Katie's amazing finish

Athlete of The Week: November 12th, 2008
WRITTEN BY MARK HOKE
WEDNESDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2008 00:00
The selection for Athlete of the week is Katie Landwehr. Katie finished up her sophomore season by coming in sixth place in the State Cross County meet this past Saturday. The fact that she did so at such a young age is nothing short of amazing. When you throw in the fact that four of the five girls who finished ahead of her are seniors, then you get a real sense of what an accomplishment this was. Katie started running Cross Country as a 7th grader after she was approached by Coach Larson.

Up to that point she had never even considered it. As a freshman she made the varsity teams in both Track and Cross Country. At the beginning of the season she was running times in the 21 minute area. About half way through the season Coach Rohrer had her start running with the boy's team. From that time on, her times came down and her confidence went up. At the State meet she turned in a personal best time of 18:53. Katie stated that this has been her favorite season because, "the team was very close and we are all great friends. When I was at the State meet and saw all the people in the grandstands, it was very cool." Her future goals are to win state individually and as a team. Her current goal is to lower her school record in the 1600 (5:10) when Track season begins. Katie would like to thank her parents for supporting her in everything that she does, her coaches for helping to give her confidence in herself, her teammates for being such good friends and showing up at State. Lastly, the boys team for helping to get her times down. We would like to wish her luck next year and look forward to seeing her run when Track season comes along.

6th @ State Cross Country

Katie Landwehr uplifted everyone’s spirits by running a fantastic race to finish 6th place overall in the DII girls race with a time of 18:53, earning All-Ohio and podium honors. After finishing 3rd at last week’s Troy Regional, Katie was determined to beat the two runners who beat her at Troy at the state meet, and that she did. For most of the race Katie sat in 10th-13th place, but her fierce determination and competitiveness would not let her settle for that. In the final half mile of the race Katie quickened her pace, picking off a lot of girls and out-kicking several more in the final stretch as she entered the stadium for the final time. Katie’s 6th place finish comes after not even qualifying to the state meet the previous year, and her time came only a few seconds shy of the school record of 18:50 set by Melanie Grim. 4 of the 5 girls who placed ahead of Katie are seniors.