Murray to run at St. Louis University

Erin Murray wasn't able to run track as a Fallbrook High School senior, but she will be on the St. Louis University track team during the Billikens' next season.

"I feel extremely blessed to have the opportunity to continue my athletic career in college, especially because of how sudden our high school sports season ended. I'm super excited to run for St. Louis University and see how my running abilities will develop at the collegiate level," Murray said.

Murray received an athletic scholarship from St. Louis University and also received academic scholarship assistance.

"I'm super proud of her for having achieved her goals and her dreams," said Fallbrook coach Marco Arias. "It's been a dream of hers."

Arias noted that Murray undertook extra training, fulfilled what was asked of her, and asked how she could improve.

Some runners compete in both track and cross country, but Murray was on Fallbrook's field hockey team rather than the Warriors' cross country team during the fall seasons. "I'll just be running track for the Billikens. I'm a sprinter, and the 400 meter is my main event, so I will not be running cross country there," she said.

Murray was also considering Baylor University and Colorado State University before selecting St. Louis. "I chose St. Louis because it was the ideal school for me. It checked off all the boxes of criteria that I wanted in a school," she said. "It has a great pre-med program, it has a special atmosphere to it," Murray said.

The NCAA Division I track and field program also met Murray's desires. "After flying out to check out the campus, meeting with the coaches and the team, I knew St. Louis was a perfect match," she said.

Before her campus visit Murray had never even visited Missouri. "I've lived in Fallbrook my whole life, so I just wanted to try something new," she said. "It is definitely something new."

The campus visit allowed Murray a firsthand experience with the track and field program. "I met with the coaches and met with the team and just fell in love with the school," she said.

Murray will major in neuroscience. "I'm hoping to pursue medicine. I haven't decided which medical field," she said. "I'm currently open-minded to wherever I find myself most interested in when the time comes."

Both of Murray's parents were high school athletes. Her father, Michael, was a wide receiver on the Tulare Union High School football team. Her mother, Bridgid, played field hockey at Orange Glen High School. "She's the one who got me into it," Murray said.

Bridgid Murray subsequently rowed for the Loyola Marymount University crew team.

Erin Murray is the youngest of three siblings, and during her freshman year all three of them were at Fallbrook High School. Kyle Murray, who graduated in 2017, ran cross country and was both a lacrosse player and a pole vaulter during the spring. Timothy Murray graduated in 2018 and was on the Warriors' cross country and lacrosse teams.

Erin Murray attended Fallbrook Street School from kindergarten through second grade and Live Oak Elementary School from third grade to sixth grade. She ran in the Don Dornon Games for two years. "I kind of discovered I was a pretty good runner during my elementary school years," she said.

Potter Middle School had timed runs on a weekly basis as well as occasional track and field meets. "My interest in running grew," Murray said.

"Every Tuesday we had to run for a grade, and I remember always trying to improve my time in the mile each week," Murray said. "I remember my P.E. teacher, Mr. Hernandez, always encouraging me. That's when I decided I wanted to run track in high school."

Steve Hernandez was Murray's physical education teacher for both her seventh-grade and eighth-grade years.

Murray was on the Warriors' track and field varsity for all four years and was also on Fallbrook's field hockey varsity team for four years. Murray was a forward and midfielder during the field hockey season.

Although the Potter field hockey program was a feeder program intended to provide experience to future Fallbrook High School students, attendance at Potter Junior High School wasn't a requirement. Some of Potter's players were from Sullivan Middle School or from private schools. Since she was not required to be a Potter student, Murray joined the Potter field hockey team when she was in sixth grade. "It's gotten a lot more strict now. They don't allow other schools and younger kids to join anymore," she said.

Murray also played volleyball for Potter during her two years there.

Murray was an all-league field hockey player for all four of her high school seasons and was named to the all-CIF second team as a senior.

As a freshman on Fallbrook's 2017 track and field team Murray won the Valley League championship meet's 400-meter race with a time of 1:00.90 to defeat second-place Rayna Valade of Ramona by 51/100 of a second. Murray won the 2018 league race in 1:00.76 while Valade, who was a senior that year, finished second at 1:02.40.

