By John Raffel
Ithaca can now boast a girls’ state championship, the first MHSAA girls’ state title for the Yellowjackets.
While many sports programs are in the shadow of Ithaca’s football machine that has produced four straight state titles, the girls’ cross country squad grabbed a first-place trophy of its own when it won the Division 3 state championship Nov. 1 at Michigan International Speedway. Ithaca dethroned last year’s Division 3 girls’ champion Shepherd. The Yellowjackets finished first at 147 and Shepherd second at 158.
“It was a great acomplishment,” Ithaca coach Gene LeBron said. “The girls all ran well. They packed up really good at the beginning and moved up the whole race. They were a little far back at the beginning, like they normally like to race. They did what they had to do in the latter part of the race, and they pulled it off.”
In the race rankings, Courtney Allen was eighth in 19:06.9, while Amelia Freestone was 10th in 19:56.0, Hannah Thayer finished 33rd in 20:17.0, Blaire Showers 38th in 20:23.0, and Alyssa Mankey 45th in 20:28.9.
“We’re so happy,” Allen said. “It’s nice with the football team and all the state championships they have accomplished. It’s nice you’ll have cross country, a girls’ sport, for the school and town. Once [the football team] had done it, it made it seem like it’s possible for us.”
“It’s so cool,” Allen said. “We have one senior (Hannah Thayer). It was inspiring to run for her. We had an idea [in preseason] we could be in the top three. I don’t think we exactly expected it at all. Our first meet was an eye opener that we could do such great things a team.”
Going into the state meet, “if everyone ran a good and solid race, we thought we’d have a chance,” she added.
“I believed we were able to do it, but it became more real during the season, when we got to see how well we were actually doing,” Thayer said.
Thayer ran four years on the varsity team. “I started my freshman year and we were just a bunch of random kind of kids, but throughout the years, we’ve gotten better and better,” she said. “This year, we put it all together and did what we were meant to do.”
When the results were tabulated and posted, it was time for the Yellowjackets to celebrate. “We got into a big clump and everyone started crying,” Allen said.
All of the Ithaca runners, except Thayer, are back next season. “I think we’ll be strong next year, too,” Allen said. “We only lose one senior. There’s another sophomore with me and we’ve been working together. Even our top eight are solid runners. Next year, if we keep doing what we’re doing, we could do it next year, too.”
“It’s hard to repeat,” LeBron said. “We know that having one senior says a lot about the potential next year. There’s still a lot of work to do. We certainly won’t rest on our laurels.”
“I think it will keep getting better,” Thayer said.
The morning races were conducted in windy weather in a temperature that was below 40 degrees.
“I’ve always preferred it to be cold than warm,” Allen said. “Some people on our team, it wasn’t exactly what they wanted.”
“We pushed through and did as well as we could do with the conditions,” Thayer said.
LeBron, who has been coach since 2007, recalled, “At the beginning of 2013, I told the girls that we could contend for a title this year. I told them they would have thousands of opportunities to make a decision in the next year. This was even before last season when we even qualified. They looked at me like I was kind of crazy. But they bought into it, and last year we got here for the first time and finished 10th. I think they started to believe at that point.
“We were ranked No. 1 all year, and here we are. We knew it would be tough, and there are some great teams here. We knew if we had five good races we could win. I wasn’t celebrating until I saw the official results.”
The Shepherd Bluejays were led by Taylor Thrush, who finished sixth with a time of 19:03.3. Katelyn Hutchinson was 18th in 19:42.8, while Rachel Mather was 29th in 20:09.8. Abigail Moeggenberg finished 50th in 20:37.6 and Sarah Bellinger 55th in 29:44.5.
“It feels pretty good,” Thrush said. “Last year, we were champions. We only lost by 11 points [this season]. We raced well. We couldn’t have done it. I guess today wasn’t our day.”
Thrush and Moeggenberg were the only seniors in Shepherd’s top five. “I’m so excited to come back and watch them next year,” Thrush said. “I had a good last race.
“I am thrilled with a second-place finish today. We haven’t taken second place ever besides winning last year and in the 1990s. Finishng second is a huge accomplishment for us.”