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Still Picking Up Speed

Senior Sprinter Imani Apostol Aiming For Speediest Season Yet

By Washington Huskies

January 24^th, 2019

SEATTLE – Having already made her share of Husky history as part of the first women’s 4x400m relay to make the NCAA Championships, Seattle native Imani Apostol is set on checking off some individual goals in her senior season.

Apostol’s time with the purple baton in hand have been some of the best in school history. Indoors, she was part of the two fastest 4x400m times ever, both set last season. Outdoors, she was the number two leg on the record-setting 2017 relay that ran 3:35.65 to advance to the NCAA semifinals in Eugene, Ore. and earn All-America honorable mention. She also was part of the third-fastest outdoor 4x4 and the No. 8 and No. 10 times, plus four different 4x100m relays in the Husky top-10.

All told, Apostol’s name pops up eleven times in the Husky top-10 lists in the relay events. But individually, her personal-bests place her just outside most of the open sprint event top-10s. That’s something she hopes to rectify in 2019.

“I want to get my individual times down, especially in the 400 and the 200, I want really big PRs in those races,” Apostol says, but keeping one eye always on the relays, she adds, “I also want to help the indoor DMR get to and possibly win Nationals. So those are really big goals of mine. Being on a relay, especially the 4x4, has been really fun, and I still want to continue doing that, but maybe more of a focus on my individual races this year.”

As she has left her mark in the Husky records, the university has had its own lasting impact in Apostol’s life. “The culture here and the community,” she says. “Being able to find yourself and be comfortable in a community that is open to you and willing and wanting to help you succeed. That goes for all aspects of school, not just athletics.”

Still Picking Up Speed

Those personal bests Apostol will chase include a 24.52 time in the 200-meters and a 55.23 time in the 400-meters. Her best individual finish at Pac-12s, one of the most loaded sprint conferences in the country in recent years, was in 2017 when she took 12th in the 400-meters.

If she takes a chunk out of those marks this season or finds herself in a Pac-12 final or NCAA Prelim starting line, it will be thanks in large part to grinding through another challenging fall training cycle, the first for the Husky sprints group with new assistant coach Jeshua Anderson.

“For me, the fall kicks my butt. I wasn’t used to being outside so much and doing hills and stairs, so I think that worked a different part of my endurance that I do need,” she says. “Last year we were just on the track in the Dempsey every day, so that got a bit tiring. So this kind of work I think is good for my strength and endurance. We also did some time trial stuff which was great because doing so much strength work and not seeing how that connects to your speed on the track was kind of hard for a while, but then seeing my results in a time trial was a confidence builder.”

Apostol, as with several other fourth-year sprinters on the squad, are working with a third coach during their time at UW. But both transitions have been made easier for Apostol due to having a history with the new coach coming in, as Eric Metcalf had been her club coach and Anderson spent the past couple seasons as a volunteer assistant for the Huskies, training alongside the sprinters he now coaches.

Still, a new coach is always a big change, “but because I knew Eric before he was our coach and because I knew Jesh a little bit from him being around the team, it made the changes easier. At first it was a little strange with Jeshua, because before he was more of a teammate and friend, so having to change my tone a little bit with him and how we talk, but he’s still there for us outside of being a coach, so I find that really helpful.

“It has been nice because I think I’ve been able to take away some big stuff from every one of my coaches.”

2017 ncaa prelims and semis

Still Picking Up Speed

Still Picking Up Speed

In high school at Holy Names Academy in Seattle, Apostol showed fantastic range in the sprints as she made the 3A state finals in the 100-meters, 200-meters, and the 400-meters every year from her sophomore to senior seasons.

Success at that point was coming easy. College track would prove to be a different beast.

“I had a good track program and really great coaches in high school but I didn’t have to put in as much practice to do well because the competition wasn’t as tough at that level,” she says. “So coming here and having a lot of good competition and having to work really hard in practice in order to see results was definitely a game changer.”

After a fairly limited freshman season where, like many athletes making the transition to college, she did not improve on her high school PRs, Apostol found her stride in her sophomore season in 2017. The 4x4 first broke the school record which had lasted since 1998 at the Mt. SAC Relays, and then bettered it again at NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin, Texas.

When the group of Apostol, Darhian Mills, Whitney Diggs and Laura Anuakpado finished their West Prelim run, they had to sweat out another heat to see if their time would hold up and be one of the 12 to advance to NCAAs.

“I still remember we were just waiting to find out if our time made it in, and I remember finding out we did, and we were all so happy and overjoyed,” says Apostol. “Just being on that first team to break that record and be a part of UW’s history means a lot, because putting so much into this program, and getting a lot out of it too, that’s just something I’ll always remember.”

Those precious moments of achievement with teammates are the rare gems of track and field that keep athletes coming back for the hours of training. All the official time racing on the track would be just a fraction of all the practice time, so creating lasting relationships with teammates and coaches has been a huge part of Apostol’s collegiate experience.

“Coach Eric, he was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to UW, so having him here as more than just a coach for the past few years was really helpful to me,” says Apostol. “I’ve developed a close relationship with Coach Mac (Volunteer Assistant Mark Macdonald) as well. He’s always been really supportive, and a lot of times when I have doubts he’s there to help me combat those.

“Carolyn Birkenfeld was my training buddy and partner and so we got pretty close last year and she just helped me a lot with my confidence and with things that I wasn’t good at in workouts but she was good at, so we were able to switch on that almost daily.

“Jordan Lucas has helped me also with my confidence and just having my back in practice and meets. Having a good support system from these people just makes me love the sport that much more.”

Birkenfeld, who graduated last season and ran her last race with Apostol in a 4x400m relay at NCAA Prelims, had this to say about her former workout and relay partner …

“Imani is such a hardworking and inspiring teammate. I always looked forward to workouts with Imani because she has this amazing speed and determination that motivates everyone training beside her,” Birkenfeld says. “Imani was the teammate that I would go to before races to get pumped up and after races to reflect. She is a wonderful friend, a supportive teammate, and one of the speediest girls on the track. I am so excited to see her put it all together this season and hit some incredible marks.”

Still Picking Up Speed

Still Picking Up Speed

Still Picking Up Speed

Still Picking Up Speed

Still Picking Up Speed

Apostol dabbled in a few areas academically before settling in to a Communications major with a minor in Informatics, a discipline she describes as “the study and design of information technology and information systems.”

“When I first came to UW I wanted to be a doctor, specifically an ophthalmologist, and I took a bunch of chemistry classes but decided it wasn’t really the right path for me. I switched to Computer Science but that wasn’t really right for me either. So I liked Informatics, but I was kind of behind in terms of scheduling, so I decided to minor in it and major in Communications, but they work really well with each other. I want to go into user experience design and I think both will apply, and I’m thinking about doing my Master’s in Informatics.”

While she still has a full season to come, Apostol appreciates what running fast and working hard and being part of a team has meant to her.

“Track has taught me more about myself than I would have found out otherwise,” she says. “It’s taught me how far I can push myself mentally and physically. I’ll feel a sense of satisfaction after a hard workout of wow, I just put my body through that and I did it well, and knowing I can practice well and compete well is exciting for me.

“Track has just opened a lot of doors for me academically and socially, meeting people I consider family and I know I’ll have lasting relationships with.”

Still Picking Up Speed

Footnotes

Photos by Red Box Pictures and Howard Lao Photography

FootNotes

Photos by Red Box Pictures and Howard Lao Photography

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