Tucker May Break New Ground This Winter

After the seasons senior Leanne Tucker had running middle distances last winter and spring, some might consider TewksburyHigh girls indoor track coach Peter Molloy a little crazy when he talks about having Tucker change races and run the mile this winter.

But as usual, there's a method to Molloy's madness.

"It would be easy to put (Tucker) back into the 600 or the 1000 and just sit back and watch her win a lot of races," Molloy said. "But one of the things that's going to be important to her college coach is her ability to run the mile.  So we're going to prepare for the mile and focus on the mile with her for at least the first six or seven weeks of the season."

Around about February Molloy and Tucker will decide which events his talented senior will concentrate on as they head into the Merrimack Valley Conference championships and the state meets. But Molloy is predicting that Tucker's mile times will be drawing a lot of attention by Valentine's Day.

"She's never really trained for the mile, but she's already got a personal best of 5:26," Molloy said. "I'd like to see a sub-5 minute mile out of her. Running the 1000 again would be safe points for her, but we want to challenge her. I think with a whole year's worth of training she's capable of a low 4:50 mile."

Breaking 5:00 minutes in the mile would put Tucker in some elite company. There are probably only 10-15 high school girls in the country capable of running the indoor mile in less than five minutes. A clocking closer to 4:50 would put Tucker in the top two or three in the country, Molloy said.

If Tucker were to achieve success at that level, it wouldn't be the first time. As a junior, Tucker clocked 2:09.13 in the 1000-meter run at the New Balance Nationals in Greensboro, North Carolina last June. That time was good for a sixth-place finish that gained All-America status for Tucker.

Molloy thinks Tucker has similar potential in the mile.

"It's definitely something she's capable of," he said. "And it's something we'd like to help her achieve."

So instead of betting on the sure thing and letting the defending Merrimack Valley Conference 1000-meter champion defend her title, Molloy will help Tucker stretch her boundaries this winter.

"We could put her anywhere and she'd be successful on the league level," Molloy said. "But one thing we try to do is identify the strengths and weaknesses of our runners and put them in a position where they can be succcessful. It'll be interesting to see what she can do."