St. Johns' Smith Finishes Final Pursuit
November 1, 2014
By Bill Khan
Special for Second Half
BROOKLYN — Karrigan Smith of St. Johns had been closing the gap on Kenzie Weiler of Cedar Springs the past three years.
Smith finally caught her and passed her Saturday to win the MHSAA Lower Peninsula Division 2 cross country championship at Michigan International Speedway.
Smith won a kick to the finish to edge Weiler by 2.5 seconds, posting a time of 18:11.0. Weiler, the defending champion, took second for the third time in her career in 18:13.5.
"Kenzie is a really great competitor," Smith said. "I wasn't confident I would win until I crossed the pads at the end. I can't even describe it. It's so unreal right now. I know this state title means so much to me, my team and my community. They've been behind me the whole time through this whole process. I can't think of a better way to end my senior season."
It was a process that began Smith's freshman year when she placed seventh in the MHSAA Final in 18:23.0, 48.9 seconds behind second-place Weiler.
Smith dropped to 17th place in 18:30.0 the following year, but cut the margin between her and Weiler to 40.9 seconds.
The big jump came last year when Smith took third in 18:04.0, just 8.9 seconds behind Weiler.
Smith came to MIS on Saturday believing it could be her day.
"I definitely trained my mind to think that," Smith said. "Running is such a mental sport. You have to believe what you can truly do. Today it happened for me. You really have to believe it."
Smith ran second behind Weiler for most of the race, using her rival to block some of the heavy wind.
"Going into the race and seeing the conditions, I knew I was going to need some help from the lead pack to get me through the race," Smith said.
Morgan Posthuma of Grand Rapids Forest Hills Northern was third in 18:24.4.
Grand Rapids Christian added to its dynasty status, winning its fifth championship in the last 10 years by outscoring runner-up Otsego by an 87-145 margin. The Eagles have finished in the top five the last 13 years.
Christian's only graduation loss from 2013 was its No. 7 runner. Although the top six returned, three newcomers cracked the lineup Saturday. The Eagles had three runners in the top 10 among team runners, with Claire Brouwer taking sixth (18:52.6), Lindsey Fox ninth (18:59.1) and Rachel Warners 10th (19:00.8). Completing the scoring were Michelle Koetje (26th, 19:27.0) and Megan Schenkel (36th, 19:39.6).
Otsego's Megan Aalberts was third among team runners in 18:34.5, but her team’s No. 2 runner didn't cross until 27th place. Second place is the best finish in school history, eclipsing last year's third-place showing.
PHOTOS: (Top) St. Johns’ Karrigan Smith holds off Cedar Springs’ Kenzie Weiler during the final stretch of Saturday’s Division 2 race. (Below) Otsego’s Megan Aalberts works to stay ahead of Spring Lake’s Erin O’Keefe as they race for fourth place; Aalberts held on to help her team to its best Finals finish. (Click to see more from RunMichigan.com.)
DaDamio Follows Sister as Elite Pacesetter
October 10, 2019
By Keith Dunlap
Special for Second Half
While the best part of a cross country or track race is the sprint to the finish line, it was actually having the race be over that excited Audrey DaDamio the most.
Growing up, DaDamio loved watching older sister Rachel, who finished second at the 2014 Lower Peninsula Division 1 Cross Country Final and won the 1,600 meters at the LPD1 Track & Field Finals the following spring. But Audrey enjoyed a postrace ritual with Rachel even more.
Once a race was over, Audrey DaDamio would join her older sister on the track or at the end of the cross country course and do a cool-down run with her, the only time the two could run together at meets since they were six years apart.
“I was such in awe watching her race,” DaDamio said.
Fast forward a few years, and more and more race fans are finding themselves in awe of watching Audrey DaDamio run.
Now a junior in high school and member of Birmingham Seaholm’s cross country team, DaDamio should be on the short list of contenders at this year’s Division 1 meet Nov. 2 at Michigan International Speedway.
DaDamio is off to a terrific start to this season. She won the first Oakland Activities Association Red jamboree in September in a time of 18:02.16. This past Saturday, she was the individual champion at the Oakland County meet held at Kensington Metro Park, besting a competitive field in a time of 18:09.3.
DaDamio also finished fifth in the “elite” race at the prestigious Spartan Invite at Michigan State University and has built on a performance that exceeded her expectations at last year’s LPD1 Final at MIS, where she finished 11th.
“My goal was to be top 20, so coming away 11th, I was really excited about that,” DaDamio said. “It definitely made my goals for this season a lot higher.”
DaDamio said she started running track in fifth grade, mainly because she was inspired by Rachel’s accomplishments.
“My goal was to be how she is,” DaDamio said of Rachel, who went on to run cross country and track at Notre Dame.
Before the MHSAA spring track season in March, DaDamio competed at an indoor national track event in New York, where she finished 15th.
She then finished fifth at the Division 1 Track Finals in the 3,200-meter run and placed seventh in the 1,600-meter run to set the stage for this cross country season.
Seaholm head coach Craig McCardell said a big reason for DaDamio’s success is how well she knows her body and how to train.
“She intuitively knows when she can train hard and when she knows her body needs to recover,” McCardell said. “From this, she has avoided interruption in her training caused by injuries.”
DaDamio didn’t run in the second OAA Red jamboree because of soreness after running in a meet a couple of days prior. Instead, she rested up for her winning performance at the county meet and has her eyes set on the third league Jamboree, the Regional meet, and of course, the Finals.
DaDamio said she has a goal of finishing among the top three in Division 1, and hopes learning some technical aspects of the course the last two years will pay dividends in November.
“Last year was kind of my first taste of being in a lead pack and being with girls who I know are very fast,” she said. “You have to put yourself into a position to be successful. Last year at states, by the two-mile mark, I wanted to be in the chase pack. That’s what I did, and it worked out. Hopefully this year, it will be kind of the same thing. That second mile, it’s going to be really hard. But I just have to stay mentally in the race.”
PHOTO: Birmingham Seaholm’s Audrey DaDamio races to an 11th-place finish during last season’s Lower Peninsula Division 1 Final at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo courtesy of Seaholm cross country.)