Schmitt at state
Continued from page 12
in the following meet. Her time of 19:55 at the sectional meet continued that trend of improvement and earned her a place in her third straight state meet.
The experience from the prior two state competitions helped Schmitt navigate the course a third time on Saturday.
“Yes, I do think so,” Schmitt said when asked if those previous trips to Wisconsin Rapids aided her in her third race there. “Obviously, every year, it’s mentally different, but knowing the course and knowing what places are harder and what places are easier and just what to do in those places helps a lot.”
“Going into it, I was much more nervous this year,” she added. “Not having my girls with me kind of freaked me out at the beginning of it, but then as I settled in it was easier.”
Trying to push through the crowded start on the flatter opening section of the course was probably the most difficult part of the race for the Colby junior. However, she found her stride as the meet progressed and the field began to spread out.
“The first mile is so hard because there’s so many girls that you don’t know who you’re supposed to be running with and where you are at,” Schmitt said. “It’s hard to get past that and in the first mile you’re flustered because it’s hard to get past all that’s happening. By the time you get into the second mile, it’s easier, but then you have all the hills, which can psyche you out.”
At the first mile marker, Schmitt still found herself in the middle of a pack of runners, her 6:18.6 split time putting her in 44th place at the time. Once the pack started to clear up as it moved into the second half of the race, she started to make up ground.
Between the first and second mile markers, Schmitt picked up nine positions, moving up to 33rd in the more hilly section. She continued to take down opponents through the end of the race, moving up five more spots by the time she crossed the finish line with a time of 20:19.7.
“I feel like every race, I look back and I’m like, ‘oh I could have done that better,’ but here obviously the first mile and being flustered there,” Schmitt reflected. “But then I made up from that and it got easier from there. It wasn’t a PR, but for that course I think it was really good.”
Schmitt finished behind only Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Rory Salvesen, who took 17th with a time of 20:07.3 and Athens’s Brianna Sheahan, who placed 18th with a time of 20:07.5, from her sectional race. Mallory Kohn from Dodgeland won the D3 race with a time of 18:08.4.
