Alder’s Maddy Killian leads a pack of runners at the state cross-country championship meet Saturday. As a senior, Killian was competing in her final cross-country race as a high schooler. She finished the race in 21:38.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Mac Cordell)
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The Jonathan Alder girls cross country team made history Saturday at the OSHAA state championship meet at National Trail Raceway in Hebron.
For the first time in school history, the girls team made it to the state meet. Additionally, the school had its first All-Ohio selection in Sophomore Maddie Davis.
Davis finished in 11th place, running the 3.1-mile championship course in 19:19.
As a team, the Lady Pioneers, with 287 points, finished 13th between Buckeye Valley, with 280 points and Oakwood with 298 points. In cross country, the lowest score wins.
“I am happy with the season,” Pioneer Head Coach Justin Creps said. “It was, by far, the best season in school history.”
Creps said it was “pretty cool” to have the girls team at the meet and to see the first podium finisher for the school.
He noted the Pioneer team finished in the spot their seeding said they would.
“It’s not exactly where we wanted to finish, but I am proud of them,” Creps said after the meet.
Race officials changed the date of the race last week and changed the course layout just hours before the run, even so the course was sloppy at points. Additionally, while the sun was out, temperatures were in the 30s with a blustery wind at race time.
Creps said the team was focused and mentally tough all season so it was “nice to see that all pay off today.”
The coach said each week in practice he tries to help his runners learn to focus and make adjustments for the course and the race
Davis said she was proud of her focus and effort.
“I am feeling a lot of emotions right now,” Davis said. “I am overwhelmed. I feel grateful for the opportunity. I am especially grateful to my parents and my coaches. It is just a lot of emotions, all of them happy.”
Davis ran her first mile in 5:53 putting her near, but outside the top 20 runners.
“At the start, everyone gets excited and goes out fast,” Davis said. “At that point, there were a lot of runners in front of me. The second mile, in the woods, I went to work.”
Davis had cut into the top 20, but just barely after two miles, running her second mile in 6:16.
“The last mile, it hurt, but I wanted it so I went for it. I had to,” Davis said. “When you want something, you have to go for it, but it’s a lot easier when you want it.”
Davis said she and her teammates had a lot of fun and ran for each other. She said the squad wanted to do well for the program’s only seniors -Ashlyn McDaniel who finished 82nd in 20:47 and Maddy Killian who finished in 21:38 for 125th position.
Creps said McDaniel had “a pretty good race.” He said he was proud to see her and Killian “go out on a good race.” The coach said he knew the other girls wanted to make sure they did their part as well.
Sophomore Morgan Hicks was the second Pioneer finisher, completing the course in 20:26 for 65th place overall.
Freshman Reggan Gray finished in 127th place with a time of 21:42.
“I am happy with our finish,” Davis said. “I think we all gave it our all. We just wanted to have a good race, run hard, have fun. It was the last race for our two seniors so we wanted to make it a good run for them.”
Other Pioneer runners included sophomore Avery Hecht and junior Jessie Devore, who finished in 23:32 and 24:01 respectively.
Lexington High School took the Division II team title for a second consecutive year. Sophomore Ella Gilson, of Hawkin High School, finished the race in first place with a time of 18:37.