Clarissa Schick (pictured by John Olson of scrunners.com) and several of her Maggie Walker teammates will be extending their cross country season to the USATF Junior Olympic Nationals in Reno, Neva after qualifying through the regional meet on Saturday in South Carolina. Schick, an All-State finisher in the Group AAA race (10th place) last weekend, won the young women's division race with a personal best 18:21 performance to finish 43 seconds ahead of her nearest competition. Schick previously had a personal best of 18:35 for 5K and will be looking to follow in the footsteps of former teammate Susannah Piersol, who was a national runner-up in the USATF national race a few years ago.
Video Interview w/ Clarissa Schick
Maggie Walker junior Anna Spiers just missed an individual win herself down in Spartansburg as only a second separated her from the intermediate girls' first place finisher with a time of 18:51. Spiers, a strong middle distance runner for Coach Holdren, has really stepped up to run just as well at the longer distances this fall with quite a few sub 19 minute performances this fall.
Schick was not the only race champion from Maggie Walker. Marc Breidenbaugh claimed the intermediate boys 5K title with a runaway victory in his final time of 16:09, which was just a second off his personal best 5K time. Breidenbaugh has had a great junior year of cross country as he helped lead an overachieving Maggie Walker squad to another state meet berth, which exceeded expectations with their 7th place finish last week at Great Meadow.
Video Interview w/ Marc Breidenbaugh