Months of hard work and preparation will be put to the test Saturday morning when area cross country runners put it all on the line for their final run of the 2023 season.
Veteran senior runner and University of Illinois cross country/track commit, Kennady Anderson, and junior Karson Shrum will be representing the Annawan-Wethersfield cross country team at Saturday’s State Finals meet at Detweiller Park in Peoria.
The girls race starts at 9 a.m. and the boys race at 10.
Anderson recorded a third place finish at the Girls 1A Oregon Sectional meet in a time of 19:34.92 and Shrum placed eighth in the Boys 1A Oregon Sectional meet at 16:56.41
A trio of Ridgewood runners will compete as well: Sophomore Emily Downing, freshman Jana VandeKemp and senior Fernando Avila-Rubio.
Downing (19:07.43) and VandeKemp (29:09.59) placed second and seventh at the Oregon Sectional meet. Avila-Rubio (17:27.83) finished in 22nd place at the sectional.
Representing Stark County will be freshman Dusti Smith, who placed fifth at the Girls 1A Oregon Sectional meet in a time of 19:48.38. The Stark County girls team placed fourth and advanced in the team competition.
Smith will be joined by teammates Cheyenh Smith, Alexis Martinez, Keagan Hamilton, Paytin Terwilliger, Sarah Kraklow and Haylie Moodie.
As a sophomore, Anderson placed 24th at the Class 1A State meet, running the Detweiller course in a time of 18:29.31 and earning All-State honors. She topped that performance last season by placing fourth at the State meet in a time of 17:45.7 and, again, earned All-State honors.
On Sept. 9 at the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park, Anderson ran the 3-mile course in 17:33.1, which now stands as the fastest time in the history of the A/W girls cross country team.
“I’ve never seen someone with her will, passion and desire to be great,” said her proud Coach Creston Fenn. “She’s truly an inspiration.”
Anderson has also excelled as a member of the Wethersfield volleyball team. Therefore, her cross country training takes place after volleyball practice and involves endless hours of training at home on a treadmill.
“Over the past two years I’ve worked together with her family to best fit in proper workouts. It’s been a challenging balance but we’ve gotten better at making the most out of her week of running without stressing her too much,” added Fenn.
“Kennady has progressed because she’s pretty remarkable. She didn’t run the 10th fastest time at last year’s state meet (across all classes) by just doing workouts on the treadmill,” noted Fenn.
“It takes a special person willing to do what she does. She commits four hours a day to sports training and, in addition to that, she’s a phenomenal student who’s involved in many other things,” added Fenn.
Ridgewood’s Emily Downing will also be looking to make a splash at the state meet. She and Anderson have been battling each other at various meets throughout the season.
On Sept. 9 at the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park, Anderson had a third place finish (17:33.1) and Downing was fifth in a time 17:41.50.
Anderson then won the LTC Meet for the fourth straight year at 17:39.6. She’s the first runner in the conference to accomplish that feat. Downing had a runner-up LTC finish of 18:14.3.
As for the most recent training and preparation, A/W Coach Fenn feels Anderson and Shrum are as ready as they can be.
“We’ve been in fine-tuning mode the last few weeks. We train hard up until the beginning of October and then really back off on the quantity of workouts, but sustain the quality of them,” said Fenn.
“Karson and Kennady are two of the most mentally tough athletes I’ve ever coached. When most think they’re done, those two are able to continuously push themselves while their legs and lungs are burning.”
Shrum has the distinction of running the third fastest time in the history of the A/W Coop, which is 15:45. That time was set at this season’s LTC Meet at the Midland course in Kewanee.
“Coming into the season, Karson’s best time was 17:00,” noted Fenn. “There’s no special workout or training plan that’s gotten him to where he is. Every cross country runners does similar workouts,” added Fenn.
“What separates the best from the average runner is what goes on in their head. The thing I love about Karson is that he runs fearless. He’s not afraid to go out and race people that, at one time, were faster (than him).”
***This article was edited to correct Kennady Anderson’s finish times.
