CHARLOTTESVILLE — From track and field day in elementary school, to the first track competitions in middle school, to her first high school track season, Eastern Hancock freshman Bella Sotelo has always been at the top of her craft.
This season, years of participation in the sport culminated in the single-best track season in Eastern Hancock High School history.
For that reason, and many others, Sotelo is the Hancock County Girls Track Athlete of the Year.
“I went to state all three years of middle school and kind of realized that, oh I was really good at this,” Sotelo said. “It’s been my No. 1 sport since.”
After countless middle school conference and county individual titles, as well as a second-place finish at the indoor Hoosier State Relays earlier this year, Sotelo entered her first outdoor high school season with big expectations.
She didn’t just live up to those expectations, she smashed them.
At the IHSAA Girls Track and Field State Finals, Sotelo earned a pair of medals and the two highest finishes at the event in school history.
“It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed all the people and my teammates there supporting me. All the athletes there were really good, and getting to compete with them made me better,” Sotelo said. “I had an idea, but I didn’t know I’d be able to place or even make it to state. It was kind of like, if I do, I do, if I don’t, I don’t. I knew I always had the next three years.”
In the 100-meter hurdles she placed third and in the 300-meter hurdles placed sixth. Her times of 14.72 and 44.42 seconds in the respective events were both school records.
“This season was beyond impressive. She has a natural talent, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise, but it was still really impressive,” Eastern Hancock head coach Josh Steele said. “State was always in the picture from the start, but for her to medal we knew she would have to run very well. It was always an achievable goal, but to have her compete at that level and get those finishes was a welcoming result.”
That was the cherry on top of what was already a dominant freshman campaign.
Sotelo was near perfect in her events at dual and tri meets throughout the season, and got even better in the big meets.
That started at the Hancock County Meet where she won both hurdle events, was second in the 100-meter dash and third in the 200-meter dash.
“She’s a very cool, calm and collected young lady, but underneath all of that, there’s a sense of competitiveness. She’s very aware of how good she is and what she can do, and she’s willing to put that up against anyone,” Steele said. “As we got deeper into the season and started seeing tougher competition, she was able to rise to the occasion because that’s just in her nature. If she’s competing, she’s going to go do something.”
At the Mid-Eastern Conference Meet, she swept all four of her events to help lead the Royals to their first conference title since 2018.
She was first in the 100 and 300 hurdles, as well as the 100 and 200 sprints.
“It had been a while since we had won the conference. This year kind of gave everybody notice that we aren’t just this tiny school out next to the highway,” Steele said. “We can compete on the levels of the Mt. Vernon’s or New Palestine’s. I think this year showed that we aren’t that far off of the top-level programs.”
As the season went on, her focus turned to just the 100 and 300 hurdles, and she kept dominating in both.
At the Pendleton Heights Sectional, she won both events, becoming the first Eastern Hancock girl to win a sectional title since 2017.
She followed that up with another sweep at the Pike Regional. Her first-place finishes were the first regional titles for the Royals since 2015.
That success continued into the summer following the end of the high school season.
Last weekend at the New Balance Nationals in Philadelphia, she placed second in the freshman girls 100-meter hurdles.
“The competition level was so much different,” Sotelo said. “At middle school, it’s barely anything and then once you get to high school it’s for real. Anything can happen.”
As a freshman, for Sotelo, the key to managing her high expectations was to just go out and do what she knew she could do, and to lean on the experience of other athletes on the team.
“Ellie [Meyer] helped me a lot and so did Sydney Springman,” Sotelo said. “I went to Sydney a lot during the season because she was another hurdler and she helped me with a lot of stuff.”
While she might ask for advice from her veteran teammates and welcome it, they know that she’s somebody who is going to succeed either way.
“Honestly, Bella is someone who doesn’t need the advice. She’ll ask for it and you can give it to her, but she’s somebody who is going to be fine either way,” Meyer said. “She’s one of those independent people that if you throw something at her, she’s going to be able to do it no matter what.”
Another key for her this season was her coaches putting her in a good position, and making sure her training was up to her level.
“She’s great to coach. She does whatever is asked of her,” Steele said. “Because she is so talented we had to make sure we were creating an environment that could actually push her. We were able to put her in the best positions and she was able to step up and do the best that she could.”
Even with the two state medals, regional, sectional, conference and county titles, Sotelo’s high school career is just getting started. With three more years to go, for her, the sky’s the limit, and the beginning of what she, and the coaching staff, are hoping is a bright future for the Royals track program.
“It definitely helps with those younger kids. The elementary and middle school kids getting to look up and see her perform at that level helps to boost that sense that we’re a serious program and that we’re doing things out there,” Steele said. “A lot of the middle school athletes already had a relationship with Bella. Them getting to watch her all season, kind of gave them that sense of what they’re coming into.”
