Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
AKRON -ÊFourteen-year-old freshman Laura Lash is the best girls cross country runner in Tippecanoe Valley High School history, and Valley coach Terry Screeton says it's OK to say so.
"Yeah, I'd say that," he said.
That's because Lash is the first Valley girls cross country runner to ever advance to the state finals. She's the school's first runner to do so since Gary LaMar in 1985.
"In junior high, she was good," Screeton said. "You could tell she was special. At the beginning of this year, we weren't sure how she would do. Then halfway through this season, she started beating people who were beating her earlier in the year."
Lash advanced to the state finals by placing 14th with a time of 14:39 at Saturday's Manchester Semistate. The top five teams and top 15 individuals in each semistate advance to Saturday's state finals at the Indiana University cross country course in Bloomington.
"It's a tough course with more rolling hills," Screeton said. "The only course we ran at that compares to it is New Prairie, which was hilly. This course will be hillier than what she's used to seeing."
Lash likes to be familiar with courses before she runs on them, but she's never run on the course in Bloomington. Her 14:39 at the semistate was her personal-best time of the year, but Screeton acknowledges repeating that time on this course may prove challenging. Manchester's course is a flat course, called a sprinters' course by some.
Lash has set a goal of being one of the top eight freshman runners.
"I'd like to see her from the very beginning stay in the top 50," Screeton said. "That means she has to get out (quickly)."
