Since the beginning of track season, freshman Izzy Sutherland has set the track on fire with her talent and dedication.

Sutherland will compete at state for the 4×400 this weekend after placing first at region.

Sutherland has been competing since first grade and has run summer track her whole life, ultimately preparing herself to compete at the highest level in high school. Sutherland competes in the 800, 400, 4×400, and high jump. She is also a multi-sport athlete who is on the varsity soccer team. 

Sutherland was one of the three freshman track athletes to make an appearance at regionals. She placed third in the 400m dash finals at area with a time of 59.79, and she also placed first in the 4×400 relay alongside teammates sophomore Lilly Koenig, junior Mia Perez and senior Jazmyn Singh. The relay team blew the competition away coming in at 3:54.84, well ahead of Cedar Park’s silver medal performance of 3:59.02.

The girl’s track team was announced area champs with a score of 115 points, outscoring Cedar Park who placed second with 60 points and Pieper who placed third with 57 points

Just a week before that, Sutherland placed second in the 400m finals for district and set a personal record with a time of 58.34. She finished behind Princeton commit, Singh, whose time was 54.94. The 4×4 team also placed first and finished with a time of 3:54.18

Events Sutherland didn’t advance to go to Area in was high jump which she had placed sixth in with a 5 foot 13 round jump off and the 800m run that she had placed eighth in with time of 2:27.33.

The girls track team was named 26-5A district champs and came out on top with 169.50 points, well ahead of Boerne Champion, who placed second with 95 points, and Canyon, who placed third with 85 points.

Prior to that week, the 4×400 team competed at the 96th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium. This time though, the team competed in the 4×800 event and instead of Sutherland being the first leg, she was the second leg. However, running in a different event didn’t give them a single doubt,  and the team placed fourth overall with a time of 9:24.95 at the second largest track event followed by the Penn Relays.

“The crowd was something that helped push us and make us want to do better, but overall you kinda zone out the crowd into the race,”Sutherland said. 

With no distractions leading into its pathway, the team was focused on the race. However, having a teammate competing in an event just 10 minutes before might have caused some fright. 

“Knowing our team accomplished fourth at the Texas Relays was awesome because it was our first time and Jazmyn had just ran the 200, so knowing we could do better on a fresher leg is super exciting to know too (props to her for doing that she’s awesome).”

Sutherland was the only freshman among other track and field athletes from SV to make an appearance at Texas Relays.

“It kind of opened my eyes to see that what I was doing isn’t easy and took a lot of work,” Sutherland said. “It made me realize how good my times were and commitments are to track.”