PORTSMOUTH — Four members of the Portsmouth High School girls’ indoor track team earned High School All-American honors by placing fourth in the 4x800 relay at the 2019 New Balance Nationals Indoors at the New Balance Armory in New York City Saturday night.

The foursome, made up of Elizabeth Sullivan, Nikki Merrill and Little Compton's Olive Allen and Sabrina Leary, ran the distance in a time of 9 minutes, 12.34 seconds, finishing fourth in the country out of the top 30 teams that qualified. Their time also broke the previous Portsmouth High School record by seven seconds.

On Friday, Ms. Allen shattered her previous best two-mile time by nearly a minute as she finished in third place with a time of 10:45.89 in the 16-lap event. Her previous best time was 11:43.49.

Portsmouth coach Jeff Rose later described her race as "unbelievable." 

Ms. Allen was in sixth place with two laps to go and in fifth with a lap left. She then ran the fastest final lap (33.556) in the field and nearly caught runner-up Savannah Roarke of Beavercreek, Ohio, (10:45.75). The race was won by Mary Heinen of Richmond, Virginia, with a time of 10:42.13.

Olive's mother, Polly Allen (a member of the Little Compton School Committee) and father, Jeremy Allen, were in the stands, cheering Olive on.

"The last 200 meters of her two mile race were incredible," her mother said. "It was very emotional for Jeremy and me to see her start picking the other girls off — we could see the determination on her face and we knew that she was leaving it all on the track."

"We were equally excited to see the 4x800," Polly Allen said. "These girls are like a family — three of them have been running the 4x800 since sophomore year (they competed in the 4x800 at outdoor nationals in NorthCarolina). We were sitting with the  Sullivans and the Learys (Elizabeth's and Sabrina's parents, respectively). It was a pretty intense 9:12.34 minutes — lots of screaming, nail-biting and a few tears."

"My last lap I definitely had a burst of energy and realized that I could move up a couple spots and place higher," Olive Allen said. "After I got into fifth, I just kept going and fighting. I was definitely tired during the race but wanted to leave it all out there and end my last indoor individual race on a good note."

"Passing people in the 4x800 hurt because my legs were still tired from the day before," Olive said. "So I just had to push and put us in the best position for when Nikki (Merrill) got the baton. I was happy with how I did in the two mile. I accomplished my goal for the race. I was very happy with how my team did, it was a very special moment for us all."

Credit to the coach

"We could not be prouder of Olive," said her mother. "She has put so much work into being the best runner she can be. She has missed out on time with friends and family to put in work-out time. Coach Rose has been a terrific coach. His workouts have been a key to her progression."

Ms. Allen, who placed third out of 40 competitors in the Emerging Elite Division 2-mile run on Friday night, was still feeling the effects of that race when she ran her leg of the relay, but sophomore Sabrina Leary came through and was able to keep the Patriots in contention for All-American honors.

What's next is two weeks of rest, then outdoor track.