Even though she was comfortably seeded No. 1, Viviana Tryfonopoulos had an underdog mentality on May 9.
The Kennedy junior was the favorite on paper for the 3,200 meters in the Public League Championship at Hanson Stadium with a seed time about 29 seconds better than the next fastest runner.
“Honestly, when I was on the (starting) line, I was scared about my performance because I honestly went against some pretty fast girls,” Tryfonopoulos said. “And on top of that, I was scared that the heat would affect my performance.”
But she took command early and won in dominant fashion in 11 minutes, 15.32 seconds. The second-place runner finished 35 seconds back.
It was the first Public League title for Tryfonopoulos, who has established herself as one of the city’s premier distance runners. Kennedy tied for ninth in the team standings with 18 points.
The time was just off Tryfonopoulos’ personal record of 11:13.35, set a week earlier.
“I had a PR in mind, but sadly I couldn’t get to that,” she said. “But other than that, I was really happy with my performance because I think my splits were consistent for the most part.”
It was the start of a busy day for Tryfonopoulos on a warm and often windy afternoon.
She placed sixth in the 800 with a season-best of 2:28.54 before finishing up with a fourth-place finish in the 1,600 at 5:25.15.
The meet was her final tuneup for the Class 3A St. Ignatius Sectional, where the goal was to qualify for state in track for the first time. She is a two-time state qualifier in cross country.
Having competition at the sectional would be a plus after running away from lesser competition in recent meets.
“Yes, I feel like the last three races or so, I’ve been pacing myself and my big accomplishments have been (made) possible by running next to someone else,” she said.
It also helps to be healthy.
“I’ve been dealing with recurring injuries the last two years,” Tryfonopoulos said. “So this is my first year — my junior year — where I’m actually able to run pain-free. And it was also my first year breaking six (minutes) for the mile. So I’m really hoping to reach a very low 5, like 5:05.”