Emily Sloan out to leave lasting mark in Colorado

By Brent W. New for DyeStat

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. – As her final hurdles in high school get dragged onto the track, Emily Sloan meticulously skims over her remaining agenda before college. Win indoor nationals. Break Colorado state records.

She calls it “unfinished business.”

The Rock Canyon senior has long established her hurdling dominance around the state and country. An All-American last year -- despite having knee surgery -- the blonde-haired missile won her fourth state title in the spring and added another two victories at the Great Southwest Classic.

Now, the Oregon commit is focused on straightening out a few of her high school stumbles.

She will go to Albuquerque, N.M. for the USATF Indoor Championships for a chance to compete Feb. 17-18 against older athletes in the 60-meter hurdles. 

"It'll be a great experience to run against the best hurdlers in the world and hopfully I'll get a fast time out of it," Sloan said. "I am very excited!" 

After that, Sloan has targeted a return to New York for New Balance Nationals Indoor.

After missing the 60-meter hurdles final by 0.01 seconds as a sophomore, Sloan didn’t make the trip a year ago because of her knee ailment. She said doctors removed a loose piece of cartilage behind her left kneecap, which forced her to sit out three months.

“It was totally random,” Sloan recalled. “Once we heard the news, I was in shock and it was really upsetting. My coaches were telling me how fast I was running in practice and we were talking about our goals, and how we wanted to go back to New Balance for revenge … and then I was out for the whole indoor season.”

Then in the spring -- just a month after being cleared to run -- Sloan was on pace to make history in the 300 hurdles at the state meet before she clanked her final obstacle and tumbled into second. The next day she found some solace in a no-doubt win in the 100 hurdles.

“My knee didn’t hurt at all, but I think my confidence lacked a little bit,” Sloan said. “I was just easing back into it and my training wasn’t where it should have been.”

Well, it is now.

Club coach Chuck Dugue says Sloan is running the fastest times of her career and is just fractions off the all-time best marks in the state 100 and 300 hurdles.

Sloan’s best 300 hurdles time is 41.24, a step off Carly Lester’s all-time state mark of 41.18 in 2014. Her 13.40 in the 100 hurdles, meanwhile, is a ways behind Dior Hall’s former national record time of 12.92 (2014).

“She’s stronger and faster since last year,” said Dugue, overseer of FK Elite Youth Club Track and Field.

The coach believes the progression is just another step for Sloan, who he thinks is destined for greatness. In fact, Dugue says he’s watched video of U.S. hurdler Kendra Harrison, the world-record holder in the 100 hurdles, and sees some similarities with Sloan.

“The one thing Emily has an advantage of is running in between the hurdles,” he said. “The one thing Keni Harrison does is she can clear the hurdle in two-tenths of a second, but in between the hurdles Emily is just as fast. She just takes a tenth of a second more over the hurdle and when you add that up 10 times, she’s a second slower than the world record (12.20).

“Her next coaches, the coaches at Oregon, will have to get that hurdle time down.”

Sloan chose to join the Ducks after also considering Notre Dame, Michigan, Kentucky and Duke. She said after visiting Eugene, she knew “that’s where I had to be.”

First things first, though, and that's New Balance Nationals Indoor, March 9-11, where Sloan will look to join Hall (2012 and 2014) and Mullen’s Kira Robinson (2005) as Colorado athletes to capture the girls 60 hurdles championship.