Her coaches said the track and field star has made vast improvements since making a splash as a true freshman in 2007. Idaho fifth-year senior Erica Digby made another huge stride April 6 when she soared into No. 3 in school history in the 1,500-meter at the Stanford Invitational.
Tony Marcolina | Argonaut Distance runner Erica Digby runs some laps during practice Wednesday at the Dan O'Brien Track and Field Complex. Digby will be running in the Mondo Invitational in Sacramento, Calif. today and Saturday.
Digby’s 4:22.18-minute 1,500-meter placed her third in her section of the event. It was 13 seconds faster than her previous career best. After exploding onto the 2012 track and field scene in her first meet since 2010, Digby and her coaches expect her to continue to improve throughout the rest of the season.
Immediately following the race, Digby didn’t realize how good her time actually was.
“I looked at the time and then it wasn’t really until my coach told me ‘That’s a pretty good time Erica’ that I realized it was pretty good,” she said.
Digby’s great start to the outdoor track isn’t a surprise after how well she did during the indoor season, Idaho Director of Track and field Wayne Phipps said.
“It’s one of those things where you’re pleasantly surprised but you’re not all that surprised with such a great performance but it is pretty difficult, that first meet, to put out such a good time like that,” he said. “Regardless of if you are in really good shape and regardless of how well indoor season goes, it’s still pretty difficult to run really fast in the very first meet.”
Not only is her time the best by an Idaho athlete since 2006, but Digby’s time is No. 25 in the nation, No. 13 in
the West Region and No. 1 in the WAC. Digby was also honored as the WAC Women’s Track Athlete of the Week.
“We’ve just started doing some event specific speed work so for her to run that fast without even specific work would suggest that she is capable of running quite a bit faster and can make it to the first round of NCAAs and maybe even advance even farther,” Phipps said.
Digby said her running career really took off midway through high school when she started running four or five times a week.
“I’ve done cross country and track since elementary school and it wasn’t until probably grade 10 that I started taking it pretty seriously and training four or five time a week,” Digby said.
Originating from Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Digby caught the eye of Phipps who is also from Canada.
“She is a fellow Canadian … I was very familiar with her track club and her coach back in Canada,” Phipps said. “She had some real solid times in high school … she ended up being a great fit for us. She’s improved every year.”
Digby’s accomplishments extend off the track into cross-country as well. She was a cross-country WAC champion as true freshman and won another title with the team last fall. Winning the 2011 cross-country WAC Championship is Digby’s favorite moment as a Vandal athlete. She hopes to continue her success and lead her team to a 2012 track and field WAC Championship as well.
“I would always joke around with her that I had probably only heard her say two words to me in her first two years here,” Phipps said. “You can just kind of see a level of comfort that she has now and such an increased amount of confidence … good times, even better times, are just right in front of her.”
Stephan Wiebe can be reached at [email protected]