Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
The Harrisburg girls cross country team met the first of its two season goals last week, capturing the first district championship in program history.
The second was to reach the podium and hang a banner for a top-four finish at state.
Mission accomplished.
The Bulldogs had five runners in the top half of the field of 165 to finish third in Class 1 at the cross country state championship.
“Every team from here on out gets to put their number on our banner, but it’s our banner and we’re excited about that,” coach Corey Whitaker said after his team was presented with the third-place trophy.
“To just show up and endure the grueling training that it took to get to here is a huge testament to their character as a team.”
College Heights Christian won the state championship with 91 points, Valle Catholic was second with 109. Harrisburg edged Van Buren for third place 116-118.
“I’ve never even imagined I would make it this far, let alone be a part of such an awesome team,” said senior Bailey Combs, who led the Bulldogs with an 11th place finish.
“We’ve put in so much work over the summer, early morning practice at 6 a.m. every day. It makes it all so much sweeter to know all the hard work that went in, and that we were able to get this trophy today.”
Combs, who broke the Harrisburg cross country record earlier this year, claimed a medal with her finish of 21:43.
“I was really trying to not let myself go totally off all adrenaline and then burn out halfway through, so I tried to pull myself back a little bit, but I was still fast because it’s a fast group of girls,” Combs said.
“But I’m happy with how I ran. It was my last race ever and I couldn’t be happier with the results. It’s just been so surreal today.”
Freshman Emma Fischer did a great job of pacing herself. She was in 86th place after running the first 1,000 meters in 4:20. She ran the second 1K in 4:26 while passing 44 runners. She moved up in each of the final three kilometers and finished 27th in 22:37, just two spots out of the medals.
Olivia Fischer, Abby Rosson, and Madison Hessell each moved up at least 36 places over the final 4,000 meters.
Olivia Fischer finished 41st with a time of 23:39. Rosson was 73rd with a finish of 24:39. Hessell rounded out the scoring with a 76th place finish and a time of 24:45.
“Our four and our five today, we needed them to run fast, they knew that pressure was on and they did,” Whitaker said.
Katie Starbuck finished 126th (26:29) and Jessica Gardiner was 129th (26:39).
“I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Whitaker said about his team.
The current Bulldog seniors were freshmen when their beloved teacher and cross country coach Brian Simpson was killed in an accident while driving a bus to a meet.
“It’s hard not to look back on three years ago when I came in and it was obviously a super sad tragic situation,” Whitaker reflected.
“We could have very easily not had a cross country team that next year because of what happened.”
Instead, the girls continued to run, and honored the Brian Simpson family with their effort on Saturday. Brian’s wife, Jennie, and daughter Bradey were in attendance when the Bulldogs raised the third-place trophy.
“I’m so glad that they could be here to share this,” Whitaker said. “This is for them too. We just wanted to honor them with how we ran today.”
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here