Athlete of the Week: Brighton's Nikki Carothers achieved big goal with sub-11:00 3,200

BRIGHTON — It took Brighton senior Nikki Carothers until the end of cross country season to feel like herself again.

Battling injuries throughout the fall, Carothers spent most of the season running above the 20-minute mark for five kilometers. That’s not at all what she expected after dipping below 18:50 three times as a junior with a personal best of 18:30.5 in her final meet.

Finally, it clicked at the most unlikely place for her — Michigan International Speedway.

Carothers felt she underachieved in her two previous trips to MIS for the state meet, but ran a season-best time of 18:50.8 to finish 38th in Division 1, just eight spots below the all-state cut-off. Riding that high, she ran 18:46.9 one week later in the Michigan Meet of Champions.

Nikki Carothers was back.

“Cross country was definitely a hard season,” she said. “I was fighting injury and it was such a big season for the team, because we all knew our team had so much potential. I found it really hard in certain races to be able to contribute. That was really hard.

“The state meet was the one meet I could do something for the team. I was really happy with the way I ended the season. Most of it was a big struggle.”

To shake things up, Carothers trained over the winter with the L.A.B. Track Club out of Ypsilanti.

“It was really hard at first to get out of my comfort zone,” she said. “It was a big transition. I was happy with it, because I feel like that’s what I needed to find my joy in running again and find my confidence.”

While her times early in Brighton’s track and field season weren’t as fast as she would hoped, it didn’t take long for Carothers to get up to speed, so to speak.

Running 5:18.95 for the 1,600 April 27 in the Brighton Bulldog Invitational provided a confidence boost that allowed her to achieve a long-time goal six days later in Saline.

Carothers broke 11 minutes in the 3,200 for the first time, running 10:57.98 to place fourth behind three Romeo runners in the Golden Triangle meet. Elle Bissett ran 10:59.64, Carrigan Eberly 11:06.04 and Lydia LaMarra 11:06.86 for Brighton, which became the first Livingston County team with two girls under 11 minutes and four under 11:10 in the same race.

Carothers' time put her fourth on the all-time 3,200 list at Brighton, which has a strong distance-running tradition.

“I can’t believe I broke 11 at that race,” said Carothers, the Livingston Daily’s Athlete of the Week. “It was so much fun. It was very relaxed. All my teammates had an awesome day. It was such a crazy race. I’ve been thinking about it so much, because it was such a fun day. It was such a big goal I had for such a long time. I was shocked to be able to do it. Coach Kristi (Matuszewski) yelled at me and Elle on the last lap, ‘You’ve got to go sub-80 (seconds) if you want to break 11!’ In my head, I didn’t have any idea I was so close to 11.”

Some runners constantly peek at their watches during races, but Carothers said she prefers not knowing her splits.

“Hearing my splits kind of freaks me out,” she said. “I need to be in the race competitively instead of worrying about time. The Romeo coach was yelling splits to their runners. We were running faster than we normally do. Hearing Kristi say to me and Elle, ‘You can go sub-11,’ I was sprinting the entire time on that last lap because I didn’t know how close I was.”

Carothers’ previous best time was 11:05.02 when she took second in last year’s KLAA championships. She qualified for the state meet with an additional qualifying time of 11:10.49 at regionals last year.

She plans to race the 3,200 at regionals Friday in Grand Ledge, in addition to running on a 3,200 relay team that is the defending regional champion. Carothers, Gabrielle Bolitho, Juliet Lewis and Eberly won the Golden Triangle meet in 9:23.03. The school record of 9:19.90 was set in 2016.

“We’re so close to the school record,” said Carothers, who will run for Central Michigan University. “Everyone’s dropped some amazing splits this season at races where we were by ourselves. I’m excited for the next few where we’ll have some competition.”

Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@gannett.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan

This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Nikki Carothers moved into fourth on Brighton 3,200 list with sub-11