By Justin HAGER

The last time a Crescenta Valley High School student was recognized as a Gatorade Player of the Year, Titanic had just won 11 Academy Awards and become the first film in history to gross $1 billion. But now, 23 years after future WNBA star Michelle Greco was named the Gatorade Girls Basketball Player of the Year and, for only the second time in school history, CVHS graduate and future University of Virginia track star Mia Barnett was named the Gatorade California Girls Track & Field Player of the Year.

In her senior season, Barnett recorded the nation’s fastest prep times in the 1600- (4:37.58) and 3200-meter run (9:52.23), with both ranking among the top 10 performances in U.S. girls prep history. She also ran the nation’s second-fastest mile of the year and a top 10 in California history (4:39.41) and this spring had a state-best finish of 2:07.31 in the 800, the seventh-fastest prep time in the U.S.

To understand Barnett’s incredible season, we have to travel back to April and her performance at the Laguna Beach Distance Carnival where she finished the 3200-meter race almost 50 seconds ahead of the next-closest runner that day.

“The funny thing about that race is that she was really nervous about it,” said Rob Evans, a track & field coach and English teacher at CVHS. “She hadn’t run a 3200 in a few years and didn’t really think it was her event. We had an idea as coaches that she might be able to run a sub-10-minute 3200 but, due to COVID, we didn’t even know we were competing in the Laguna Beach race until the Monday before the race. We knew that might make her a little uncomfortable, but also would make her motivated and interesting.”

Interesting doesn’t even begin to describe it. Barnett’s performance was so dominant that a little over half-way through the race the announcer came over the P.A. system with a simple but rarely heard request: “Everybody please turn your attention to the track; what’s happening right now is truly historic.”

Parents, fans, teammates, classmates and coaches turned to watch as Barnett lapped competitor after competitor until finally, she was a full lap ahead of all but one runner.

“She pretty much ran these meets solo,” explained Mark Evans, Rob’s father and fellow CVHS track coach. “It’s hard to do that time after time, repeatedly, to run by yourself when there is no one in the League who could keep up with you. It takes an incredible amount of mental toughness.”

“She’d run in races against these other girls who were incredible athletes, girls who in any other year would have been standout, historic athletes, and she’s beating them by 100 meters,” added Rob.

More than just her mental toughness and ability to run, though, both coaches describe Barnett as a role model for her teammates and a great representation of young people today.

“She is a really caring person, she spends a lot of her free time volunteering at the Dream Center in downtown LA,” said Rob. “She gets straight As and competes at the highest level, yet when I asked her what she was going to do now that training was done for the season, her first response was her desire to run groups at the center. She wants to be a part of something bigger.”

Mark echoed this sentiment but added that her greatest asset is her can-do attitude,

“Mia has so many outside activities that she does to contribute to society and she is always looking to do – do better, improve just a little bit,” he said. “She practiced and trained the same way and always came in with an attitude of ‘I’m going to get better every day, I’m just going to get a little bit better.’ It was down to earth and very hard working.”

When asked what they wanted CV Weekly readers to know about Barnett and her legacy, Rob said it best.

“I want people to know that in our small town we have the best runner in California and one of the best in the country,” said Rob, “but despite all this [acclaim] she is a great teammate who has tremendous class and humility. She cares about her team and her school and is going to do great things in the future both on and off the track.”