Phyllis Francis is naturally shy. So it was no surprise the Catherine McAuley senior kept to herself during warm ups for the women’s 400 meters at the 103rd Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden Friday night. Francis was given the opportunity to race against some of the world’s best professional runners.
“I didn’t want to bother them,” Francis said.
She did flat out hold her own against them.
Wearing the uniform of her prestigious club sqaud Team Evolution, Francis placed third in a field of four with a time of 55.82, the fifth-fastest scholastic time in the country this season.
Monica Hargrove won the race in 55.07 and Aliann Pompey was second with a time of 55.19. Hargrove was a silver medalist in 2006 on the US 4 x 400 relay at the Indoor World Championships, Pompey was a three-time Guyanese Olympian and Mary Wineberg, who placed fourth, ran the 400 for the US at the 2008 Olympics.
Francis, meanwhile, is one of the state’s most accomplished middle distance runners and broke the junior national record in the 600 last season.
“I was really nervous and excited at the same time,” said Francis, the National Scholastic Indoor Championships 800 champion. “It was a great adrenaline rush.”
She got out quick at the start, which was almost at a sprinter’s pace. Francis hung right with the field for the first of two laps, slightly behind Hargrove and Pompey. They pulled away from her on the back straight away.
“It was a good first time experience running with these athletes,” she said.
Francis said she was told early this week of the opportunity to run at the Millrose Games, a rare occurrence for a city girl without a top flight relay to run on. McAuley is a small all-girls school in Brooklyn with an enrollment of approximately 275 students. So for Francis, who is used to big races and big venues, it was quite a night.
“You can’t believe you are in the same race as them and you are running the same race as them,” she said.