Athlete. Although Mallery (Ivy) Higgs was a three-year starter on the Omaha Central basketball team that twice qualified for the state tournament, she is probably better known for her prowess in track where she set the standard with 14 all-class gold medals at the state track meet. She is the only girl to win four all-class gold medals in one day at the Nebraska state high school meet, and she did it her junior and senior seasons. She picked these up winning in the 100, 200, and 400-meter dashes and ran a leg on the 1600-meter relay. In her four years of state meet competition she won Class A gold medals in all the events in which she participated with the exception of her sophomore year when she won three. She won all of the individual events she entered throughout her high school career. She set many invitational and state records only to turn around and break them herself. She still holds the record for the fastest time in Nebraska history in the 100 and ran on the 400-meter relay that still has the state’s best mark. Mallery received a scholarship to the University of Tennessee where she graduated in 1992 with a degree in psychology and three letters in track. Now a mother of two boys, she coaches youth track in Atlanta for the Gwinnett Light in Youth Track Club. She also works with children with problems.
Published Monday September 29, 2003 OMAHA WORLD-HERALD, BY STU POSPISIL
LINCOLN – The newest members of the Nebraska High School Sports Hall of Fame proclaimed their gratitude, as usual, to family members, coaches and teammates. Mallery Ivy Higgs came up with a new category.
“I’d like to thank all the officials who picked me up at the finish line,” said the former Omaha Central gold-medal sprinter.
Higgs choked up as she accepted her award. She follows her older sister, Maurtice Ivy, into the hall as the only pair of sisters to be honored.
“She’s someone I had to chase after,” said Mallery, the state record-holder with 11 individual state track meet gold medals and 14 overall. “I’m still chasing her. And I can’t seem to catch up to her.”
