Lynna Irby stepped to forefront in Colombia 

By Parker West for DyeStat

Unless you hail from the Hoosier state, Lynna Irby's name may not have registered with high school track fans -- at least until last week's World Youth Championships. 

The six-time Indiana state champion, coming out of a stellar sophomore year at Pike High School, has made a huge impact in Indiana. She owns the second-best 100 meters time in state history with 11.47. She is the eighth-fastest on the 200 list with 23.85 and she surpassed former Olympian Maicel Malone's 1986 record of 52.42 while earning a silver medal in Cali, Colombia (51.79).

Going into 2015, Irby had a personal best of 54.16, which she established as an eighth grader.

"I didn't think I'd drop so much time this year," Irby said after arriving home from Colombia. "I knew that a 53 was (attainable), and after running a low 53 my first time (at US World Trials) I knew that possibly the week in Cali I'd get a 52. Never imaginable would I have thought a 51 was in my reach."

Irby led the final of the 400 meters nearly the entire way until she was passed in the final 50 by Salwa Eid Naser of Burundi, who won the gold medal with 51.50. Irby's state record and US#1 time of 51.79 was the fastest by any high school girl since 2007.

"I felt shocked and excited and overwhelmed with emotions because I doubted myself, and I know that sounds bad but looking at the stats, I wasn't a top seed," Irby said. "I'm always the underdog and for me to have a huge PR plus coming home with silver was just really awesome. This has definitely opened up a lot of doors and a whole new perspective I have on my track career as a whole."

Out of the nine World Youth Championships that the IAAF has held, Irby's time was fast enough to win seven of them.

Irby started running track at age nine, when she clocked her first 400 in 80 seconds. By age 12, all of her hard work was paying off, and it was showing.

"There hasn't been a moment where I realized I was going to be 'really good' because I always knew there was room for improvement," she said.

Irby wasn't only a silver medalist in Colombia, she also helped Team USA bring home a gold medal in the mixed 4x4 relay (2 boys, 2 girls).

"It was really different, fun, and exciting!" Irby said. "I was nervous because I had to go against boys, and boys are really fast, but in both prelims and finals my team put me in great position to run and open up the gap. Being able to bring home a gold medal made me feel really honored to have known that I represented not only my parents, city, state, but my country in the best way I possibly could!"

Like the other illustrious members of the girls team that are in the Class of 2017 -- Candace Hill, Sydney McLaughlin, Sammy Watson and others -- Irby is only halfway done with high school.

"It was really fun (getting to know the girls)," Irby said. "I loved them; extremely humbled and goofy right alongside me. It was nice to know that we were all in the same boat, and shared similar stories when it came to track and life as a track athlete."

While all of Lynna's accolades may be hard to top over the next two years, she still has big goals and looks forward to the future.

"My goals are to, of course, keep improving and dropping times in all of my events, especially the 400. (I want to) try to get two more state titles under my belt, and try to get invited to invitational meets and run on bigger stages like the one I just ran in Colombia."