Schools
Flying Under the Radar For Roseville Girls Cross Country Team
The underdog Raiders came on strong, surprising many but not their coach.
The girls cross country team at Roseville High School had been flying under the radar all season and they surprised many at state last Saturday with a fifth-place finish - except themselves.
"We run pretty tired all season long, and then we get to the end, and we start giving a little more recovery time on runs so their legs feel super fresh from Conference all the way to the end," Raiders coach Mary Schifsky said.
The girls had honed in on beating East Ridge at the Section, which they acheived as section champions. The title also earned for them their first state ranking of the season.
"It was awesome to be the underdog," Schifsky said. "We were super excited for the Sections race because we knew what we could do, even though no one else recognized it."
Sammy Nielson, Allison Cordes and Caroline Brisbois' high finishes propelled the Raiders to the section title.
"Our next four ran great, but it was the top three that made the difference in our score against East Ridge," Schifsky said. "At state it was exactly the opposite."
"Our top thre ran great, but it was our next four that made the difference," Schifsky added. "Overall, they ran great at both, it was just a matter of which end helped us get past East Ridge and obviously many other teams."
Naomi Boehm, Lindsey Lee, Anna Nelson and Robyn Holmes all had strong finishes at state to round out Nielson, Cordes and Brisbois cracking the top 35. Their team effort allowed them to finished the year as the fifth-best team in Class AA girls cross country. Not bad for a team that held no ranking until the season's final week.
