By Alex Frazier
Meet…Anne Areias
A junior, Anne Areias has been William Tennent’s best runner for the past three years.
“If nothing else she’s very, very consistent,” said coach Craig Shapiro. “She generally runs well almost every race, and that’s what you need when you’re trying to build a team.”
Areias will be heading to the state meet at Hershey Saturday for the second time, but her first as part of a team.
At the District One meet, Areias finished 20th overall in a time of 18:58, an improvement of 10 places from the year before.
At the beginning of the season, many thought the Panthers would challenge for the National Conference title, but that didn’t happen.
However, they started coming along late and managed to finish fifth in districts to qualify for states. The team nearly missed the cut when one runner was disqualified for not wearing a legal uniform.
“All along we had been hoping to go to states as a team,” said Areias. “In the beginning of the season, we weren’t doing as well as we would have liked. We thought it was going to be too far out of reach.
“Slowly at the end of the season, we started to come together. Everyone realized in the middle of the race (districts) we had to step it up. It was definitely a team effort, and we realized how good we were, and we’re hoping to really prove ourselves at states.”
Areias started running track in eighth grade, much against her better judgment. She wanted to play soccer, but when she didn’t make the team, her math teacher suggested she try track since she wasn’t doing anything else.
She discovered she was good a good distance runner and began running the mile. Naturally, after seeing how successful she was running, her coach steered her toward cross country.
“I didn’t really want to do it,” she said. “Originally, I hated the thought of running. When some teachers had first told me the idea of cross country, I was like, ‘Run three miles? That’s crazy.’ In my eighth grade year I began to see it wasn’t that bad.”
In fact, now it is her favorite.
“Of all three seasons, I love cross country the best,” she said. “I like running the different courses and how they change. The different terrains are a lot more fun.”
By the midpoint of her freshman season of cross country, she took over Tennent’s No. 1 spot.
But in her first district race, she bombed.
“I guess I really hadn’t found myself,” she said. “I wasn’t as good then. I didn’t have the mental edge. My district race was my worst race of the season.”
The following year was much better, as she placed 30th.
“Having one season of experience really helps you,” she said. “You understand what to expect for the entire season.”
Areias is also quite talented in track. Last year she won the SOL championship in the two-mile.
“She’s very well respected by the other kids,” said Shapiro. “They know how hard she works. She’s very down to earth and an extremely hard worker. She’s extremely coachable. She listens very, very well and she’s the kind of kid that takes advice and always has questions, which is good because you know where you stand with her.”
Areias is looking to improve on her 79th-place finish at states last year.
“It was OK,” she said, “but I wished I had done a little better.”
This year she’s hoping to medal.
“I want to be in the top 50, but of course I’d really like to get a medal and be in the top 25,” she said. “That’s my biggest reach for a goal, but my expectations would be to be in the top 50.”
Areias knows what to expect at Hershey since she ran it last year.
Having run every day on her own challenging course will also be an advantage.
“It helps us a lot,” she said. “We get used to our hills.”
State preview – Runners from District 11 will pose some problems for local runners. Last week D-11 ran its meet the day before D-1 on the same course at Lehigh, allowing runners to compare apples to apples, in terms of time.
Emmaus will probably be the team to beat. Lindsay Graybill (17:57) finished second overall. The Green Hornets also have the triple threat triplets. Amanda Faust (18:32) finished fourth overall, Breanna was seventh (18:43) and Christina was 10th (19:10).
The Hornets’ average time was 18:36, while North Penn’s was 18:54, and their spread was 1:13 compared to the Maidens’ 1:03.
“Emmaus is definitely the favorite,” said North Penn coach Jim Crawford. “They won last year and I think they have their whole team back.”
The D-11 individual champ, however, hailed from Liberty. Jess Cygan, who finished second in the state last year, ran the 3.1 miles in 17:44. Teammate Amy Darlington was Liberty’s second runner in 18:30.
But the Hurricanes’ spread was 1:56 and their average time was 18:58.
District One’s best runner was Boyertown’s Elizabeth Simpson, who won easily in 17:58, but was a bit off Cygan’s pace.
SOL runners Katie Gorman (Plymouth Whitemarsh), Lindsay Rheiner (Council Rock North) and Christy Cohick (North Penn) finished second, third and fourth, respectively, but none of them were in the 17s.
Other contenders include District Three champion Cumberland Valley, which raced on the Hershey course. The average time of their runners on a decidedly tougher course than Lehigh was 20:07 and their spread was 1:48. Greater Latrobe was the District Six champion. Their runners averaged 19:17 with a spread of 2:23.
This week’s course at Hershey will be much more difficult than the one at Lehigh, which could favor runners who do better on hills.
The course has been changed a bit this year so that the start and finish are next to each other, much like at Lehigh. But there are still some nasty hills, and it’s a tight course with many turns and twists.
The Maidens are hoping to move up from their 16th place finish last year, which should be a no-brainer. No one in Pennsylvania has beaten them this year. Their only loss was to Haddonfield (NJ) at the Briarwood Invitational, but they bested Haddonfield’s times later at the Manhattan Invitational.
Last week North Penn won districts despite two girls having problems on the course. No. 2 Heather Selheimer turned her ankle with a mile to go and still limped in at 18th place. No. 4 Lauren Bond lost her shoe in the first half mile and had to stop to put it on, but she couldn’t get it all the way on and ran the rest of the race that way, developing a nasty blister in the process and having to settle for 35th place.
The two, however, should be nearly 100 percent for Saturday’s race.
“Someone told me they looked at Emmaus’ times on the Lehigh course on Thursday versus what we ran on Friday, and they would have beaten us, which doesn’t surprise me because we had two people with some problems, so we can run better than that,” said Crawford.
North Penn is gearing for a shot at the team title and is probably the only District One team that has a shot at it.
“The girls are running much faster times than they were last year,” said Crawford. “And their places are much better than they were last year. We ought to be able to do something in the state meet if we just run comparable to what we’ve done so far. It’s a very tough course.”
Of course, other District One teams have a great chance of placing high.
“In District One anybody could come through that group because it’s a tough district,” said Crawford. “If you can do anything in District One, you have a shot at doing something at states.”
SuburbanOneSports.com’s Top Five SOL teams
1. North Penn
2. Council Rock North
3. Central Bucks South
4. William Tennent
5. Pennsbury
Top Five SOL runners
1. Katie Gorman, Plymouth Whitemarsh
2. Lindsay Rheiner, Council Rock North
3. Christy Cohick, North Penn
4. Rachel Brown, North Penn
5. Sarah Holl, Upper Dublin
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