(Above, McKela Elder crosses the finish line third overall in Saturay’s Norm Bray Invitational.)
FREMONT – Imagine a football player trying to catch every pass with just one hand. Or a basketball player running the floor with a sprained ankle.
McKela Elder
Sure, they might be able to complete the task, but they’re certainly not on a level playing field with their competition.
McKela Elder knows the feeling.
The Fremont Ross senior cross country runner competed for three years despite constantly being short of breath and on the verge of passing out. In spite of her disadvantage, she enjoyed a great amount of personal success. She made the state meet as a freshman and led her team in every meet for the past two years.
But it all caught up to her in last year’s regional meet.
She was running in eighth place, the final qualifying place for the state meet, with about 300 yards to the finish line. But her breathing difficulties became too great as she collapsed and passed out, missing out on her return trip to the state meet.
McKela Elder runs during the Norm Bray Invitational Saturday.
“For me to fail, it just really crushed me,” Elder said. “I worked all year (to qualify for state). I do three varsity sports. I joined swimming just for running.”
Following the regional meet, Elder was finally diagnosed with asthma and a functional lung capacity of about 80 percent of normal.
“So, when I run, it’s like I’m running with a gas mask on,” she said.
She takes a daily steroid inhaler and has a rescue inhaler she uses before a race. While she is only two races into her senior year, Elder said she can already feel a major improvement from her previous years.
“It’s helping a lot. I’m not passing out anymore,” she said. “It’s still hard to breathe but it’s helping a lot.
“Usually, during a race, I’d black-out, kind of. This is my first season using an inhaler and I feel fine. (Today) I took me like two minutes to recover (after the race), usually it’d take 15 minutes. I feel so much better right now.”
With her asthma now being treated, Elder is determined to make her long overdue return trip to the state meet.
“Freshman year I was just running for fun and I made it and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ Sophomore year, mentally, I was not ready. I let myself down and it was all my fault. Last year …I was mentally ready but not physically ready. This year I’m going to be mentally and physically ready. It’s all up to me this year.”
Saturday morning, as Ross hosted the Norm Bray Invitational, Elder finished third overall in the girls race, clocking a time of 20 minutes, 30 seconds.
“I’m definitely not satisfied with how I did,” Elder said. “I’m happy with third place, that’s the highest I‘ve gotten at Norm Bray, but the time is not exactly where I want to be at. I still feel a little out of shape, so I have room to improve. Last year my fastest was 19:04. It’s my senior year and I really want to break 19:00. I want to get into the 18s, that’s my main goal.”
With Elder leading the way, the Lady Giants placed fourth in the 10-team race with 135 points.
Allison Taylor, right, and Mackenzie Smith run during the Norm Bray Invitational Saturday.
Sophomore Allison Taylor and freshman Mackenzie Smith turned in top-20 finishes as Taylor came in 15th with a time of 22:08 and Smith followed three seconds later in 16th.
“Mackenzie didn’t run last week, and Allison hasn’t been here all week because she was showing her rabbits at the fair,” said cross country coach John Elder. “I told her, ‘You did a nice job, for being a rabbit person.’ But that’s how life is with the Sandusky County Fair.”
Makenna Englund (54th place, 25:03) and Grace Egbert (56th, 25:09) rounded out the Lady Giants’ scoring Saturday.
Edmonds finishes 2nd
Zach Edmonds
A year ago, as a junior, Zach Edmonds finished 12th overall at the Norm Bray Invitational, the second Little Giant to cross the finish line, behind classmate Ethan McClory, who won the event.
And that’s how it often went for the Little Giants. Edmonds and McClory would run similar races, but McClory would come in just head of Edmonds.
Last spring, however, during track and field season, the script began to flip as Edmonds began to edge out McClory in their distance events.
That trend has carried over to the start of their senior cross country seasons. In last week’s season-opener, Edmonds crossed the finish line ahead of McClory and he did so again Saturday at the Norm Bray. Edmonds shaved 50 seconds and moved up 10 places from last year’s event, finishing runner-up with a time of 16:51.
Edmonds said he and McClory use one another as motivation to improve.
Zach Edmonds runs during the Norm Bray Invitational Saturday.
“I had to start practicing hard,” Edmonds said. “Me and him, we push each other day in practice. It’s always a battle, who’s going to get in front of each other on meet days.
“My goal is to break 16:00, that’s my goal, I want to get up to 15:50. It’s grind time. Got to work harder.”
McClory wasn’t far behind Edmonds. He finished 15 seconds and three places later, taking fifth overall in a time of 17:06.
As a team, the Little Giants finished sixth, out of 15 teams, with a total of 135 points. Brayden Darr finished 27th with a time of 18:08 while Isaias Ortiz places 52nd in 19:01 and Jake Thompson finished 64th in 19:20.
While John Elder wants his 3-4-5 runners to narrow the gap between them and Edmonds and McClory, he says there is no rush to do so right away.
Ethan McClory runs during the Norm Bray Invitational Saturday.
“I am confident it will happen, but it will take time,” he said. “I’ve had teams where it (doesn’t happen) until the end of the year but that’s when it counts. The best team we ever had was second in the state in ’94 and I couldn’t get my 4-5 guys to run with my top three until districts and regionals. But that’s all that matters. We were third in the league meet that year. Meets don’t matter until the biggest one.”
Norm Bray Invitational
BOYS
Team: Finished sixth, out of 15 teams, with 135 points
Zach Edmonds (second overall, two points), 16:51.
Ethan McClory, (fifth, five points), 17:06
Brayden Darr (27th, 26 points), 18:08
Isaias Prtiz (52nd, 47 points), 19:01
Jake Thompson (64th, 55 points), 19:20
GIRLS
Team: Finished fourth, out of 10 teams, with 123 points
McKela Elder (third overall, three points), 20:30
Allison Taylor (15th, overall, 15 points), 22:08
Mackenzie Smith (16th overall, 16 points), 22:11
Mekenna Englind (54th overall, 44 points), 25:03
Grace Egbert (56th overall, 45 points), 25:09