Cheltenham's Chanel Brissett is one durable sprinter

When Chanel Brissett approached the podium after her record-breaking performance in the 60-meter hurdles at the Feb. 28 state indoor championships, she hardly had time to savor the momentous occasion at Penn State.

As soon as she received her first-place medal for her time of 8.25 seconds - which bested former teammate Ciara Leonard's state record of 8.39 set at last year's meet - the Cheltenham High junior had to hustle back to the starting line for the final of the 60-meter dash, where her opponents had been patiently awaiting her arrival.

"It was phenomenal," Brissett said of breaking the indoor record in the hurdles. "I wasn't really expecting to do it at first and then when it happened it was really nerve-racking, but it was a great experience."

Running on barely a moment's rest, Brissett finished the 60-meter dash in second place with a time of 7.48 seconds. She was just one-hundredth of a second behind the winner and three-hundredths of a second from tying the state record of 7.45 seconds.

Sounds exhausting, right?

"Honestly, I trained a lot for it over the season because my coaches knew that I was going to do it, so it wasn't as tiring as I thought that it was going to be," Brissett said. "I really worked hard to get there, and going back and forth was kind of annoying, but it was OK.

"I think I did well with it."

Brissett also competed in the 4x400 and anchored Cheltenham's 4x200 relay team - joined by Bria Barnes, Brielle Lewis and Alexis Crosby - at the all-day meet. The Panthers set a state record in the 4x200 relay at 1 minute, 39.48 seconds en route to capturing a third straight indoor state title.

"Eight races over the course of a seven-hour day is incredibly impressive," said Adam Syty, Cheltenham's indoor girls' head coach and outdoor girls' assistant coach. "You can't do that in track very often.

"There aren't very many people that can handle that load," Syty added about Brissett. "In swimming, you see it done, but swimming doesn't have the same sort of muscular strain throughout the meet that running does, so it's very hard to do what Chanel did."

Cheltenham is known for its storied track and field program, having won six straight Suburban One American championships and three straight District 1 titles.

The girls' team has had great success in producing elite hurdlers over the last few years, with Kayla Coley winning indoors and outdoors at states in 2013 and Leonard doing the same in 2014, in addition to winning indoors in 2015.

Brissett said she traditionally has competed in 100, 200, and 4x100 relay during the outdoor season. She doesn't know for sure what events she will be competing in this season, but with Leonard graduated, the void is open for her to fill as the team's new go-to hurdler.

Regardless of where she ends up, Brissett will keep the same mind-set she has had since she started running track as an 11-year-old.+

"Just dedication, staying mentally tough because track is way more mentally tough than physically tough," Brissett said. "I just want to come out and do my part as a student-athlete."