Sprinter Meghan Hunter Aided By Dad's Science

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

On a morning in his office at Brigham Young University last week, Iain Hunter was busily working on a spreadsheet analyzing past 400-meter finals at the IAAF World Outdoor Championships. 

Later the same day, Hunter drove to a high school regional meet where his daughter, Meghan, a junior at Provo, is quickly becoming a star. 

Meghan Hunter, who is entered in four events at this week’s Utah state track and field championships (the 100, 200, 400 and 800), was the national leader in the 400 after running a huge PR of 52.59 seconds on April 28 at the Davis Invitational. 

After this weekend, Hunter has her sights set June 8 on the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle.  

Note: The Brooks PR Invitational brings together the top high school track talent in the country, with a focus on setting PRs and breaking records. Catch all the action live on RunnerSpace on Friday, June 8, as the action gets underway at Shoreline High School in Shoreline, Wash. To learn more, visit: http://brooks-pr-invitational.runnerspace.com.

Iain Hunter is an Exercise Science professor at BYU, focusing on biomechanics. His research is based on the movement of runners. 

It’s a serendipitous situation. 

“Thrilled is a good word for it,” Iain Hunter said. “How fun is this, as a dad? I spent a lot of time this morning pulling in 100-meter split times for 400 races from World Championships, figuring out for the most successful, what percent of the total is each 100 meter (piece) of the race. 

“I go to school to do my job and what I get paid for, and here I am playing around with spreadsheets to make my daughter quicker, and it counts as work.”

In an athletic, running family, Meghan stands out for her fast-twitch speed. 

Iain, who moved from England to San Jose, Calif., when he was 9, was a mid-distance runner who peaked at 1:49.9 in the 800 at BYU. At age 41, six years ago, he broke a master’s record by running a marathon in 2 hours, 22 minutes, 16 seconds. 

On Meghan’s mother’s side, there are an aunt and uncle who both played college basketball. 

Kate Hunter, a freshman at BYU, was a state cross country champion and two-time Foot Locker finalist. 

“I’m the lone sprinter in the family, but I do cross country, so I fit in, somehow,” Meghan joked. 

A year ago, her sophomore season suffered a setback. Meghan pulled a hamstring at the Arcadia Invitational and then went back home and willed herself through to the end of a difficult season. She qualified for state in three events, but didn’t make the finals in any of them. 

Last fall, after placing 40th at the Foot Locker West Regional, Meghan spent a couple of weeks with her grandmother in San Jose. Over Christmas break, she worked out on her father’s old high school track (Prospect). 

“Winter training went pretty well,” she said. 

One of her first big breakthroughs of 2018 came at the Simplot Games, where Hunter chased after Arria Minor of Denver East CO and clocked 53.92 in the 400 meters. 

Outdoors, Hunter worked her best time down to 53.43 on April 19. Then, nine days later at the Davis Invitational, she surprised herself with a big improvement to 52.59, a US#1 time and all-time Utah record, eclipsing the mark of 53.07 by Natalie Stewart of Spanish Fork in 2008. 

“The race that surprised me the most was at Davis when I first broke 53 (seconds),” she said. “I had a goal of breaking the state record, but I was not expecting to PR by that much.”

Hunter is getting there on great genetics, passion for the sport, and hard work. 

Her mechanics, especially in the final 100 meters of the 400, are a work in progress. 

Iain Hunter prefers to stay out of coaching and is perfectly happy with the group of young BYU alums who make up the coaching staff at Provo High. But he does pay very close attention to his daughter’s progress and dispenses information and advice about running form away from practice. 

“Her stride length and turnover are good, but her back-side mechanics are that of a distance runner, just more powerful,” the professor explained. “We’d like to work a bit more on her front-side mechanics. Knees higher, feet not lingering. When a leg is straight behind, it’s not doing any useful work.”

With continued strength development, Meghan is likely to obtain better sprinting mechanics naturally. 

Iain has worked extensively with Olympic marathoner Jared Ward, and BYU track athletes frequent his lab so that he can conduct analysis for research. Kate’s running mechanics have been analyzed in the lab in order to observe and correct a slight asymmetric stride. 

Meghan’s running hasn’t yet been as thoroughly inspected in the lab. 

“(My dad) mostly leaves it to the coaches,” she said. “A lot of times I ask questions. He’s the first person I go to when I feel an injury coming on. And lately he is trying to help me with my form.”

Outside of Utah, Iain Hunter is a consultant with USATF. Ever since 2003, he has traveled to meets with high speed cameras to video and analyze the country’s top steeplechase athletes. 

“We’ve got years of measurements,” he explained. “We know here is where someone should take off based on their height to lose the least amount of speed over (steeplechase) hurdles, the angles of the knee and hip, all of those measures.”

What did the spreadsheets say about how to expend energy in a championship 400?

It turns out, Meghan is putting a little bit too much of her effort into the first 200 and not saving quite enough for the end.

“(World record holder Wayde) van Niekirk was 1.2 seconds quicker for the first 200. Michael Johnson was close to even,” Iain said.  

With a little bit more restraint in the first half of the race, Meghan should be able to go a bit faster. 

“I see her running close to 52 seconds just by pacing it better,” Iain said. “In the 400, two or three tenths off in a 100-meter segment can really affect what happens later.”

What happens later, as in 2019, is still a guess. Meghan could continue to climb the all-time rankings in the 400, or she could ease into the 800, where her limits are still untested. (She has split 2:09 on a relay). 

“I definitely have been thinking about that,” Meghan Hunter said. “Freshman year I just wanted to be a 100, 200 sprinter. Short stuff. This year, it’s more 400s and a couple of 800s. I think that if I train for it a little more and really focus on the 800, that could (become) my main event.”

With every step, there will be a watchful eye, and reams of research to back her up.