Sophomore cross country runner sets Horizon High School 5K record

Horizon High School sophomore cross country athlete Maryn Whitesell broke recently the school record for the 5K with a time of 20:09.60, during the Hawks on the Hill Invitational Saturday, Sept. 9. 

Horizon’s previous record (21:22.10) was held by McKenna McBride.

“It was pretty crazy when I originally got the time; I didn’t really believe it would be that low,” Whitesell said. “During the race, I kind of felt awful, but afterwards, it felt really nice just to say that I got to that point.” 

Whitesell, 15, has been competing in cross country since her freshman year of high school; she also is a part of the track and field girls varsity team for the Hawks. Prior to entering high school, however, she excelled in dance, gymnastics and soccer. 

“I kind of just dropped them off and started running,” she said. “One of my friends had told me that I should try it, and it took me a very long time to try it and to sign up for it. (I got to) practice on the first day of school, and I didn’t really know anybody. But it’s been really nice, because the team is a really close-knit group of people, so we practice now in the summer and in the fall.” 

Part of the success Whitesell has enjoyed on the track can be accredited to her commitment to being at every practice and to embrace her coach’s advice.

“Maryn is actually very responsible, very receptive,” head cross country coach Anthony Barnes said. “She is like a sponge when it comes to learning things, and she just continues to improve through leadership.” 

One of the hardest skills for Whitesell to grasp was the negative split. Now that she mastered it, it feels natural.

“It’s running faster in the second half of the race,” she said. “Just being able to increase your speed as you are going through the race instead of slowing down to a more comfortable pace. It’s mostly (thanks) to the workouts that we do. If you are given a workout where you do different repetitions of 800 meters or a mile, then each rep you try to slowly run faster. So, whenever you are in a race, it feels more natural to run faster in the end, when you are already tired.” 

The team has a set schedule for training drills.

“We have basically a speed day when we do intervals, we have a day that we call an anaerobic threshold run — those days we do 2-mile repeats,” Barnes said. “We have two recovery days and usually a day for competition, and then we do one day a week where it’s just mostly strides. But, if we don’t (have a competition day), then we do run at what you consider actual race pace, but we do very little of that.” 

In addition to improving on her speed — and her breathing control — Whitesell is excited to continue seeing her improvements on the track, as well as her times. 

“Physically, you know what your body can do,” she said. “You just have to push yourself and push through the pain and discomfort to get there, which can be a huge obstacle.” 

Junior boys runner Girmay Buck also broke the school record with a time of 17:06.75 during the Hawks on the Hill Invitational Saturday, Sept. 9. The previous time was held by Connor Parrish with a 17:09.40.