Elmont's Ashley Fulton shows she can adjust real fast, too
Ashley Fulton of Elmont wins the 55-meter dash at the Nassau Class B boys and girls track and field championships at St. Anthony's in South Huntington on Feb. 7. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Salute To The Champs: Ashley Fulton, Elmont, 300 meters
With everything Ashley Fulton had to do on championship Saturday, she had to make sure that energy was conserved at the proper moments. There were trials to run, finals to get to, and not everything could be ‘left on the track’ at all times.
So, when she found herself running in the first of a three-heat 300 final, she was a little confused.
“[Conserving energy] was my strategy, but I was led to believe that [finals seeding] would be based on who won their heat, not based on the times,” Fulton said. “I assumed that the heat winners were all going to be in the fastest heat, but that didn’t end up being the case. So, yeah, I made the finals. But I didn’t get the heat that I wanted to.”
But Fulton, as she usually does, made do.
The junior ran fast enough to be crowned public school state champion, running a 39.58. James Madison’s Gabrielle Cummings, running in the third heat, won the Federation championship in 39.17. Fulton was second in the Federation.
Fulton came around to the 300 this winter, an event that she wasn’t too keen on earlier in her high school career. She ran a 38.48 in mid-December, a time that stood all season as the fastest in the state and eighth-fastest in the country, according to milesplit.com.
