Rachael, Mara & OHSAA XC State Championships:
T-Shirt and Shorts was all you needed for the OHSAA State Championships over the weekend. What has been an unusually hot and dry fall also made a hot race for all the runners looking to cement their seasons with one final 5k.
For the Fairbanks girls Rachael Hoover and Mara Vicari it’s been a phenomenal month of racing en route to the pinnacle of Ohio high school distance racing, and the start line on Saturday, Nov. 5th for the Division 3 Championship.
POW!!!!! The starter officials gun set the racers in motion, across a long straightaway, then a sharp turn into the Fortress and then loops and loops and loops.
Megan Hipple of McDonald took the first mile out in a blazing 5:21.00 followed closely by Jaylee Wingate of Norwayne & Paige Steinke of Anna. The field spread out from 3rd to 20th place and then a surge of runners plugged the course with 90 athletes within 35 seconds of each other.
Rachael crossed the mile mat in 49th place (5:58.8). “That was the plan, my best race of the year my first mile was close to 6 minutes.”
Meanwhile Mara set back in 105th place (6:19.0). “It moved really fast and it was hard to tell what position I was in. I was just trying to keep close to Rachael but it was hard to keep track of her with so many girls around me.”
Paige Steinke overtook the leaders by the 2 mile mark in 11:18.5 and the team from Minster began to show off there strength with a commanding 57 point lead over 2nd place Ft. Loramie.
Rachael booked her 2 mile split in 54th place (12:43.8). “My legs just felt heavy today, I tried to get them to snap into race pace but they just would not go.”
Mara was still a little bit shell shocked as she crossed the 2 mile mark in 109th place (13:30.0). “Everyone in this race is a good runner and if you aren’t feeling it, you will quickly find yourself 50 or 60 places back from where you thought you might be. It’s just intense.”
The final sprint and Paige Steinke was all alone, the runaway champion and Minster took the team title, 63 points to 119 points by Ft. Loramie’s runner up team.
Rachael closed her race out in 70th place (20:38.8). “It’s a lot of things, tough, disappointing….. I missed 2 days of practice this week with a stomach flu and just couldn’t recover. My legs just felt heavy.”
Mara finished in 122nd place (21:51.9). "I wish I could have ran better but I’m grateful for the experience. I was just really happy to have qualified for the state meet.”
Coach Van Winkle reflected on the race, the last week and the season: “I agree with Rachael it’s a lot of things, a lot of emotions. It’s been such a fun season, an all time season in many ways. The last month these 2 girls have raced like rocketships and we really haven’t had a lot of adversity. Rachael was sick to start the week, Mara’s soccer season wrapped up last Saturday, and we had Thursday off school due to fog, so a lot of our weekly practice norms were off. Maybe we were destined for a setback type of week but I’m really proud of how these 2 girls have handled themselves over the last week. It’s a lot of pressure, big goals, and a lot of expectations. Running like rocketships there is always the potential to crash, maybe we crashed a bit but these 2 girls are going to bounce. I know when we reflect back on this season so many of our personal and team goals got crossed off. This race will be a foundational moment for us, all of our future goals will have this state meet etched into them. The girls team has so many Freshman on it this year and there is a great group of 8th graders coming up. We will bounce, 364 days and counting, we’ll be back. Tom Petty said it best, the waiting is the hardest part.”
Congratulations to all of the Fairbanks Cross Country team athletes on an amazing season!!
Post Log
This has been a large undertaking to attempt to put our Cross Country season into chapters and a story book. I need to thank JP and Emily for helping with the newsletter this season.
The goal has alway been to promote Cross Country for all the positive things that it instills and teaches all of us. Another goal was to reconnect with alumni because so many of them have grown into lifelong runners. The final goal was to grow our running community at Fairbanks. The articles from the season will remain on our website so please look back and find your favorite artcle and share it with someone new.
I hope you all have enjoyed this season as much as we have and are looking forward to the next chapter and next storybook season.
Thank you for reading!
M.M. Van Winkle