Sports

Tam's McMillan Sprints to Stardom

After two stellar seasons that propelled her to a statewide stage, Lilla McMillan's hard work is paying off and promising big things ahead.

It seemed like little more than youthful exuberance to her dad at the time, but Tamalpais High track star Lilla McMillan showed a glimpse of her blinding speed at a very young age - even younger than that of Reilly Johnson, the 8-year-old phenom who just won the 2010 Dipsea Race.

A decade ago, after a dinner with family friends at Brandy Ho's in San Francisco's Chinatown, the McMillan family and their friends walked over to Pier 7, the public fishing pier along the Embarcadero. Five-year-old Lilla, her two older sisters Jenny and Amanda and several children from the other family took off down the long, straight pier, which is slightly longer than the 200-meter races McMillan has come to dominate over the past two seasons.

"She just kind of ran by the other kids," Sam McMillan said. "She was the youngest, and the other dad looked at me like, 'Did you see that?' But I never thought too much of it."

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Having just finished one of the most successful seasons in recent Tam High track history, Lilla McMillan's speed can no longer be chalked up to youthful energy. In just two years, the junior-to-be has repeatedly topped her own best times and competed in two events at the state championships in just her second season. With summertime now in full swing, few Marin athletes enjoy such bright a future.

"I've never coached anybody who has worked as hard as Lilla to achieve her goals," said Kevin Engle, Tam High's track coach for the past 16 years. "She's obviously a very talented athlete, but it's her work ethic that sets her apart. She already ranks among the best all time at Tam, and I can't wait to see what she can accomplish."

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As a tiny, spindly freshman in the fall of 2008, McMillan decided to run track on a whim. She arrived at Tam from San Francisco's Creative Arts Charter School with little competitive experience and a casual interest in running. When she showed up at track practice, Engle had never heard of her. McMillan was reticent at the beginning to show off her speed. "I just wanted to blend in at first," she said. 

Engle saw her potential in an early warm-up run. "I knew right then and there that she was probably going to be one of the best sprinters on our team," he said. 

Fast forward two years later, and 15-year-old Lilla McMillan, all 110 pounds of her, is one of the top high school sprinters in the Bay Area. She won Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) titles in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints and qualified for the state championship in both events. At every meet, as the competition got stronger, McMillan continued to improve her times. Although she finished sixth in her 100 heat and fifth in the 200 heat at the state meet in Clovis on June 4, unable to reach the final in either race, her 100 time of 12.05 seconds was just 0.01 shy of the school record. And she'd already accomplished her goal of getting to the state meet, knowing that most of the runners who bested her there were seniors who would be long gone by next season.

"I just wanted to not get last in my heat, and I didn't," she said. "Now I know that I can run on that level. Some of those girls are among the fastest in the country. But I don't think I'm that far away."

Both McMillan and Engle know that it will be difficult to make the leap from simply reaching the state meet to actually competing for a state title.

"It's a very big jump," Engle said. "With the amount of improvement she made from her freshman to sophomore years, the sky is the limit for her. But it's going to be difficult for her to make any improvement on her times. She does work extremely hard and she's very goal driven, so honestly I really believe that she's capable of getting into the finals and being competitive."

Off the track, McMillan's work ethic and fierce competitive spirit is belied by her modest, laid-back demeanor. In the wake of a stressful season, she plans to relax this summer, travel to Lake Tahoe, go to the beach and ride her bike around town. As the summer progresses, she'll run cross country with Tam coach Sylvia Goodman and do some weight training and swimming. 

McMillan is taking her meteoric rise in stride, even if her emergence as the fastest girl on campus has produced a few surreal moments along the way. Near the end of the school year, McMillan walked into the Tam High Library and saw a fellow student she didn't know very well watching a YouTube video of one of her recent races. It stopped McMillan in her tracks. 

"I was like, what are you doing?" she said. "It was very odd."


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