Sadee Martinez set out to improve her marks and be competitive in girls' cross-country and track and field during her junior year at Burroughs High.
What she ended up doing was making history.
"I try to push myself as much as I can, even in practice," Martinez said. "I just try to go out and run hard, and hopefully I will be able to get a good time or a [personal record]."
With a great deal of determination and a lot of hard work, Martinez blazed a trail at Burroughs and accomplished feats that no other Indians before her have been able to pull off.
Not only did she become the first Burroughs runner — male or female — to qualify for the CIF-State Cross-Country Championships, but she also made it to the CIF-State Track and Field Meet in the 1,600 meters, accomplishing an impressive double.
Throw in a school record in the 1,600 and a title in the Burbank All-City Meet and Martinez had a lot to be proud of during her third season of varsity competition.
It is because of those impressive accomplishments that Martinez has been named the 2006-07 Burbank Leader Female Athlete of the Year.
Along with being successful in two sports, Martinez was able to obtain results above and beyond what many thought the junior could accomplish.
A good example of that was her progression in the 1,600. Coming into the season, her best mark in the race was a modest time of 5 minutes 21 seconds. Not wanting to set her standards too high, her season goal was to try and go under 5:15. She obliterated that goal.
"I told [Burroughs Coach John] Peebles that my goal was to get to 5:15 in the 1,600," Martinez said. "Mr. Peebles was like 'No, I think you can run way faster than that.' And I said 'OK, I don't know about that.'
In the CIF Southern Section Division I preliminaries May 12 at Cerritos College, she set a school record and personal best with a 5:05.02 effort. One week later, she ran a 4:58.99 in the Southern Section Finals, setting another Burroughs record and improving her best time by a whopping 6.03 seconds.
A week later in the Masters Meet, she clocked 4:58.82.
"I didn't even think that I was going to be able to run that fast," Martinez said. "That was way faster than I thought I could go."
Peebles coached Martinez in both sports and has watched the runner improve and get faster since she broke into the program as a freshman.
