The Trojans called heads, but it landed on tails as some bad luck saw two of their best runners miss out on qualifying for state by the slimmest of margins Friday at ACGC in the Class 1A state qualifier.
Their top girl, Hailee McCormick finished 11th overall, but only the top ten make it. McCormick had a time of 22:41, just 12 seconds behind the final qualifying spot.
Star boys runner Devon Luing had even worse luck finishing 14th with a time of 18:43. The kicker with that is the difference between 10th and 14th was just seven seconds. A massive cluster of runners hit the finish line almost simultaneously, but he just happened to be at the tail end of it.
Head Coach Aaron Fichter, all things considered, says his group was in high spirits despite the results and having the meet postponed a day due to weather. Coach personally doesn’t tend to look at the results in regards to where his team placed, but rather how they fared against the level of competition they face.
“It’s one of those things where you are running truly against yourself. In a qualifier it is a little different since you are racing for a place, but it’s still about how you control things. You could be a kid that runs 20th or be a kid that overachieved that day and ran a really smart race and a good race, but you still finish 20th and not qualify. I think putting it in terms like that for kids helps them focus on themselves and know that they can find success in many ways beyond just if they qualified or not.”
And with that, the 2020 Pleasantville Cross Country season comes to a close.
See full results of the meet by clicking the links below.