Young High School Runners Are This Week's Performance of the Week Honorees

Track and field fans voiced their choices in this week's DyeStat's Performance of the Week poll, while DyeStat's editors made their own selection.

Readers’ Choice: Brooke Rauber

With 45.35 percent of the vote, Brooke Rauber won our Readers’ Choice vote, beating Dylan Jacobs with his second-place tally of 22.61 percent.

Rauber ran the fastest time of the day at the McQuaid Invitational. Competing in the seeded small schools division, Rauber won the 3-mile race by 47 seconds. The Tully NY freshman was 16 seconds better than Liverpool NY sophomore Jenna Schulz, who won the seeded large school race.

Rauber has only lost one race so far this year.  That four-second loss came to Fayetteville-Manlius NY sophomore Claire Walters at the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Cross Country Invitational.

In addition to making her mark on the cross country circuit, Rauber has also made her mark on the track. She was eighth in the championship race of the 2,000-meter steeplechase at New Balance Nationals Outdoor

Editors’ Choice: Marlee Starliper

Marlee Starliper, a Northern PA sophomore, was a virtual unknown at this time last year. In last year's Carlisle Invitational, she finished 11th in 18:33, her second best 5-kilometer time of the year. This year, Starliper ran 16:50, breaking the course record by 27 seconds.

The improvement of Starliper has been incredible thus far. She has run at least a minute faster than on the same courses last year, with the Carlisle Invitational race standing out as 1:43 faster.

Starliper's cross country improvement is not completely unprecedented.  She had a strong track season that culminated with a ninth-place finish in the 2-mile championship race at New Balance Nationals Outdoor, running 10:43.12.