By Alex Frazier
Meghan McGovern is running blind.
It’s not that she can’t see where she’s going, it’s that she has never run any of the courses before.
Apparently that’s not a big deal for the first-year North Penn runner.
In her first three meets this year, she won the opening dual meet against Wissahickon, placed third in the championship division at the prestigious Briarwood Invitational and came in second in the Maidens’ tri-meet against Pennridge and Central Bucks East. That, despite being injured for the first couple of weeks of the season.
“She’s just now getting going,” said North Penn coach Jim Crawford. “It’s all new to her. She doesn’t know the competitors, and she doesn’t know any of the courses.”
That doesn’t seem to faze McGovern.
“I just go out and run,” she said. “There’s no pressure or expectations. You just go out and run your hardest. I can’t put too much pressure on myself because I want it to be fun too.”
At Briarwood, she was third to two Arlington, N.Y., runners.
“I just wanted to go out and run hard,” she said. “There were girls from other states. I tried to stay up with them. I didn’t know what to expect because it was my first invitational.”
“She was the top girl from the Philadelphia area in terms of time,” said Crawford. “That’s a tough course down there because of Parachute Hill. She hung right in there. She didn’t know what to expect, so she just ran hard.”
Hills aren’t something McGovern likes or is even used to since her home course is fairly flat.
“I prefer if it’s flat but I’m learning to like them (hills) a little bit more,” she said.
Besides placing third at Briarwood, her time of 19:19.90 qualified her for a national silver standard.
“I was really surprised,” she said. “I was nervous coming off an injury in the first part of the season, so I was pretty excited to be able to run again.”
So well, she has supplanted Christy Cohick as the team’s No. 1 runner. Cohick was a pleasant surprise last year as a freshman when she won the league meet and placed fourth in the district.
McGovern started running track in seventh grade. At that time she was also playing travel soccer in the fall. To her, it was something she played “her whole life.”
When she entered ninth grade, her friends convinced her to play field hockey. The best thing about field hockey for her was the running before practice and the sprints after.
That winter she decided to try indoor track, a sport she never knew existed. She ran the mile and the 4x800 relay.
“I just thought there was spring track and that was it,” she said. “I heard about it and gave it a shot. I’m glad I did. I got a lot better as the season progressed.”
In the spring, she found success in her first varsity track season. In the league meet at the end of the season, she won the 3,200, finished second in the 1,600, and was on the second place 4x800 relay. At districts, she qualified for states in the 3,200, finishing seventh. She decided not to run that at states, favoring instead the 4x800 relay, which finished sixth.
With that success behind her, it was a no-brainer that she would forego hockey to run cross country.
“I’m glad she showed up,” said Crawford, who is also her track coach. “I knew she was a quality runner.”
McGovern is finding cross country a bit tougher than track.
“Cross country is probably harder because it’s longer than anything in track, and then there’s the hills, pacing yourself,” she said. “Track, you can see the finish; in cross country you don’t always know how much is left or what’s ahead.”
Cross country tends to be more team oriented than track, which McGovern understands, particularly in the light of her early individual success.
“I like the girls on the team,” she said. “I want to do well for my team. The big focus this year is doing good as a team.”
“She’s doing well for her first time out,” said Crawford. “She’s very conscientious and seems to enjoy it. We’ll see. She’s just finding her way right now.”
Finding her way right to the front of the pack.
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