A major chapter will close on Saturday for the greatest distance runner ever produced by a Lee County high school. Fort Myers grad Krissy Gear will toe the line at 5:41 p.m. to race the 1,500 meter finals at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The Arkansas senior has a superb chance to earn her sixth All American honor and should all the cards fall right, claim a victory to end her epic career.
By the end Gear had set every record at Fort Myers High from the 800 to the 3200. At her final State Championship she ran an incredible triple to earn three gold medals to end her career with six state championships. Even at the New Balance Nationals Gear was overlooked and put in the slow heat. Gear turned the tables reeling off a 4:49.36 placing third overall. She should have been looking at scholarships from top five distance powers but having gone unnoticed landed at Furman.
Her time at Furman was fruitful but failed to fulfill the promise she had shown at high school. Gear won the USATF junior title in the 3000 meter steeplechase as a freshman making the national team that competed at the World Junior Championships in Finland. Gear was a second team All-American in the steeple her sophomore year. As an outside observer I felt that Gear wasn’t being given a chance to show what she could do in the 800 and 1500. From my perspective I think the Furman coaches saw her as a steepler and nothing more. Suddenly Gear was gone and off to Arkansas, a distance power.
It didn’t take long for Gear to make her mark. Just as she was prepared to show how Razorback training had transformed her into a formidable miler COVID hit. Her chance to show the quick progress she had made at NCAA Indoor Nationals was gone and we wouldn’t get to see what she was capable of for a full year.
What she did in the space of four days in March of 2021 is the stuff of legend. Gear anchored her Arkansas team at the NCAA Indoors to a silver medal in the Distance Medley Relay. She capped the meet off my grabbing second in the mile for her second silver running 4:32.27. Earlier in the year she had broken the school indoor record for the mile running 4:31.83.
After her exhausting Friday/Saturday double Gear made the trip from Birmingham, Alabama to Stillwater, Oklahoma for the NCAA Cross Country Championships. Never a cross country standout in college, Gear ran the race of life finishing 21st to claim All American honors. That made three All American awards in four days.
Outdoors was just as impressive. Gear ran the second fastest 1500 in Razorback history running 4:09.00 in Modesto, setting a meet record in winning the SEC steeplechase clocking a 9:38.62 which also topped the Arkansas school record. She closed the 2021 season out with a fifth place finish in the 1500 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
While her senior year hasn’t been as magical, so far, it’s been more rewarding in some ways. Indoors Gear ran the 800 on the Razorback’s school record setting and national champion Distance Medley Relay team at the NCAA Indoors. Outdoors Gear anchored Arkansas to a collegiate record 16:53.87 in the 4x1500 battling North Carolina State star Katelyn Touhy for the victory at the historic Penn Relays. The Razorback squad crushed the old record by nearly 15 seconds. Gear’s anchor leg was emblematic of her Arkansas career, winning for her team. Krissy always shines brightest when she’s part of something bigger than herself.
Saturday in Eugene she will take center stage against the best collegians over 1500 meters. Regardless of the outcome, she will have cemented her place as a Razorback great. What comes next is another is the great unknown. Which shoe company will see the potential that others have overlooked too often? The world of professional track and field awaits Krissy Gear.
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