Gold medal finish for track athlete
ANSLEY -When you come from a family of track athletes, you’re probably going to run track even if your dream is to play soccer. How good you end up being in track depends as much on your drive and your mindset as it does your gene pool. Carli Bailey was born into that track family.
Mike Bailey of Ansley, Carli’s dad, was a decathlon champion in the Big Eight conference in 1994 as a member of the Cornhusker team. Her older brother Justin won a gold medal in hurdles at state and her sister Courtney was a pole vaulter at Hastings College. Clearly, Carli would compete in track.
With other medalists in the family, Carli had pressure to make it to state her freshman year - something no one else in her family had yet achieved. She did, in fact, make it to state as a freshman and ran a 62 second 400m, which was good enough for the silver medal. Of course, we all know what happened to track in 2020, Carli’s sophomore year; it was canceled courtesy of Covid.
The pressure and expectations were even greater her junior year as she led the state the entire season. Family members, people in school and throughout the community were all buzzing about how she “had to run a 57”. She beat her district time of 62 by running a 60 at state but she lost the gold medal by one second to current Husker basketball guard Allison Weidner of Humphrey St. Francis.
In 2021, Carli also brought home a silver medal in the 300m hurdles and while she argued with her family that her two silvers should trump her brother’s state gold, deep down she really wanted a gold of her own.
Heading into her senior year, Carli realized that she needed to get rid of all the outside pressure and commentary that she had dealt with the year before in order to truly reach her goal of winning gold. She just said enough was enough and she didn’t want to hear anymore expectations or “coaching” from anyone that wasn’t her coach.
The 300m hurdles are a grueling event that take not only endurance and speed but skill and technique as well. Carli perfected that and was undefeated in her senior season, up to and including the prelims and finals at the state track championship. The smile on her face at the end of that race said it all - a victory that achieved a long-standing goal. To make the story even more interesting, Ansley doesn’t have a hard surface track so the majority of Carli’s preparation and training to be a gold medal hurdle champion came in the middle of the Spartan football field!
In addition to clinching the gold in the 300m hurdles, 2022 ended with Carli winning a gold in the open Class D 400m run and a silver medal in the 100m hurdles.
When asked about her decision to hang up her spikes, Carli said that she visited and really enjoyed the possibility of running at Doane and she had offers from several other schools as well. In the end, after a tough decision, she opted to step down from competitive track and pursue other interests that she’s been passionate about but hasn’t had time to dive into. As much as she loved winning and reaching goals, the nerves and stress literally made her sick to her stomach more often than she wanted to admit.
Carli is not only a standout in track, volleyball and basketball but she earned a Regents scholarship to UNL where she plans to study accounting or finance. She looks forward to traveling, joining clubs, living on campus and figuring out the whole, big world that lies before her. She loves business and is tickled to be pursuing things outside of sports.
Going out with a bang, Carli credits her mom Jody and her step-dad and head track coach Tony Shirmer, along with retired coach Dan Moore. Jody was always the first one there with a hug, win or lose. Her role models have always been her dad and her uncles Joel and Derek and her Grandpa, all on the Bailey side. Those family members have motivated, encouraged and supported her throughout her high school sports journey.
Carli’s advice to her younger self (and to any underclassmen that are interested) is to “Run for yourself, not for other people.” She also wouldn’t recommend running both the open 400m and the 300m hurdles, which typically are back to back during meets. Nonetheless, Carli Bailey managed to not only run them but to do so in gold medal style. Now it’s on to future goals and dreams for this state champion!