Sunday, October 31, 2010

Season ends on high note

The SJA cross country team's season finally came to an end on Oct 30, but not without a fight! With a 12th place finish at the Tiffin Regional, the team failed to qualify to the state meet for a second consecutive year, but a few of the runners served notice that they will be back and better than ever next year.

Once again the first runner for the Jaguars was senior Erin Gaffney, who despite taking a nasty down hill fall during the first mile of the race bounced back up to run a lifetime best of 19:44 - putting her 16th on the all-time SJA list. Not too far back was junior Mary Kate Chambers who knocked over 30 seconds off her lifetime best with a time of 20:10. Junior Jessica Sirchen saved her best for last with a season's best 20:19. The fourth finisher for the Jags was freshman Rachel McGuire who knocked off over 40 seconds from her personal best to finish in 20:30. Rounding out the scoring for the Jags was Celine Mangan who rebounded from a couple of rough weeks with a 20:39. Both Rose Urankar and Helen Steve ran close to their season best times and gained valuable experience running in their first regional race ever (as did McGuire and Chambers).

Both Coach Stephanie McHenry and myself would like to thank all the athletes for a very rewarding season. Regardless of state place or not, THIS is exactly what high school athletics and competition is all about.

thanks! Coach Kieser

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