General girls look to remain among OCC’s elite

  • By Brian Questel
  • August 21, 2010
  • 584
                        
The Wooster High girl’s cross country team has enjoyed a good run the past two seasons, winning the first conference title in school history two years ago and following that up with a second-place finish a year ago. Head coach Nikki Reynolds welcomes back a mix of veterans and newcomers who are looking forward to keeping the Generals in the upper ranks of the Ohio Cardinal Conference. “We graduated eight athletes from last year’s team, and four of those were in our top seven,” noted Reynolds. “I’ll be looking to our veterans and new people to step up and fill those positions.” Reynolds, who is entering her 27th season, rostered 19 runners at the beginning of the season, including nine veterans, however, only two of them are seniors. Five runners out of those nine earned letters last season, including junior Claire Miller, who has been a regional qualifier in each of her first two seasons. Miller has a personal-best of 19:58, while sophomore Jackie White, who worked her way onto the varsity with a 21:56 effort last year, will look to push her. Senior Kaitlin Starr, who has run a personal-best 22:40, along with juniors Kailee Hagen (22:43) and Kimberly Sibilia (22:26) will look to back that pair. That group of letter winners gives Reynolds a solid base to build around, and the goal right now will be to fill out the remainder of the varsity roster. Reynolds is hoping four other veterans – senior Merida Sneller, juniors Marisa Lanker and Seonhyung Kim and sophomore Erin Johnson – can step into any voids, but that also leaves opportunities for the newcomers Reynolds spoke of earlier to earn their way onto the varsity. “Some of them are still trying to figure out how to run the longer distances (from middle school),” said Reynolds. “That’s why I’m looking forward to Tuesday (and the season opener at Mapleton). For some of them it is the first time running a 5K, and I’ll know more after that.” That inexperience is one reason why Reynolds envisions the varsity’s top-seven being rather fluid. “They are working hard to get in the top seven,” noted Reynolds. “I think it will change among the top seven because we lost so many veterans. For our new people and even our veterans, too, our best times will come at the end of the season.” Wooster was moved to the Avon Lake District and the Tiffin Regional a year ago, so the Generals have added three new meets this year – Revere, Galion and Mapleton. “We’re running at different places so we see the different teams we might see at districts and regionals,” said Reynolds. Wooster opens its season at the Mapleton Invitational, August 25.


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