Track and field: Sonoma Academy's Hill wins 800-meter race at HOKA meet, improves on area record

Sonoma Academy's Josie Hill had another historic run at the HOKA Festival of Miles in St. Louis on Thursday night.

Running in the 800-meter race against a field of other nationally ranked competitors, Hill won in a time of 2 minutes, 5.86 seconds to break her own Redwood Empire record in the event, according to records compiled by redwoodempirerunning.com. Hill won the race by over a second and her time stands as No. 2 by a California runner this year and No. 14 in the nation.

Hill trailed only Charlize-Trinity McKenzie through the first lap but surged past her and into the lead in the final 200 meters.

"I went into this race with not a lot of nerves and a lot of excitement and gratitude to be here because this is such an amazing event, and I didn't even know if I would qualify for it this year," Hill told runnerspace.com after the race. "It's my first time here, so I was just ready to rip one and have fun and I feel like I definitely accomplished that."

Montgomery alum Hanne Thomsen held the former area record in the event at 2:09.04 heading into this track and field season, but Hill has now beaten that time seven times this spring. She exploded onto the track scene in late March when she shattered the Redwood Empire record in her first meet of the season, running to a time of 2:06.38.

Hill, who will be a senior in the fall, starred at Technology for her first two years of high school before finishinig out her first prep season for Sonoma Academy with a third-place finish in the 800 at the state track and field championships last weekend - the best-ever finish in the event by a girl in area history.

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