All-Metro girls track and field athlete of the year: Unbeaten Brown paces Cardinal Ritter's second consecutive state championship

Seven years old at the time, Brown didn’t find her time on the court much fun.

“I think I was more of a girly girl,” she said with a laugh. “I was just there because my dad had me at basketball practice.”

The only part Brown enjoyed was getting up and down the floor. She blew by the bigger and older kids in a blink. Brown was so speedy the basketball coach told her father, Ray, she might be better off on the track.

“Ever since then I knew I was fast,” Brown said.

Nine years later everyone knows.

A sophomore sprinter on Cardinal Ritter’s outrageously talented girls track and field team, the 5-foot-6 Brown is unbeaten in her high school career in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. The two-time Class 5 state champion in both events, Brown won the 100 state title in a personal best time of 11.41 seconds this spring. She won the 200 at state in another personal record time of 23.37 seconds. She also ran legs on the Lions’ state record-shattering 400-meter relay and its Class 5 record-holding 1,600 relay.

The foundation upon which Ritter’s back-to-back team championships are built, Brown is the Post-Dispatch All-Metro girls track and field athlete of the year.

Brown, 16, is the first sophomore to earn the honor in at least a decade. Underclassmen generally don’t dominate the way she has. Brown is different.

“It’s an honor and a blessing to have her on the squad,” Ritter coach Tiffany Spain said.

It’s a squad overloaded with young talent. Brown was joined by teammates Alexis Taylor, a junior, and Brooklyn Brady, a sophomore, in the 100 final at the state meet May 28. By rule every team can enter two athletes in an event at the district meet. The only way to enter more than two is for every athlete that’s entered to hit a qualifying standard that is, by design, hard to attain. Brown, Taylor and Brady not only hit the standard, they all advanced through the postseason series and scored at state.

When it was time to run the final of the 200, Brown had sophomore teammate Charlye Moody by her side. 

Freshman Kyndall Spain medaled in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles. Freshman Neveah Bryant qualified for state in the 400.

All of them joined forces in different combinations to help the Lions set the overall state record in the 400-meter relay by winning in 46.14 seconds, breaking the old mark of 47.19 set by McCluer South-Berkeley in 2014. The Lions then closed the meet by winning the 1,600 relay in a Class 5 record time of 3 minutes and 50.8 seconds, breaking the old mark set of 3:50.9 set by Lee’s Summit North in 2015. McCluer South-Berkeley still holds the overall record of 3:45.7, which it set in 2007.

That 1,600 relay record could be the next to fall as these young Lions grow and mature. They did crank out a 3:46.4 at Kirkwood’s Dale Collier Invitational in April. Just this season the addition of Kyndall Spain and Bryant allowed Ritter more flexibility in how it built its record-setting relay. Last spring Brown had to be the anchor in case the Lions needed her speed to catch the leader. This spring, Brown was the second leg and her job was to simply build upon the lead Bryant gave them with her outstanding starts.

“We don’t have to put that weight on her being the last leg,” Tiffany Spain said. “Last year we needed her on the anchor leg and this year she could kind of relax. We took some of that pressure off of her.”

Brown has a love-hate relationship with the 1,600 relay. She absolutely despises the 400 on general principle. She’s much more comfortable in shorter bursts.

“I’m not a fan at all,” she said of the quarter mile. “It doesn’t feel good at all.”

She’d rather not run it until Spain told her she didn’t have to run on the 1,600 relay, which is the final event of every track meet and oftentimes the most enthralling. Brown didn't like the idea of sitting it out.

“She doesn’t like the 400, but she can absolutely be a beast in the 400,” Spain said with a smile. “No one ever likes the 4x4, but it’s the most exciting race of the day. The kids want that adrenaline rush, especially when you’re talking about a group of kids that hit 3:46, why not prove yourself? They all hate it, but they all love it.”

With such an abundance of talent on the team, practices can go to an incredibly high level. While elite athletes at other schools are often by themselves when they train, the Lions rely on one another. The competition is constant.

“There’s not any replacing that,” Spain said. “Some days people don’t feel like themselves. They all hold each other accountable. They all push each other. They all love each other.”

Brown has never lost a 100 or 200 at a meet while wearing a Ritter jersey. At practice? That’s another story.

“You don’t have to win every rep,” Brown said. “I don’t always have to be the rabbit.”

There are days where she’s doing the chasing, especially when Spain pairs up the girls and boys as training partners. The Lions do a lot of mixing of the teams to try to pull the best from everyone.

“Not only do we get her to push (the girls), I put her with the boys so the boys can push her and she can push the boys,” Spain said.

Brown has separated herself from this incredible pack with her natural skill and a blue-collar work ethic. A single-sport athlete, she’s constantly doing things to be faster and stronger. Whether with Peak Performance’s Derrick Miller or during offseason workouts with Spain, Brown is not shy about getting down to business.

“It’s harder to stay on top so you definitely have to work harder than all your competition,” Brown said. “You have to stay on top of your game to make sure you stay number one.”

It’s a position Brown and her teammates find themselves in at the moment. With two team state championships in the trophy case and more medals than they can count hanging from around their necks, the Lions are the hunted. They get everyone’s best effort every time they put their spikes into the starting blocks.

“Just as quick as we got here we can lose it as quickly,” Spain said. “They don’t take this for granted. The next year is not guaranteed. The next state championship is not guaranteed. You have to work your behinds off on and off the track. There’s no handouts.”

For someone who has accomplished so much as an individual, Brown is most proud of her work as part of the team. She has more fun when her friends get in on the action, especially the relays.

“It’s more exciting than running an open by myself,” Brown said. “I’ve been running with these girls all my life. It feels good to accomplish what we’ve accomplished together.”