​  1 / 30South’s Mary Asplund runs her leg of the 4 x 800 relay during the IHSAA girls state track meet at North Central High School on Friday, June 5, 2026.(Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times)Eugene, Oregon is becoming a second home for Ellie Barada this summer.The now-former Bloomington South track standout met a big goal by representing the United States on the world stage and had some extra fun by winning a couple of other races as well to finish off her stay at the USATF U20 Championships.Barada ran a lifetime best in the finals of the 800 in the USTAF U20 meet, taking second in 2:02.72 to Stanford commit Paige Sheppard, a rising senior at Union Catholic in New Jersey, who won in 2:01.76.As such, the North Carolina commit earned a spot on Team USA for the U20 World Championships in the first week of August, back in Eugene, at Oregon’s Hayward Field. She joins former Panther teammate Violet Hall, who ran at the Para World Championships in India last fall, in repping the US in international competition.More: VOTE in the Herald-Times Girls Athlete of the Year poll presented by IU HealthSouth’s Ellie Barada runs her leg as South wins the 4 x 400 meter race during the IHSAA girl’s sectional track meet at Bloomington High School South on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.”It’s crazy,” Barada said. “This was the kind of big thing I’ve been working for all year. It’s always been in the back of my mind. One of my end goals was to make that U20 team. Just to get to go back to Eugene, it’s so awesome there.”I’m grateful for every opportunity to run there. It is such a cool environment.”And for the first time in a while, an environment in which she had some serious competition nipping at her heels. Heading into the prelims two days earlier, she was confident she would make the team.”I thought it was the top three,” Barada said. “Then someone told me it was only two. I didn’t know that. I was feeling good, ‘I can be in the top three.’ Then I found out it was two, and that made it a little more difficult. But I also knew I was in a good spot now. I felt really good about my fitness and tried not to think too much about the other racers.”But it was probably the best field I had ever raced against. That was a little nerve-wracking. I’ve raced against a few of them, never against them together in one race.”There were few occasions during the high school season where she was challenged in any length of race, so having bodies around her was a different experience in the prelims. She was able to make the switch, but wasn’t pleased with how it unfolded. Still, she managed to make it around mostly in Lane 2 well enough to make the finals.”Not my smartest race,” she said.That would have to change in the final, and it worked itself out as well as it possibly could have.”I really want to make smart racing decisions, so I was nervous about that,” Barada said. “We were bunc      ​Read More