For those keeping score, La Jolla High School’s Chiara Dailey leads Eastlake High School’s Jaelyn Williams 3-2.
That’s the count of head-to-head battles between the two best girls distance runners in San Diego history heading into this week’s state track and field championships in Clovis.
But if you’re looking for some juicy tidbits where the two are sniping at each other, forget it.
“She’s really good,” Dailey said of Williams. “We’ve gotten progressively better every year. We even warmed down together after the 1,600 this year.”
It has been that way for nearly three seasons now, ever since both burst on the scene as freshmen. That year, Dailey scored her first head-to-head victory by capturing the 1,600 with a time of 4 minutes, 42.69 seconds. Williams finished in 4:46.26.
Williams surged ahead the next year, while Dailey battled an illness she contracted midway through the season.
Clocking a 4:40.29 in the CIF San Diego Section finals, Williams set the section 1,600 record, erasing the 4:41.42 set by Del Norte’s Hannah Riggins in 2023. Dailey was two seconds back.
Williams led wire-to-wire, easily winning the 3,200-meter run in 10:15.40, to take 2-1 lead in the series. The next week, Williams dropped the 1,600, where Dailey finished third in the state, to win the 3,200 with another San Diego Section-record time of 9:57.11.
This year, it’s Dailey who has been unbeatable.
Competing at the Arcadia Invitational, Dailey ran the 1,600 in 4:40.28 — topping Williams’ section record by 0.01.
At that point, Williams wasn’t even running. She injured her hamstrings before the season and didn’t compete until the end of March. Once back, she ran a pedestrian (for her) time of 10:51.48 in the 3,200.
Dailey, who led the state in both the 1600 (4:40.28) and 3200 (9:58.02) this season, ran two perfectly tactical races to sweep the two events in the CIF San Diego Section championships.
In the 1,600, Dailey stayed behind the pace-setting Williams until the final 300 meters, and then used her superior 2:07.99 800-meter speed to even the series at 2-2 with a 4:43.57 to Williams’ 4:44.71.
Three hours later, they were back on the track. Dailey used the same tactics that produced a mile win to Williams on the final straightaway. Her time of 10:15.74 barely edged Williams’ 10:16.39.
The section meet was a test to see how Dailey might run the “double” in the state meet. And, with Williams as a gauge, she is going to run both.
“My goal is to win the 1,600,” said Dailey, who is looking for her first state gold medal. “I would have dropped the 3,200 if there were heats in that race, but since I’ll already have run the 1600, I thought, ‘Why not double?’”
Williams was all smiles after her two races at sections, The times were her fastest of the season.
Williams will run the 3,200 at the state meet.
“I’m running times that are close to what I ran a year ago, but I’m going to focus on defending my title in the 3,200,” she said. “I think the winning time should be in the low 10s and I feel capable.
Chiara will be in there, but it’s tough running twice. Still, she has nothing to lose.
“In reality, I think I’ll be running my best times this summer in some of the major championships. But I want to win the 3,200.”
Williams said she’ll be cheering for Dailey in the 1,600, even though she’ll be watching that portion of the meet from her motel room, keeping cool in the Fresno-area heat where highs of 105 degrees are predicted.
You can bet they’ll congratulate each other and share a hug after the 3,200.
While Dailey and Williams are competitors on the track, they’re friends the rest of the time.
