BRIAN BISHOP Special to the Star
SAN DIEGO, CA – Boerne Champion sophomore Elizabeth Leachman captured first place at the 44th Foot Locker Cross Country Championships National Finals Presented by HOKA.
The prestigious event is the longest running high school cross-country championship in the nation.
Race conditions at historic Morley Field at Balboa Park in San Diego were ideal with mostly firm terrain, sunshine and temperatures reaching 70 degrees.
In the girls’ 5K race, Leachman took the lead shortly before the two-mile mark of the race and pulled away to victory, winning in a time of 16:50.7 to become the ninth-fastest girl runner (and second-fastest sophomore) ever on the championship course.
The National Championship Course at Morley Field at Balboa Park is a 1.5-mile loop run twice that covers 5,000 meters with a steep incline featured just after the mile and 2.5mile marks. Some twists, turns and varied terrain also characterize the classic championship course situated in the hills of San Diego.
In the girls race, senior Rachel Forsyth (Ann Arbor, MI) made a strong move from the gun, breaking away from the field with a blazing half-mile time of 2:23. She maintained the lead through a 5:00 mile split before it was erased in the second mile by surging sophomore Elizabeth Leachman, the South region winner. Leachman’s rally brought her near the front just off the heels of the early leader Forsyth in the final mile of the race. After several successful attempts to hold off her challenger, Forsyth ultimately yielded to Leachman who grabbed the lead heading into the second big hill on the course.
From there it was all Leachman’s stage as she cruised to victory at 16:50.7 with senior Allie Zealand (Forest, VA) finishing second in 17:04.5.
Forsyth, the Midwest’s No. 1 seed, crossed the tape at 17:08.3 for a third-place finish. Rounding out the top five and earning first-time All-American honors were fourth-place finisher senior Mary Bonner Dalton (Charlotte, NC), in 17:28.1 and fifth-place finisher senior Addison Knoblauch (Fort Wayne, IN) in 17:43.0.
In the boys race, Drew Griffith, a senior out of Butler Senior High School in Butler, PA, executed a well-timed move in the final stages of the race to sprint past Ryan Pajak (Eighty Four, PA) and a pack of other runners to win the 44th running of the Foot Locker national championship.
The race was closely contested with junior Ty Steorts (Hurricane, WV) holding the early lead through the two-mile mark. Heading into the final hill, the top-five finishers established and maintained their positions with Griffith capturing the win in 15:06.9, just ahead of runner-up, Pajak, the Northeast region’s No. 1 seed, in 15:12.1.
Rounding out the top-five were third-place finisher junior Tamrat Gavenas (Andover, MA) in 15:16.6, fourthplace finisher senior Berkely Nance (Richmond, VA) in 15:17.5 and fifth-place finisher senior Brayden Marshall (Winfield, WV) in 15:18.4.
Comment
Comments