The ADM girls track team is loaded with veteran talent across a variety of events, making the Tigers a threat to win every invite in which they compete. But not to be overlooked are several freshmen who have supplemented ADM’ success with key varsity contributions.

This is part one of a three-part series examining impact freshmen for the Tigers, starting with Kylie Hauf. We’ll look at Ellie Mueller and Sami Schepers down the road.

Hauf, who ran a successful cross-country season in the fall, has been thrown into some of the less-popular distance events, the kind that are generally uncomfortable to run and often require extra training. More recently, Tigers head coach Bart Mueller found a niche for Hauf: the 400 hurdles, one of the more challenging races.

“You know, the 400 is tough in its own right, then going over hurdles with it – because she’s got some decent sprint speed and hurdling from middle school – but I told her her role right now, we’ve got a lot of sprinters right now, we need some girls to move up to those 400s, 800s, maybe those 400 hurdles,” Mueller said. “And she jumped in and has already run a 1:15, running it twice, and we told her, ‘If you get down to 1:11, 1:10, you can qualify for state.’ And I think she’s just starting to get the hang of it and getting comfortable and getting her stamina.”

Hauf actually cracked the 1:15 barrier on Friday at the Newton Cardinal Invitational, placing 6th out of 13 runners in 400m hurdles with a time of 1:14.2. She and the rest of the Tigers head to Greene County High School Monday evening for a six-team invite.