By: Ed Weaver / November 3, 2024
Sophomore Lauren Kosek capped her 2024 Cross Country season with a 6th place finish in the Class 2A Girls race at Saturday’s PIAA Championships in Hershey.
Kosek placed 40th (20:29) last year as a freshman. This year, she finished 6th out of 250 runners, and nearly knocked a full minute off last year’s time with a run of 19:12. She finished four seconds behind Uniontown’s Grace Trimmer.
“It was super exciting getting a chance to race at the state level again,” she said. “Going into the race, my coaches and I were looking at getting top 10, maybe even top 5. I think I ran my race really well. It went out really really fast, as expected, but I feel like I was able to maintain through the hills and into the last kilometer. I am still in disbelief over the fact that I am a state medalist and I placed so high up in the state meet! I put a ton of training in over the summer and during this season, and it’s really cool to see my work directly pay off.”
Another accomplishment for the young runner, last week she was four seconds behind Lewisburg’s Baylee Espinosa at the District IV Championships. Yesterday she finished 10 seconds and 3 places ahead of Espinosa, who was last year’s state champion.
“Last year, I kind of died around the 4k mark and lost like 15 places, so
that was a big focus going into this weekend. I was able to get into
the top 10 in the first half mile and hold around 6th for the whole
race.”
Kosek started the race in 11th in the first half mile with a split of 2:36. She worked her way up to 6th at the first mile marker (5:39). She lost ground back to 13th at the two mile marker (12:00), but was back up to 6th at the 4 kilometer mark (19:12). Her average pace was 6:11.
“Lauren ran a perfect race yesterday for where she is at,” said dad and head coach Eric Kosek. “Probably one of, if not the most improved freshmen to sophomore jump in the state from last year to this year. She didn’t have a single bad race this year and has learned a ton. Beating the reigning state champion was on her mind and she did it.”
Kosek recorded seven 1st place finishes this year, winning every league meet along with the NTL Coaches Invite. Her only non-1st place finishes of the season were a 2nd place finish at last week’s District IV Championships, a 4th place finish at the PIAA Foundation Class 2A Invite, and a 3rd place finish at the McQuaid Invite. Kosek plans on taking a couple week off before she laces the spikes back up.
“I am looking at possibly going to Footlocker Regionals in a few weeks, and then directing my focus towards a few indoor meets and the outdoor season.”
Joining Kosek at the championships was teammate, junior Max Macias. Macias finished 86th overall in 17:48. After starting the race in 115th, he worked his way up to 92nd at the 2.5 kilometer mark, then got as high as 84th at at the 4 kilometer checkpoint.
Macias ran an 18:42 and finished 114th overall at last year’s PIAA Championship meet.
WellsboroXC.com would like to congratulate Lauren on her sixth place finish and both Max and Lauren on stellar 2024 seasons.
