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Thornapple Kellogg High School

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Thornapple Kellogg High School

go trojans!

Thornapple Kellogg High School

Game Summaries & Headlines.

Game Summary

3.0 years ago @ 8:04PM

Girls Varsity Cross Country vs. Pre-Regional (aka Regional semi-final)

Game Date
Oct 23, 2020

Pre-Region 26-2 @ South Christian

Our girls are amazing, and they proved that once again while qualifying for next week’s regional in Otsego.. It was an emotional day for us for sure. After learning that Kendall Snyder would be unable to run in today’s meet due to close contact with Covid-19, our hearts were broken. However, the girls knew they still had a job to do if they wanted to advance to next week’s regional.

After hearing the girls talking, I knew they had their heads in the right place. They expressed feeling horrible about Kendall, but also spoke with an energy that said, “We can...and will...do this, and we owe it to ourselves and our team to make it happen.” Once I had this sense, I knew they didn’t need anything more from me. They knew what to do.

When we surveyed the course, we saw that the footing was awful on the course, with lots of standing water on clay, and with that combination, it brings a whole lot of slipping and uncertainty. The temps were in the 50’s, and the wind, while helpful on some segments giving a nice 10-14 mph tailwind, also offered a challenging headwind at times. The rain was light, but still evident, but that just kept the athletes cool. In short, it was pretty typical cross country weather for this time of year.

Jessica Durkee (20:31) went out strong with the leaders early, setting the tone, and held on toward the pointy-end of the race, finishing 7th overall, and 2nd for our team. Meanwhile, Emelia MacDonald (20:27), started closer to the front than she normally does, and still worked her way through the front of the field to finish in an outstanding 6th place overall, and 1st for our team!

Emmie was a warrior out there today, but she always is, so that was not a surprise, but what was a surprise was that after she thrashed herself into oblivion, she experienced some pretty frightening fatigue and distress. She recovered just fine after some time, but it’s never any fun to see your kid in that condition. Thankfully both her parents were on hand to assist.

Next was Holly Velting, who until up to the day before, was out due to Covid close contact, and it sure was a blessing to have her show up the way she did. She lit it up and ran a PR of 21:30. This was the direct result of her taking personal responsibility to stay sharp while she was out. She got after it day after day and came back ready to face the trials of racing.

Following her sister, and not far behind was Lindsey Velting (22:08), who did great and has been gradually improving her times, and I believe she’ll continue to do so next week. Lindsey is steady, solid, and critical to our mid pack.

Next was Maddie Nagel (22:21) and Lucy VanDemark (22:32) who both struggled a bit and didn’t have their best day, but they held strong and did their job to the point that will allow us the chance to race another day. I expect them to bounce back from this and have stellar performances next week, because they can.

Emma Thompson (22:35) was brought in as an alternate if something were to occur...and it did. I had just said to her the day before to come ready to race because you never know what might happen. When I said that I wasn’t picturing what actually happened, but Emma really stepped up and stepped up strong for us! She ran a PR, also on the heels of being out for close contact. Although she might not believe it yet, I think she can go even faster. I hope after tonight she’s starting to believe and is seeing what it takes to make that happen, because it’s in her.

It was a hard day to say the least, but the girls persevered, and I couldn’t be prouder with how they handled themselves and took care of business. With this said, South Christian had a strong showing, demonstrating that they have no intention of lying down and letting us waltz into the state meet by way of qualifying at next week’s regional. This is fine with us though because, heck, we don’t even know how to waltz. 


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