Woodbridge Sprinter Dix Slowly Emerges

IRVINE — Sprinters are born, not made. That’s the conventional wisdom in track and field, Woodbridge Coach George Varvas says.

So meet his unconventional exception, Woodbridge senior Jackie Dix.

The county’s top sprinter on the county’s top-ranked team didn’t blaze onto the scene overnight. It took four years of hard work to transform Dix from just another runner into the finest sprinter that the Woodbridge girls’ team has ever seen.

“It’s been a slow process from the beginning,” Varvas said. “When she came in as a freshman, she had above-average speed. But there was no indication that she could be this fast.”

Dix, the two-time Orange County champion at 100 meters, has posted the fastest county times in the 100 (12.04 seconds) and 200 (24.86) this season. Saturday, she won the 100 and 200 titles at the Orange County Championships.

“When I finished the 100, the hand time was really fast, like 11.67 or something,” Dix said. “I knew that was way off. But when they told me 12.04, I was a little disappointed that I came so close to breaking 12 seconds. But still, I thought it was pretty good.”

The time was good enough to be the best in Woodbridge history. But it has taken awhile for Dix to get accustomed to the idea that she’s surpassed her mentors.

When Dix arrived at Woodbridge, Meisha Wilson-Duval was the top sprinter in school history and also was Dix’s teammate. Dix enrolled at Woodbridge the same time another highly touted sprinter, Erin Stovall, arrived.

The trio formed three-quarters of a school-record setting 400 relay team, but Dix always ran in the shadow of Wilson-Duval and Stovall.

“Sure, training with great athletes like that makes you better,” Varvas said. “But sometimes, you won’t give yourself enough credit. You think you’ll never be in the same class as them because they are always beating you in practice and in meets.”

That changed last season. With Wilson-Duval running at Purdue and Stovall sidelined because of an early-season injury, Dix took over the role as the team’s top sprinter.

“All of a sudden, Jackie found she was winning these races, not finishing behind Erin and Meisha,” Varvas said.

Dix ran all the way to her first Orange County title in the 100 and qualified for the Southern Section final in the same event. She impressed Varvas at the finals too.

“Here Jackie was, running against all these girls with their impressive credentials and she was just a junior,” Varvas said. “And out of the blocks, she was dead last in that race.

“But even against the fastest sprinters in CIF, she still ran down half of the field. She ended up finishing fourth.”

Varvas saw that potential and wanted to work with Dix on her starts, and she has improved in that area. Last summer and fall, Dix seriously trained for track season for the first time in her high school career, and it’s paying dividends now.

“Since it was my senior season, I wanted to train hard,” Dix said. “I didn’t want to have any regrets or ever wonder, what if I had worked harder?”

Varvas sees the results of the hard work and calls Dix “mechanically perfect.” Although she may not have the natural speed of some sprinters, she can make up for it with her technique.

Although that helped Dix do well individually at the Orange County Championships, she was still disappointed that Woodbridge finished second to Santa Margarita by only half a point.

“It really hurt, especially since we know we can beat them,” said Dix, referring to Woodbridge’s 80 1/2-55 1/2 Sea View League dual-meet victory over Santa Margarita April 17. “Sure the county championships was an important meet, but it really was just another invitational.

“We know they were better than us, but just on that day.”

Still, Dix is keeping her focus on bigger prizes, such as a league title-clinching performance at the Sea View League finals. Or even better things at the Southern Section, Masters and State meets.

“The weather’s getting warmer, the competition is getting tougher,” Varvas said, “Jackie thrives on that.”