With an ending like Kalie Kirk had to her high school track career it is no surprise that she will be continuing on at the collegiate level.
Kirk, the 4A state champion in the 300 hurdles, runner-up in the 100 hurdles and fifth-place finisher in both the long jump and as part of Lewis-Palmer’s 4 x 100 relay team, will continue honing her skills at St. Louis University.
No slouch in the classroom either, she will be receiving a partial academic scholarship for all four years, as well as a partial athletic scholarship beginning her sophomore year, and will be studying pre-med as well as bio-medical engineering.
To anyone who has met Kirk, however, her ambition should come as no surprise.
Someone who has run track since middle school, Kirk did not even attempt the hurdles until her junior year when her club coach, Charmas Lee at Speed Track and Field, suggested she try them. And as her head coach at Lewis-Palmer, Suzanne Kuehl, says, “she just took right to them.”
“I tried the 100 first and I really liked them because I think they are more exciting than just plain running and they give you more of a challenge,” Kirk said. “Then last year during spring break my LP coach, Bob Beeten, told me he thought I’d be good at the 300 hurdles, so I tried them.”
The result?
She tried them for three meets, qualified for state and wound up placing second in 5A. She also placed sixth in the 100 hurdles.
“Still being new for me, it was really exciting,” she said.
A fan of keeping things new, she tried out the long jump while running indoor track this past winter, because, as she says, “it looked fun.”
She then wound up fifth at the state meet.
Kirk will make the step up from the 300 to 400 hurdles in college and continue on with the 100 hurdles, long jump and whatever relays she is put in.
“I’m really excited to see what college track is like and excited to meet the girls on the team and hopefully qualify for NCAAs,” she said.
Having already run the 400 hurdles some in club, both the coaches at St. Louis, as well as Kirk, like how her times stack up, and see the goal of making nationals as an attainable one.
For the girl who set school records at LP in her first year competing in the two high school hurdle events and then shattered both marks in her final races as a senior at state, it’s hard to think she doesn’t have a good shot.
According to Kuehl, those Ranger records likely aren’t going anywhere for a while either, something Kirk is just fine with.
“It makes me excited because when I am older I can look back and have a couple high school records,” Kirk said.
After becoming the first Ranger to crack 15 seconds with a 14.49 in the 100 hurdles and going out as a state champ in the 300, they might just be there for some time.