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Thornapple Kellogg High School

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go trojans!

Thornapple Kellogg High School

go trojans!

Thornapple Kellogg High School

Game Summaries & Headlines.

Game Summary

1 year ago @ 12:55PM

Girls Varsity Cross Country vs. Autumn Sunrise Invitational

Game Date
Sep 24, 2022

Sometimes it’s the course, sometimes it’s the weather, sometimes it’s drive, other times it’s because you are fired up, and sometimes nobody really knows exactly why a season or personal best race unfolds. However, when all but three of the athletes on a team earn them, it does get your attention.

Personal best times rarely “just happen” because even if a course is a little short, or the weather is perfect, or the mindset is dialed in, the work that was done leading up to the race and the effort given in the race is what gets you there. Today a lot of our girls “got there”.

I’m going to lead with sophomore Ava Crews because she continues to lead for us. There were some real stars on hand at the meet; one of which was Annika Sandman, the senior out of Lowell, who dominated the field in a time of 18:15, Allison Kuzma, the junior from Zeeland East, in a time of 18:24, and three others who along with Ava, ran well under 20 minutes. Ava found herself on the top 10 podium in 6th place with a strong showing and netting a  PR of 19:22.

Next for TK was junior Holly Velting, who in spite of her body not fully cooperating with her, still gutted it out in second for our team in a season record of 21:37.

Running third for us today wasn’t a surprise as much as a delight. Freshman Madison Kietzman has been showing potential to launch all season, and today’s race was one such moment. She put herself out there, was third for our team, and dropped under the 22-minute mark, in 21:51.

Following Mady was one of our senior leaders, Lindsey Velting, who in spite of reporting not feeling 100%, put down a season best of 22:02, nearly breaking the 22-minute mark.

Next for the Trojans was senior Lucy VanDemark who didn’t have her best showing, but never gave up and still landed a very respectable 22:41 and placed fifth for TK.

Another freshman lighting it up today was Megan Schuurmans. She placed in sixth on our team in a personal best of 22:57.

Seventh for TK was another senior leader, Emma Thompson, who pushed through to a season best time of 23:12.

Rounding out the rest of the Trojan contingent was junior Katherine Powers (23:50), freshman Luciana Teunessen (25:32), junior Laine Hinton (26:14), and Mollie Moore (26:45).

We placed 7th of 8 teams today. This is not a particularly desirable place to finish, and no excuses will be on display here. There were some tough teams, they ran faster, and as a result they scored better. It was good for us to be against such a deep field of teams to help us continue to elevate our own abilities.

The story of a race can be about winning the meet or placing high in the meet and it’s fun when that happens, but it doesn’t always happen. As a result, it’s also important to look at what went right and to see where growth has taken place. Today, as noted above, there were some solid performances. I don’t like to say that our athletes “did the best they could” because it makes me think we are saying, “Well, at least we did the best we could,” and that sounds like a cop out to me, and I don’t like the sound of it. What I do like to know is that all of our girls gave maximum effort with what their bodies and minds were able to put together, and they did just that. One may argue this is a matter of semantics, but I see it differently.

I digress, after pointing out that everyone gave maximum effort, I will follow by saying I am proud of each one of our athletes who laced up their shoes and gave it a go. I am particularly proud of a few things that I saw and heard today. One was Mady, Megan, and Luciana having the kinds of races they had today. Mady is continuing to rise and is leading a charge we need right now which is getting our mid-pack closer to the 21’s. Megan decided that running really hard wasn’t enough and chose to race today…really race! Then there was our freshmanLucy…as in Luciana! She ran like a girl on fire today! She ran a 25:32, and her previous fastest was 28:03! She ran with determination, she concentrated on her form, and she threw down a fantastic performance! A final victory that I don’t want to overlook is junior Mollie Moore who is constantly battling hip issues. She toed the line and toughed it out from start to finish in her first race that her body has allowed her to race this season.

All of our ladies did great today, even if their times were not what they wanted, or if their place was not what they hoped for. They showed up in Trojan orange and black and represented us well with their efforts. 

Another aspect I liked was hearing the encouragement our girls gave others who had a great day when their races did not go as well as they would have liked. The support this team gives each other is second to none. I appreciate them so much.

 


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