A burgeoning career in track for one of Portal's brightest stars at the high school level has been a long time in the making.

"I have been running my whole life," Hailey Scott said. "I started with the rec department track meet when I was little and have always been passionate about running track."

Scott ran the lead leg of the Lady Panthers' 4x800 relay squad that placed second in state and showed huge improvement throughout the season.

"Hailey improved her (4x800) split by 15 seconds or so," Portal coach Cliff Hubbard said. "Her 400M time was 1:01.74 and it was a 2-second improvement from the prelims and a 6-second improvement going into the region meet."

On an individual scale, Scott improved from a 6th place showing in the 400M last year to 2nd place this spring.

Despite small numbers and not even having a traditional track — which is essential for short and middle-distance runners like Scott — the Portal girls notched a fifth-place finish at the GHSA Class-A state meet.