Holly DeHart didn\u2019t want to have any regrets.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Not at the conclusion of her senior year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Not ever.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So when the Kentwood High sprinter\u2019s friends were enjoying the final days of their high school lives \u2014 hanging out with peers, staying up late to watch movies and essentially being teenagers \u2014 DeHart remained intently focused on a single goal. And a golden one at that.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were nights when I wish I would have been able to go out,\u201d admitted the recent graduate. \u201cMy senior year, I wanted to go have fun, but I also didn\u2019t want to have any regrets at the end of the state (track) meet. I didn\u2019t want to wish I did this or that. At the beginning of the season, when I wasn\u2019t performing as well as I could, it was a wake-up call.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be stuck losing at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DeHart left nothing for chance. Consumed by winning, she often practiced with the Conquerors after school, and her club squad \u2014 the Flying AJ\u2019s based out of Tacoma \u2014 shortly thereafter. What little time DeHart had left over, she spent focused on academics. And when the chips were officially put on the table in late May at Mount Tahoma High during the Class 4A state meet, there wasn\u2019t a local athlete who delivered a bigger finish than the Kentwood sprinter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Bolstered by the perfect amount of determination and ability, DeHart soared at the state meet, bringing home gold-medal finishes in the 100-meter and 200-meter dash, and running key legs on KW\u2019s victorious 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 relay teams.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
DeHart\u2019s grand performance at the state meet also proved to be the key ingredient to helping the Conquerors run away with their first-ever team title in girls track and field. The DeHart-led Conquerors won the crown with an eye-popping 66 points, well ahead of second-place Inglemoor (43).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Today, DeHart can add one more gold medal to her mantel as she has been chosen the Kent Reporter\u2019s Female Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t a more deserving recipient, Kentwood track & field coach Steve Roche said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, she meant everything to this team,\u201d Roche said. \u201cShe bought in for four years to the idea of hard work, she listened to coaches, took care of her body, and dedicated herself to year-round preparation. The state meet was a culmination to all of her years of preparation. That was more than just one day or one week.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd she deserved all of it, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Teammate and fellow sprinter Mykala Benjamin agreed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really proud of her. I know how she works, and what she had been through,\u201d Benjamin said. \u201cWe all knew she could do it, and she proved us right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yet, DeHart wasn\u2019t just good at the state meet. She was untouchable.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In addition to winning both the 100 and the 200, the 18-year-old Kentwood standout also established new personal bests in each event. DeHart broke the tape in the 100 in 11.97 seconds. In the 200 (which DeHart also won in 2010), she crossed the finish line in 24.29 seconds.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had it in me. I knew I could run those times, but I did kind of surprise myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And now?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel accomplished,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And for good reason. Not only did DeHart bolt to a fantastic finish, but in the process, she opened the eyes of many college recruiters.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A lightly recruited track standout during the regular season, DeHart\u2019s postseason performance grabbed the attention of all the right people. A day after dazzling everyone in attendance at Mount Tahoma High, DeHart was summoned to Washington State University for an interview and a walk-through of the track facility.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted to get me out for a visit, and called the day after the state meet,\u201d said DeHart, who noted that the Cougars had shown some interest during the regular season. \u201cThey flew me out Sunday night (the day after state). I don\u2019t think they would have been as persistent (if not for my performance at state). They were interested in me before, but after state, they were more excited for me to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Before meeting with coaches at Washington State, DeHart had seriously considered competing at Eastern Washington University next year. The one-day trip to Pullman, however, swayed the Kentwood star to the Palouse.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for a while, I was set on Eastern,\u201d DeHart said. \u201cI felt as though that was my only option. WSU came out of nowhere, asked me to come for a visit, and it was perfect. Everything was perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
So perfect, in fact, that DeHart will be competing for the Cougars next season on scholarship.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And will leave Kentwood without a single regret.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Holly DeHart didn\u2019t want to have any regrets.<\/p>\n
Not at the conclusion of her senior year.<\/p>\n
Not ever.<\/p>\n
So when the Kentwood High sprinter\u2019s friends were enjoying the final days of their high school lives \u2014 hanging out with peers, staying up late to watch movies and essentially being teenagers \u2014 DeHart remained intently focused on a single goal. And a golden one at that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were nights when I wish I would have been able to go out,\u201d admitted the recent graduate. \u201cMy senior year, I wanted to go have fun, but I also didn\u2019t want to have any regrets at the end of the state (track) meet. I didn\u2019t want to wish I did this or that. At the beginning of the season, when I wasn\u2019t performing as well as I could, it was a wake-up call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be stuck losing at the end.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":4712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4711"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4711"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}