Confidence usually isn’t a problem for an athlete who has set personal bests four weeks in a row. But then there’s Suzie Acolatse.
The freshman opened her collegiate debut running an event she had never competed in, the 60-meter race. She would, however, go on to drop her time by more than half a second over the next three meets.
“The biggest thing I need to work on is preparing mentally,” Acolatse said. “I get nervous sometimes, and I think I need to work on my confidence level in order to keep improving.”
Sprints coach Joanna Hayes said that Acolatse, whose personal best now sits at 7.43 seconds after the Husky Classic in mid-February, isn’t so much shy as she is a diamond in the rough.
“The reason why she’s done what she’s done is that she really really wanted it,” Hayes said. “I think she’s going to surpass her PR’s, I think she’s going to run faster all year, but mainly because of her work ethic, her drive and her desire to be better. It’s unquestioned.”
Acolatse’s personal record in Seattle came despite a bad start off the blocks. The freshman was able to recover in the middle of the race, leading to a third-place finish in the preliminaries.
But the 60-meter run is far from her signature routine. It is actually the 100-meter dash that Acolatse specializes in. In her senior year of high school, Acolatse ran 11.46 seconds in the event, and later took third place at the California Interscholastic Federation State Championship with a time of 11.62 seconds. Hayes has set specific goals for Acolatse in the outdoor season, based on her strong performances in high school.
“There’s a percentage that each athlete should increase each year,” Hayes said. “The percentage I’m looking at and have her at is to get to 11.36. The block start in the 60 is a little more important because you don’t have too much time to make up for any mistakes, but it’s very important in both and that’s what she needs to work on.”
The freshman has already performed on tracks larger than just the collegiate game. In July 2015, Acolatse became one of the youngest competitors to represent Ghana at the Warri Relays in Nigeria, running one of the legs for the 4×100 relays.
“It was just such an awesome experience because I raced with people from all over the world,” Acolatse said. “Most of the people were professional runners so I really liked competing with them. It kind of increased my confidence level, just like ‘Yeah I can do this, I’m here.’”
She and coach Hayes will “start over from scratch,” as Acolatse put it, once training begins for the outdoor season. In order to qualify for indoor nationals, Acolatse needed to run in the 7.30s, a goal Hayes has already set for her indoor season next year.
“It’s really really difficult, but I think she can get out of regionals and then sneak into NCAAs in the indoor season next year,” Hayes said. “Obviously in track and field, the longer you’re running, the more chances you have to get faster and the more meets you have.”
