A team of freshmen and sophomores is bringing home a state championship. The Aurora girls cross country team won the Division II state title on Saturday, November 7, at Fortress Obetz, beating Columbus Bishop Watterson 80-99 to win the first state cross country championship in school history, according to the Record-Courier.
It is also Portage County’s first state championship trophy in cross country since 1998, the Record-Courier reported. A year ago, Aurora finished sixth in the state with Claire Jenkins standing alone on the podium. This time, three Greenmen sophomores finished in the top 14, and the whole team climbed up to lift the trophy.
Sophomore Audrey Miller led the way, finishing fourth in 17:49.5 — a leap of more than a minute from her 40th-place time of 19:13.3 on the same course a year ago, according to the Record-Courier. Miller said she learned from an overly fast start at the regional meet. “I just knew at regionals I went out, I could feel it, I knew I went out way too hot,” Miller told the Record-Courier. “So I tried to slow down, and I was hoping that I’d have more in me for the back half of the race.”
Twins Claire and Evelyn Jenkins followed her onto the podium. Claire finished 12th in 18:22.0, and Evelyn surged from 22nd at the midway point to 14th in 18:28.2 — more than 40 seconds faster than her state time last year, the Record-Courier reported. “It definitely did not feel real at first when people started saying that we got first place,” Evelyn Jenkins told the Record-Courier. “When I finally came to the realization, I was just so proud of everyone.”
The team race was a duel from the opening mile. Aurora led Watterson by a few points after one mile, trailed by one point after two miles, and pulled away over the final stretch to win by 19 points, according to the Record-Courier. Behind the three podium finishers, sophomore Mia Paech finished 40th in 19:10.4 — a jump of 90 places from her 130th-place finish at state last year — and freshmen Makayla Cicero (59th, 19:25.2) and Audra Leigh (123rd, 20:10.9) and sophomore Haley Koch (139th, 20:18.3) completed the lineup.
Paech’s rise may be the most unlikely story on the roster. She did not run cross country until the eighth grade, when Claire Jenkins talked her into trying the sport, she told the Record-Courier. “They’re really good at just working from the back and just keep moving forward,” Aurora coach Laura Bell told the Record-Courier. “They don’t get frazzled in the race.”
The title completes a two-year climb that the whole state could see coming. Aurora finished sixth at state last fall with a lineup of six freshmen and a senior, won the Suburban League American Division title this October with 33 points, and then won the Boardman regional — the program’s first regional championship — behind Miller’s individual title there, according to the Record-Courier’s regional and league coverage. At districts, Miller, Claire Jenkins and Evelyn Jenkins finished first, second and third. Saturday at Obetz, that same young core delivered the biggest prize of all.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: Aurora’s starting lineup at state was made up entirely of freshmen and sophomores, the Greenmen won the Boardman regional a week earlier for the program’s first regional title, and Saturday’s 80 points beat a Watterson team that had won its regional with just 35 points, according to the Record-Courier and regional results. What we’re still waiting on: the OHSAA’s official final results book and all-state honors, which are based on top finishes at the state meet.
Aurora’s title was one of several decided at Obetz on Saturday. In Division III, the Woodridge boys repeated as state champions, and Napoleon’s Gwen Huddle won the Division III girls individual title.
What happens next is the best part for Aurora: everyone comes back. With no seniors in the state lineup, the Greenmen will open next season as the defending champions, and a group that improved from sixth in the state to first in a single year will spend the winter and summer finding out how much faster it can get.
Photo: Jonathan Schilling, CC BY-SA