DougB, on , said:

Sorry to have seen some of these gals struggle, especially Audrey from my state of Michigan. Not as many qualifiers for the Great Lakes State as we've had some other recent years (four a couple of times!) ... but we did have a lot of gals really close ... went 6-8-11-12-13-16-18-22-24 ... imagine that did pretty well, state-scoring-wise (for what that's worth).

Very happy for Brasure and Olling (4-time small school state champ). And nice runs for two gals from Lansing area (my home) with Darmofal(Mason)-Smith (St. Johns) going 13-16.

Belf hadn't raced since state, I think, and wasn't as dominant there as I thought she'd be. Perez was still coming back from injury, I'd say, and French has seemed to not be the same since mid-season. Heffernan not as strong as last spring track, it seems. Would be interested to hear details.

Plenty more surprises, too:

** Three girls making it from Indiana. What a great season Kelcy Welch from Carmel has had!
** Two gals from Iowa, with a nice run from Topham after she didn't make NXN.
** Sure thought Werner would place higher (and probably win), but maybe she just ran to qualify. Good to see Long make it again, too.
** Zero Ohio girls and 1 from Illinois ... that's unusual. No Colorado, either, with Colter ending her year. Most of the good Colorado girls run NXN now.

The early leader was Mark Hadley of Ohio. What happened to him?

Midwest Boys qualifiers
Grant Fisher Grand Blanc, MI
Addison Dehaven Brookings, SD
Jesse Reiser Mchenry, IL
Toby Hardwick Newark, OH
Jackson Bertoli Terre Haute, IN
Patrick Perrier O Fallon, IL
Thomas Pollard Ames, IA
Noah Kauppila Chesterfield, MO
David Dalton Greenwood, IN
Ryan Robinson West Bloomfield, MI

Full results are up here:

http://www.footlocke...SeededGirls.htm


Pretty rough day for some big names you might have expected: Audrey Belf, Annie Heffernan, Madeline Perez, Anna French

Midwest Girls
17:34 Kelcy Welch Carmel, IN
17:39 Stephanie Jenks Aurora, IA
17:45 Rebekah Topham Griswold, IA
17:46 Taylor Werner Bloomsdale, MO
17:46 Hannah Long Pacific, MO
17:47 Lauren Brasure Ada, MI
17:52 Mailin Struck North Riverside, IL
17:52 Kirsten Olling Wheeler, MI
17:55 Rachel Nichwitz Fishers, IN
18:04 Alex Buck Pendleton, IN

It's Kelcy Welch of Indiana pulling off the upset to win the FL Midwest girls title. Stephanie Jenks, who swam for her school this year but did not run on the cross country team, was second.