Having displayed their dominance with a second straight girls state cross country championship and three first place finishes at the State track finals, the Clarkston High School distance runners had nothing left to prove this year ? in Michigan that is.
Competing for Runnin? Gear Track Club, Clarkston High juniors Jenny Morgan and Lyndsay Smith, senior Liz Mengyan and Clarkston Middle School eighth grader Stephanie Morgan (Jenny’s younger sister), proved their prowess to the nation on June 18. The ladies set a new outdoor national record in the four mile relay with a time of 20:01.7, besting the old mark by just under 10 seconds.
‘I think we were more excited than nervous. (The Nike Outdoor Nationals) gave us a chance to race against a similar talent level,? said Mengyan.
Since the high school track season wrapped up with the State finals on June 4, the girls began training with the nationals in mind.
‘We had to do a little bit of fine tuning. (The four mile relay) is an event we don’t run that often,? said Coach Jamie Labrosse.
The biggest challenge for the girls, according to Labrosse, was to know how to pace themselves against their own times rather than against other runners.
‘We just had to teach them to live by the clock. (They) didn’t have that body next to them, pushing them,? said Labrosse. ‘But these girls are getting to the point where they don’t even have to be coached.?
Rather than let the pressure sap their concentration and times, the girls responded to the enormity of the event with aplomb and courage.
‘We’ve been talking about this all season. It was so amazing. There were so many fans and the announcers were so into it,? said Jenny Morgan, who ran the anchor leg of the relay.
Morgan also ran in the two-mile race on June 17 on the first day of the Nike Outdoor Nationals, held in Greensboro, N.C. Morgan ran well and finished in fourth place. Labrosse feels Morgan’s good showing helped the rest of the team’s mentality for the next day’s race.
?(Morgan’s two-mile) set the tone for how we were going to do,? said Smith.
Labrosse wanted his runners to be as comfortable as possible going into the nationals and integrated seemingly innocuous elements into the routine. For example, since the two-mile at nationals was held after the sun went down, Morgan did a large part of her training for the event after dark at the Clarkston Middle School track.
‘We ran every night in the dark. Those are the little things that make the difference,? said Labrosse. ‘Everything we did was geared towards nationals.?
While the Clarkston cross country team lost several seniors responsible for bringing the program to the pinnacle of the sport, the nationals offered a preview of next season’s potential as Smith and both Morgan’s will be back.
‘You learn from (the older girls) a lot. I’ve mature a lot running with them,? said Stephanie Morgan, who as an eighth grader got a lot of experience running against her own times as she dominated middle school track. ‘It’s nice to run with (my sister). It makes me better and it helps her too.
‘Not many people get the chance (we do),? added Jenny Morgan, who went on to discuss the camaraderie of the whole team. ‘The other girls are just like sisters to me.?
While the Nike Outdoor Nationals were Clarkston and the Runnin? Gear Track Club’s big coming out party this year, this was their second invite to the national stage. After the cross country season in the fall of 2004, the girls were invited to take part in the Nike Team Nationals, which featured the best cross country teams in the nation.
In the end, the girls did not go, as doing so would have violated the MHSAA’s rules and possibly made Clarkston ineligible to pursue a third straight state title.
The girls who are returning to the Wolves program next year will take two weeks off before starting their off-season training regimen for the fall.