Photos courtesy of Rachael Holloway 

It became obvious after her sophomore track season in 2021 that Avery Holloway needed to find another individual event to replace the 100-meter hurdles.

“She was solid in the 100 hurdles, but she wasn’t going to get to state,” Merkel girls’ track coach Tracy Damiano said. “We needed to find her another individual event. She’s the ultimate team player and has always run on whatever relays we needed her to run. She always ran well in the 4×400 relay, so we tried her in the open 400.