Nationally ranked sophomores Rebecca Story and Taylor Cuneo, the top 2 runners in the state, will race together in the Div A-AA race of the TSSAA Cross Country Championships this Saturday Nov 7, and both could add their names to the short list of girls in the history of the Tennessee state meet to run under 18 minutes for 5k on the challenging Steeplechase course.
If you study the top 500 times of Tennessee boys and girls in a cross country season, you won't find many that have been run at Steeplechase. Times run at Steeplechase are generally 30-45 seconds slower than times posted on faster courses such as Jesse Owen, Trinity/Valkyrie and the MSCCA Midstate xc meet at Sharp Springs, to name a few. It is unfair to compare times from course to course due to the wide range of terrain and footing, or even day to day on the same course due to the wide range of weather conditions. The most accurate way to compare athletic performance in cross country is on the same course on the same day and it is helpful to have an historic course like the Steeplechase when comparing past and present performances.
In 2009, sophomore and first year runner Megan Ferowich (Knoxville Catholic) upset teammate Joanna Thompson to win state with a time of 17:47. Ferowich's comet soared through a 17:12 effort at Footlocker Regional, a 17:31 5th place finish in the Footlocker National cross country finals later that year, then plunged into the abyss of chronic injury. She never ran a race in college.
Joanna Thompson followed a more gradual trajectory, moving up from a 22 minute 5k time as a freshman to end her high school xc career in 2010 with an unchallenged state win (17:51), a 17:20 at Footlocker regional and a 10th place finish (17:46) in the Footlocker National race. Joanna has continued a gradual improvement in all distances while successfully competing for NC State.
State meet record holder Kathy Kroeger (16:59 as a sophomore in 2006) sets the bar with 8 sub 18 performances on the Steeplechase course, and 4 Footlocker National appearances, finishing as high as 1st in the nation. She rarely ran slower than 18 minutes on any course. Kathy burst onto the high school scene in 2005 as a national caliber runner, managed her teen female athlete setbacks while churning out nationally ranked performances, won multiple awards and continued to perform at a national level at Stanford.
Kathy is one of the exceptions to a common pattern of young girls running fast times in distance events, then either dropping off in performance or disappearing from competition altogether. This nationwide phenomenon has been attributed to declining VO2 max, genetics, normal body changes and overtraining. The catchall phrase in the sport is "burnout". The pressure of media attention and awards on these young stars can also cause mental stress and the temptation to push through developmental setbacks rather than adjust training and expectations to accommodate a growing and changing body. There are many paths to a successful running career.
Both Taylor and Rebecca have a bright future in college running ahead of them, and a long future if they love the sport and take care of their bodies. Distance runners can peak as late as their mid 30's, with an increasing population running PR's in their 40's. Since these talented girls have two and a half more years of local head to head competition, it is possibly detrimental to create a match race situation every time these two young girls toe the line in the same event. One of them will "lose" and risk turning a manageable personal disappointment into a quest for redemption in the public eye. Like physical development as a distance runner, it can take years to develop a strong competitive mental frame that is not attached to self-worth. It's too early to determine who is the "best" athlete. I am cheering for both Rebecca and Taylor, and all the other young unknown aspiring runners, to run as fast as they can on Saturday and every race after that for years to come.