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State title twins

8th-graders lead Irish track hopes

By JAMES JONES
jkjones@sunherald.com

WOOLMARKET --

Twins Katie and Emily Bodin give St. Patrick a chance to win its first state track and field championship.

The eighth-graders lead the Lady Irish's hopes of capturing the Class 2A state crown on Friday at Pearl High School.

Katie Bodin has a chance at winning the 3,200-meter run. As a seventh-grader at Mercy Cross last year, she won the 1A title with a time of 12:36.

Emily Bodin is in position to capture the 1,600-meter event. With Mercy Cross last year, she took the honor with a time of 5:56.

The Bodin sisters insist it's no big deal competing against each other.

"I don't think of Emily as a competitor, but more as a teammate and supporter," Katie said. "It helps to have her around. I do better with the family support."

Emily agrees.

"Katie and I are very competitive," she said. "We always congratulate each other after the meets. I'm real proud of her. We have always supported each other. We perform better with the family support."

St. Patrick coach Tim McDaniel loves coaching the sisters, who figure to keep St. Patrick in state contention for the next few years.

"I've watched those two run since they were in elementary school," McDaniel said. "I know that they're special. We're happy to bring them along slowly."

The Bodins burst onto the scene last year, when the Lady Crusaders fell short in the 1A title race.

Running in the Jackson area with the other quality runners didn't intimidate them. They fit right in with their rivals.

"Last year's track meet was more of an experiment for me," Katie said. "I didn't know what to expect and ended up having a lot of fun."

Emily said the 2½-hour drive to the Jackson area was a little intimidating.

"I wasn't sure how I would perform," she said. "When I got there, I settled down and ended up having fun."

The Bodins successfully transferred their skills to cross-country, leading St. Patrick to the 2A state title in the fall.

Katie won the 2A overall title, finishing with a solid time of 15:39.21, and her sister placed second at 16:09.81.

The year before, Katie won the 1A individual title and Mercy Cross took the state championship.

"Moving up from 1A to 2A, the competition was different," Katie said. "But we knew that we had a chance to win it all."

Cross-country provides more intrigue.

"To me, cross-country is a lot more fun," Katie said. "It seems like there's a lot of challenges."

Emily added: "Cross-country is more running on trails. In track, you run more in circles."

But they found a huge bright spot with competing for track success.

"Emily and I are not competing against each other in track," Katie said. "I'm running one event, and she runs the other. We get to watch each other run. In cross-country, I'm always competing against her."

Emily won the 1,600 (2:38.1) and the 800 (2:38.1) at the region meet, and Katie won the 3,200 (12:21.0). They repeated the feat last week at the South State 2A meet.

The Bodins plan to bring the 1,600 and 3,200 individual titles and a 2A crown back to South Mississippi this weekend.