Dog ‘wins’ high school relay race after interrupting track meet, outrunning athletes

LOGAN, Utah - Gracie Laney thought the eruption of cheers was for her as she was about to win a high school relay race.

Turned out, it may have been for her competitor: a dog who got on the track and beat Lacey to the finish line in the final seconds of the heat.

Lacey was participating in the 2021 Grizzly Invitational in Logan, Utah, on April 17. She was the anchor of the Logan High School team and had the lead in the second heat of the girls’ 4x200 relay event.

Video, captured by MileSplit, showed a dog, named Holly, breaking loose from the audience section and running onto the track. She outran three other athletes before catching up to and beating Laney.

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You can hear the cheers grow louder and louder as Holly sprinted ahead of the other athletes.

"I’d say probably about the 50-meters [mark], I could feel something coming on me, and I thought it was a person. I thought it was the runner," Laney told the Salt Lake Tribune. "And then I kind of realized that it was really small."

"Lol I can’t believe I got beat by a dog," Lacey commented on the video on Instagram. 

Laney told the Tribune she was afraid Holly may attack her, or she may step on Holly with her spiked shoes.

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She said she hopes to meet Holly.

"Looking back, I really wish I had gotten a selfie or something with it," Laney said to the Tribune.

According to The Sacramento Bee, Lacey’s team won the race with a time of 1 minute, 59.27 seconds.

This story was reported from Los Angeles.