(Harrisonburg, Va.) — A local high school athlete cemented her legend status this weekend.
Carol-Anne Garrett with Galileo Magnet High School won her sixth, seventh and eighth state titles at the Virginia High School League’s state championships at James Madison University.
Garrett started the weekend on Friday, leading the Falcons’ 4-by-800 meter relay team to first place. On Saturday, Garrett scored a two-fer…winning the one-mile and two-mile races, each by comfortable margins.
Last month Garrett became the first high school female in the Danville area to run a sub five-minute mile. The five-minute barrier in the so-called “Metric Mile” is a magic number in the world of girl’s running—much like the Four Minute Mile was the baseline in men’s running for most of the 20th century.
Garrett had an official time of 4:59.34. That topped the previous best time by a local girl’s runner, set in 2018 by Tunstall’s Emily Wallace during Virginia High School League 3A State Championships. Garrett took 18 seconds off of that record.
Carol-Anne Garrett is now ranked among the Top 10 fastest runners in Virginia and is the fifth-fastest in the metric mile.
In March, Garrett took home a strong second at the Adidas Track Nationals in Virginia Beach.
Last fall, Garrett took first place in the VHSL Championships in the 5k with a time of 19:03. That was a whopping 32 seconds ahead of the second place finisher. She won 10 of her 11 races last season and was named Athlete of the Year in the Dogwood District. She was the first Galileo athlete to win a state title in cross country.
Just last week, Garrett signed a letter of intent to run track next year at James Madison University.