During the 2019 season, Murray won the 400-meter event in all seven of Fallbrook's dual meets or tri-meets, at the Bronco Invitational and the Jaguar Invitational, and at the league meet. Murray's time at the Valley League meet was 58.45 seconds; the second-place time of 1:00.04 was posted by San Pasqual then-junior Raegan Beckham.

Murray had a second-place finish at the 2019 Escondido Invitational meet but broke the school record for the 400-meter run. Although 2019 Olympian High School graduate Adaeze Noble relegated Murray to second place with a 56.50-second lap that gave Murray a faster pace and her time of 56.58 seconds broke the school record of 56.99 seconds set in 2001 by Naomi Mattos.

Murray had not run the 200-meter dash or the 4x100 relay at the league meet until her junior year, but in 2019 she was part of the 4x100 quartet whose time of 48.79 seconds provided Fallbrook with the league championship and Murray's 200-meter dash performance of 25.82 seconds not only beat Beckham's second-place time by 1.09 seconds but also set a personal record.

The Valley League coaches named Murray the league's girls track and field athlete of the year for 2019.

In addition to her athletic activity, Murray was the editor-in-chief of the Tomahawk student newspaper as a senior and a student leader for Fallbrook's Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. She also volunteered at the REINS therapeutic horsemanship program for six years.

Murray's senior field hockey season concluded with the Warriors winning the 2019 CIF championship. "Winning the field hockey CIF championship is something that I'll cherish forever. I was so grateful for the bond I had with the girls on the team as well as the coaches," she said.

Fallbrook's only track and field meet of 2020 was March 5. Murray was held out with a hamstring pull. The Warriors' scheduled March 12 meet was canceled due to rain, and the rest of the season was canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Since Murray did not compete for the Warriors' track and field team during her senior year, her high school athletic career thus ended with winning the CIF field hockey championship. "Although that was the best way for my high school career to end, I'm not sure it made up for not finishing my high school track season," she said. "There were many goals I set for myself for this track season."

Murray hoped to lower the school 400-meter record she set last year, and she also hoped to break the 4x100 relay school record (which is 48.5 seconds and was set in 2000).

Last year, Murray qualified for the CIF meet in the 200-meter dash but did not advance past the preliminary heats. Her time of 57.61 seconds in the 400-meter preliminaries was the seventh-fastest and gave her a lane in the final, although her final’s time of 57.65 seconds placed eighth. Fallbrook's 4x100 relay team placed eighth in the preliminaries but had to scratch out of the final due to one of the other runners incurring a hamstring injury.

"This year I was really hoping to qualify for state," Murray said.

"I was looking forward to making those final memories with my teammates as a senior," Murray said. "So, while I'm extremely grateful for our field hockey championship win, there's still a piece of my high school experience that feels incomplete."

Murray added that other seniors also lost final opportunities. "My heart goes out to everyone affected by the coronavirus but especially my senior classmates and senior athletes. For many of them this is the last time they're ever going to play a game or compete in a race with their peers, and that's suddenly been taken away from them," she said. "I just hope we're somehow able to make up for these lost memories in the near future and that we learn to never take a moment for granted."

Winning the CIF field hockey championship is Murray's favorite high school memory. "We had 10 seniors on the team who I've played with, almost all of them, since Potter so being able to finish out my field hockey career with a championship is something I'll never forget," she said.

Murray also has significant track and field highlights. "Breaking the 400 meter high school record at the Escondido Invitational last year was one of my favorite memories from track," she said.

"Also, part of my favorite track memories was running with my 4x100 team," Murray said. "It's been a joy competing with my 4x100 team girls."

Murray will have a new set of teammates as she commences her collegiate track career.

"I'm really excited to see what her times develop into," Arias said. "It's going to be a fantastic experience for her."

"I'm super excited and just super grateful to have committed to St. Louis and still have the opportunity to continue to run track in college," Murray said. "I'm grateful for everyone who has helped me and encouraged me throughout all four years in high school, so thank you to my parents, my coaches, my teachers, my friends and everybody else who has supported me. I can't wait to see what God has planned for me in these next four years."