herself as one of the greatest runners in Indiana history. |
| 1:14.9 | Last fall, Sophia placed seventh at Nike Cross Nationals. |
| 1:18.1 | And then she also made the champs meet, which most people know as the Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships. |
| 1:24.6 | She placed fifth, I want to say, or fourth at Nike Indoor Nationals in the |
| 1:29.3 | mile with a time of 445, and she will also be going to Stanford, as I mentioned previously. |
| 1:35.0 | Today's episode was so, so much fun. We just kind of kick it back and discuss a plethora of |
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