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“I was just like, ‘man, they’re going to be pretty dangerous,” Janssen said. Let’s see how they hang.”Īfter 10×200 meters in 32-34 seconds-a-pop, which left both athletes bent over heaving for their lives, and still hungry for more, Janssen’s admiration for their efforts quickly metamorphosed into salivation surrounding their potentials. ”But they’re Myriah Blair’s kids - I bet I can put them through the wringer. “I was like, ‘well, these are middle school girls that I’m meeting for the first time,” Janssen recalled thinking that day. What better way than having Janssen run them through a tune-up for an upcoming Hershey track meet in Pennsylvania? She figured they would need to get acquainted eventually. Myriah Blair had brought her eighth and sixth grade daughters, Joslin and Sam, to the track to meet their future high school coach. “They’re going to be pretty dangerous.”Ĭharlie Janssen’s first encounter with Samantha Blair was in May of 2016, after the conclusion of the track season. Parish figured that out over several seasons of competing against the two. I often say to our coaches and athletes that ‘the usual rules of fatigue don’t apply to Sam, or her sister for that matter.'”
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“She also seems to have just about every event and distance in her bag,” he continued. Of course, as experienced as Parish is with the finer points of running talent, it’s hard for the Husky coach to stop without gushing over the nuts and bolts of her athletic prowess, too. She pulls off both sides incredibly well,” wrote Battle Mountain coach Rob Parish. Her combination of tenacious and fierce competition, with genuine kindness and care for others is one that I haven’t seen much in my coaching career. “Sam Blair has been incredible to watch over the years. Even coaches who compete against Blair describe her versatility - the ability to go from star to sideline supporter - in a similar vein. “I would describe my sister as hard-working, fun-loving, and adventurous,” said older sister Joslin, the 2018 World Mountain Running Association U18 World Champion and current NCAA Division I athlete at Vanderbilt. “Relentless, gritty, kind and a jokester,” said Eagle Valley head coach Melinda Brandt when asked to describe her star pupil. To listen to someone describe Blair requires about as much verbose versatility as her Swiss Army knife-like talent. Samantha Blair at a river crossing in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, during the Junior World Mountain Running Championships in 2019. That’s always fun to watch,” her mom, a 2021 Leadville 100 trail run finisher and 2012 USATF Colorado 25k trail champion, echoed.
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“After every race, she stays at the finish line - it doesn’t matter if she finishes fifth or first - she’ll stay at the finish line and give everybody high fives. “Samantha’s sportsmanship is really amazing,” her dad Steve glowingly articulated over the phone last week. More poignant, however, is her desire for excellence to permeate her character and saturate those aspects of life not seen by a camera, honored with a trophy or recorded by a stopwatch.
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Of course, there is the sheer athletic range encompassing the running component of her “doing.” Capable of 46-seconds in the 300 hurdles - an event coach Charlie Janssen says she “seldom practices” - and 17:09 cross-country 5Ks, plus qualifying for Junior World Mountain Trail championships (twice, to be precise), Blair is a once in a generation talent. “If you don’t do everything with 110% effort, then is it even worth doing?” she rhetorically asked in an email earlier this week. 16įor Samantha Blair, living by the adage: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well,” is foundational to all aspects of life. Samantha Blair at her official signing day with NAU on Nov.