Fillmore’s Shaw Ready to Turn On Afterburners

T-minus 10 days and counting.

Like a rocket poised on a launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Nikki Shaw of Fillmore High is on schedule to take off at the state track and field championships June 6.

Shaw, who will attend Villanova in the fall, won the girls’ 800- and 1,600-meter races in the 1-A Division in the Southern Section track and field championships at Cerritos College on Saturday.

Although her time of 4 minutes 50.40 seconds in the 1,600 is the fastest prep time in the nation this season, it is shy of her personal best of 4:49.01, which she clocked in a second-place performance in last year’s state meet.

“I’m right where I want to be at this point in the season,” Shaw said. “I know when I want to run fast, and the ultimate day is June 6. All the training that my dad and I have done has been geared to running my fastest on that day. . . . I know what kind of shape I’m in. There is no reason for everyone else to know yet.”

Shaw, the 1-A champion in the 400, 800 and 1,600 as a junior, has been coached by her father Douglas since she was a freshman. Douglas, a retired computer programmer, has meticulously planned and watched over his daughter’s workouts this season, but neither he nor Nikki has decided how many races she will run in the state meet.

The top five finishers in each event at the Southern Section Masters meet on Friday at Cerritos qualify for the state meet. Shaw is expected to advance in the 800 and 1,600, but she is unsure if she will double in the state meet, which would require her to run a qualifying heat in each event the day before the finals.

Earlier, she had qualified for the 400 in the 1-A meet but chose not to run.

“I’ll wait and see how next week goes before I make a decision,” said Shaw, who ran in only the 1,600 in the state meet last year although she also had qualified in the 800.

Shaw competed in both events in the Arcadia Invitational in April with mixed results. She finished second to Shelley Taylor of Huntington Beach Edison in the 1,600 with the then-second-fastest time in the nation, but she was a well-beaten seventh in the 800.

Shaw’s mental attitude has improved since Arcadia, however. Before that meet, she said, she had been putting too much pressure on herself, making herself nervous before she ran.

“From Arcadia on, my whole mental strategy has been much better,” Shaw said. “I’ve been training so much harder this season than before that I’ve really had to concentrate on my workouts. And that has helped me relax in the races.

“I was just having a ball out there on Saturday. That’s something I’m really happy about. I wasn’t nervous at all.”

The only thing troubling Shaw is a sore arch in her right foot, but she is confident that a few precautionary measures--taping her foot when she runs and icing it afterward--will take care of the problem.

“Aside from the arch, I’m healthy,” she said. “I feel great.”

Although Shaw will run the mile in both the Golden West and International Prep invitationals next month, and the 1,500 meters in The Athletics Congress Junior championships (age 19 and under) in July, a state title is her No. 1 goal. “State is the most important meet left,” Shaw said. “A state title would be the ultimate way to end my high school career.”