Small Stature, Big Potential: Girls’ Cross Country Freshmen Dominate

“When [I] go to the starting line, everyone’s so tall.” Freshman Gabbi Bock may only be 5’1”, but she stands tall as one of the cross country team’s top runners.

Bock is one of four freshmen in the varsity team’s top five, along with Kenzie Lloyd, Jenn Wendelken, and Ryann Helmers.

Racing in the top five as a freshmen “feels crazy,” Lloyd said. “I never thought that I would get this far in my first year on the team.” Lloyd placed third in the 5,000 meter race at the Charlottesville/Albemarle City/County Meet on Sept. 10.

Starting at the top is “exciting for the future,” according to Wendelken, who placed sixth at the City/County meet. Wendelken began running in middle school. “In seventh grade, I ran for the first couple weeks and then I injured my Achilles, so I couldn’t run for the rest of the year,” she said. “Then I ran [on JV] all of eighth grade.”

She added that “my brother did it, and he had a lot of fun. I always need to get in good shape for basketball and lacrosse, so it seemed like a great way to do that.”

Bock also started running for AHS in middle school. “My dad brought it up that eighth graders were allowed to run on the cross country team, so I thought I’d give it a shot,” she said.

For Bock, running in the top five so early is “definitely an honor. It’s so cool how we have  such a young team.”

Introducing these runners to the varsity squad has been “a challenge of training,” according to coach Cathy Coffman. “The biggest thing is teaching [them] how to pace themselves, whether it be in a race or in a workout.”

The girls have evidently learned how to train successfully, as “every race we’ve done so far the girls have gotten faster, which is really exciting,” Coffman said. “That’s all you can hope for. It’s been a slow improvement, so that means the training is working.”

She explained that “you don’t want them to make huge improvements and get injured, you want to keep the improvement at a nice reasonable pace so that they’re going to stay healthy for the next four years. That’s always the biggest challenge with cross country: how [to] keep the legs strong, fit, and healthy.”

As a result of training with the varsity squad, the girls have befriended their upperclassmen teammates despite the age difference. “The best part of running cross country is being on the team. All of the girls are so sweet and encouraging,” Lloyd said.

Wendelken agreed that the cross country team is “the best group of kids…that you can ever be a part of.”

The opportunity to race with the varsity team in ninth grade gives freshmen the chance to grow over the course of their high school careers. “For this season, I am looking forward to the many more races to come and running with my teammates,” Lloyd said. “For the long term, I hope to continue to improve and that AHS becomes the top local team.”

Lloyd additionally hopes to “achieve a sub-20 minute 5k. I also want to improve my time on each race,” she said.

The girls “had a great meet at Oatlands in Leesburg [on Sept. 20],” Coffman said. “The varsity girls were 10th out of 56…so that was our best.”

For most girls, racing is one of the most difficult parts of the sport. “It is hard both physically and mentally, but at the end of a good race, I feel so accomplished,” Lloyd said.

Bock agreed that “trying to beat your time [is] definitely hard: you’ve really gotta push it.” She was pleased to improve her 5k time this season, running about two minutes faster than she had last year.

Making it to States again is the team’s goal for the season. “We’ve got great competition in the area with the local teams [like] Monticello [and] Western,” Coffman said. “So the goal is always to be number one in the district and make it to the 5A state championship race.”

The freshmen starters look forward to continuously improving throughout this season and the upcoming years. The strength of the young runners “really bodes very well for the future,” Coffman said. “With their lack of experience they have come in very talented…it’s exciting for the next few years.”