In fairness to her opponents throughout the state, Oakville Senior High School’s Kat Oberle has something to prove.

At the recent Missouri Class 4 track and field championships in Jefferson City, Oberle took third-place honors in the 1,600-meter run and the 3,200-meter run, which helped vault Oakville to 21st place overall with a total of 12 points.

“Kat did outstanding at state because that was a lot higher than she was seeded,” Oakville head coach Mike Bishop said. “She ran really well.”

To illustrate how much progress Oberle made at the state championships, in the 3,200-meter run she entered the event with a time of 11:35.20 and finished with a time of 11:02.95, just a little over six seconds from state champion Aimee Bonte, who won the event with a time of 10:54.81.

“With all of the off-season training I did, I just wanted to prove everyone wrong,” Oberle said. “Nobody was thinking that Kat Oberle would be a factor at state.

“I can’t even explain how I felt because it was so cool.”

Oberle’s road to the Class 4 track and field championships actually started back in October at the Class 4 cross country championships when she took 50th overall with a time of 20:41.

But it wasn’t until a doctor’s visit after the race that she realized that she was suffering from a stress fracture.

“The one thing that Kat did after the cross country season was that she dedicated herself to making sure that what happened in cross country didn’t happen during the track season,” Bishop said. “She really likes running and everything to do with running and it showed this past spring.”

Oberle also excels in the classroom and boasts a 3.9 grade-point average. In fact, her mother kept her off the track team after she received a B on her report card.

“Yeah, my mom didn’t let me run track my freshman year because I got one B,” she recalled. “Looking back at it now, it’s kind of funny.”

But if there’s one thing that Oberle is focused on this summer, it’s making sure that the 2008 cross country season is not a re-peat of 2007. Her goal is to break the 19-minute barrier at the state championships this coming October.

“Last year at state was very frustrating,” Oberle said. “This year I’ll be back to prove everyone wrong.”