The thought process of sixth-grader Sarah Snapp put her on the path to a track and field state title.

In 2002, Snapp arrived for the first day of Shelbyville Middle School track practice and was told to pick an event.

Her rationale? I’m a gymnast. I can jump. Hurdling looks easy.

Hurdling is most definitely not easy but her gut instincts were correct. Seven years later, Snapp stood atop the podium at the state track and field championships at Indiana University as the fastest 100-meter hurdler in the state.

“It was a feeling of relief and disbelief,” said Snapp 15 years later from her home in Anchorage, Alaska.

Snapp’s high school success afforded her the opportunity to continue hurdling at Indiana State University. And when her track career finally came to an end, her relationship with 2006 Shelbyville graduate Pete Negron moved to the next step.

“I went to North Carolina where Pete was stationed (in the Army),” said Snapp. While there she added a Master’s degree from Meredith College in Raleigh while working as a dietician to go with her bachelor’s degree from Indiana State.

The couple then moved to Arizona and on to Germany in 2016.

“Germany was fabulous. We traveled a lot … went to the Austrian Alps … snowboarding … we went all over Europe,” she said.

Being an Army wife caused her to alter her initial college goal of working in the sports nutrition field, but that sacrifice has resulted in a life full of rich memories.

“It gave me a different direction from what I had planned,” she said. “I’ve been able to work in so many different realms of nutrition. It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed it all.”

In 2019, they moved to Alaska where the couple now calls home. Negron is out of the Army now and studying Aviation. Snapp is the Clinical Nutrition Manager for Alaska Regional Hospital in Anchorage.

 The couple do not yet have children but as Snapp quipped, “We’ve picked up a couple of dogs along the way.”

Murtaugh (photo), now 10, traveled all over Europe with them. Riggs (main photo), 3, is a more recent addition.

With the Army life behind them, Snapp doesn’t envision any big moves in the future.

“I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but Alaska,” said Snapp. “It’s home until we get bored.”

And for avid hikers, mountain bikers and snowboarders, Snapp adores the fact they can look out their windows at their home and see mountains.

Snapp certainly would not have predicted her life lived while a senior at Shelbyville High School. She was a state qualifier in the 100 hurdles as a junior but had a nightmare first experience at Indiana University.

She false started in her qualifying heat and was eliminated from the event. One year later, she arrived back in Bloomington as a sectional and regional champion with the fourth fastest seed time for the state finals.

“People knew who she was but she was not seeded to win,” said Steve Browning, Shelbyville’s hurdling coach at the time. “We had a great week of practice (leading into the state meet). We went to IU. We ate pizza. We ran together. It was just her and I on the track.”

Browning (photo, left with Snapp in June of 2008) never mentioned the false start from one year earlier. Instead, the focus was on getting through the first three hurdles.

“We practiced over and over. We never ran four hurdles all week,” said Browning. “She was programmed to run her race.”

Snapp still had to overcome that nagging thought in the back of her head.

“I remember being very nervous, telling myself to don’t false start,” she recalled.

Snapp ran her qualifying heat in 14.60 seconds which secured her the second seed in the championship race behind Fort Wayne Wayne’s Chelsea Ross, who had the fastest time in the state that year.

Browning believed Snapp was the best hurdling technician in the race. She just needed to avoid being left behind out of the starting blocks.

At the gun, Ross exploded toward the first hurdle. She quickly got into trouble when she clipped an early hurdle which took her out of contention.

“She was just in front of me, and I heard her smoke a hurdle and her arms went flying,” said Snapp in a post-race interview that day. “I was like, ‘Oh … Oh!’”

Snapp cleared every hurdle cleanly and crossed the finish line in 14.65 -- .05 ahead of runner-up Rebecca Neville of Merrillville.

“I knew at the sixth hurdle she would win,” said Browning, who remembers running to the athlete’s tent after the race and jumping a fence, which did not make race officials happy.

“The officials tried to stop me. There was no stopping me,” said Browning.

Snapp and Browning continue to stay in contact, especially around this time of year when the anniversary of the state championship hits the calendar.

“He walked me down the aisle (at my wedding),” said Snapp. “He is a good life mentor.”

Snapp was a standout two-sport athlete at Shelbyville. She qualified for the state gymnastics meet as a freshman where she competed in all four events.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to coach special athletes,” said Browning. “Her discipline. Her work ethic. She never complained. She never said, ‘No.’”

Browning knew Negron as well as a Golden Bear and carries nothing but positive memories of the pair.

“They are a great couple of kids. Great student-athletes. Great role models,” said Browning.

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