There’s nothing, according to Sara Sargent, like the feeling of winning a state championship.
“For a high schooler, it can’t be compared to any other feeling in the whole entire world,” the Pennsbury junior said. “It’s so amazing, and once you do it – you want to experience that feeling as many times as you can.”
Sargent was part of a Falcon squad that captured the 2010 PIAA Class AAA state championship, and for an encore, the Falcons went out and won it again this year, blowing away their competition at Hershey in a brilliant performance that saw them finish with 42 points. Their closest competitor – Unionville – had 129 points.
“I feel like all of us almost had perfect races,” senior Ann Herman said. “Everyone exceeded the expectations I had for the team and personally.
“Everything just worked out so well. I was hoping for a win, but I never expected it to be by as large a margin as this. It was really like the perfect race for all of us.”
Herman finished second (third overall) with a time of 18:42 while Sargent was not far behind, finishing fifth (seventh overall) with a time of 18:55. Sophomore Erica Gray was eighth with a time of 19:09 (16th overall), freshman Erin O’Connell was 10th with a time of 19:19 (21st overall), and junior Elizabeth Wedekind was 17th with a time of 19:43 (45th overall).
“The girls did run to the letter of the race plan,” coach Don Little said. “The girls were so excited to come in that fast and that far ahead. They worked really hard, and they wanted to win.
“We prepared them for everyone else running their best and to run the course the way we designed the night before, but it’s easier said than done. The girls ran awesome.”
The Falcons’ success didn’t just happen. It is the by-product of dedication, commitment and a rigorous training program.
“We start practice at 2:45 and the girls are done at about 5:15, and we try and squeeze in every minute of practice we can in that time period,” Little said. “We really try and make it as an efficient as we possibly can.
“We have it very structured where the girls meet at a very specific place, and when I show up at 2:47, the girls are already into their routine. They know exactly what’s expected of them. It’s really a lifestyle. They’re friends outside of cross country, they hang out. There’s no goofing around whatsoever. They’re there to meet their goals, and just from top to bottom, the girls practice very seriously, and they work very hard.”
The Falcons took an interesting approach heading into Saturday’s race.
“Basically, the key was to focus on ourselves and ourselves only, and if we do what we have to do individually, the state championship will come,” Sargent said. “We learned the whole season that we’re not individual runners. We run as a group, but we can run as a group while focusing on ourselves and ourselves only.
“I definitely had the confidence we were going to win the championship, but I never would have thought we’d win by that much.”
The Falcons have experience running on the difficult course. Each year, they compete in the PIAA Foundation XC Invitational at Hershey They have won the prestigious race each of the last two years.
“From the first time we went out there, I knew that would be an important race in order to have experience on that course,” Little said. “It’s a difficult course - I think it’s the most challenging course we run.”
How important was that ‘practice run’ for the Falcons?
Consider only that O’Connell took more than two minutes off her time on Friday.
“The last time I ran the course I didn’t do as well as I wanted to, so I’m really glad I came back and did better,” O’Connell said.
The freshman runner wasn’t the only Falcon to notice a dramatic drop in their time. Herman and Wedekind also took close to a minute off their times from the Foundation Invitational.
“For a girl like Erin O’Connell – she was our fifth runner at the Foundation meet because she hadn’t really run a course as hard as that,” Little said. “We caught her up to speed and did some serious hill work between then and Hershey in order to prepare the girls for it.”
Preparation for Saturday’s state race began long before the Foundation Invitational.
“This whole season – from the summer until now – we had one goal, and that was to win a state championship,” Sargent said. “We did everything in our power to do so, which meant we trained so hard every single day, on the weekends.”
“We’re put in a lot of hard work throughout the summer and regular season,” O’Connell added. “I think it’s really paying off. I think we just really worked together as a team.”
O’Connell may have been a newcomer to the defending state champions, but she insists the transition was an easy one.
“They’re all really welcoming, and I’ve been running for a long time so I’m kind of used to it,” she said. “They really welcomed me to the team, and it’s really great to be part of it.”
Included in the Falcons top five were a freshman, a sophomore, two juniors and a senior.
“We’re with each other all the time, and we really became so close that I consider these girls my sisters,” Sargent said. “They’re not just my teammates. I know everything about them, and they know everything about me, and we just love each other, and we love what we’re doing together.
“We’re all just equal. We’re all really good friends.”
For Herman, Saturday’s state title put the finishing touches on a brilliant high school career.
“I really like the Pennsbury program,” she said. “I really am going to miss it. Our coaches are very supportive, and even though our practices are hard, it helps us, and it makes us tough. They’re just good at getting us through and really just helping us run the best we can run. All of us girls work well together, and that helps.”
The senior standout admits she couldn’t have imagined a script that would see her part of two state championship squads.
“We weren’t bad when I was a freshman, but we were nowhere near what we are,” she said. “It just didn’t seem as though anything like this would happen.
“We have been pretty lucky that the girls we’ve gotten in are talented runners, but I think our coaches help. They’re able to bring out the potential in people. Also, I feel like we have a good atmosphere. We want to win, and everyone tries their hardest.”
The Falcons will be training with the goal of a three-peat, but for now, they’re enjoying their second state title in as many years.
“It was a very good ending,” Herman said. “I can’t imagine it much better.”
The only thing better would be a three-peat.
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