PORT ANGELES — A new star came out of the crowd this year in cross country circles.
And she and many of her young teammates in Port Angeles are going to be around a few more years.
Port Angeles’ Lauren Larson was just one of five freshmen in the entire state to qualify for the State 2A Cross Country Championships last fall. Not only did she qualify, she finished 10th, just one of two freshmen to place in the top 10.
Because of her accomplishments on the cross country courses this fall, Larson is the All-Peninsula Cross Country MVP as determined by area coaches and the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
Larson was one of 10 freshmen and six sophomores on a very young, but talented Roughriders cross country girls team. The team had just three seniors on the roster, Gracie Long, Maddie Dougherty and Mariya Mutel. Most if not all of those freshmen and sophomores will be back to lead a team that finished ninth overall at state, first at district and first at league last year.
And Larson is the best of that young bunch.
The tally for the year for Larson: our second-place finishes, two fourths, including her fourth at district and 10th at the state 2A meet. Simply put, she was the second-best freshman cross-country runner in the entire state.
All that, and she has only been running cross-country for two years, having started with the sport in the seventh grade.
“We had some friends who were very active in cross country and my mom encouraged me to try it,” Larson said.
There were no painful stitches in the side after her first run like people trying long-distance running for the first time.
She realized immediately she was taking to it. “I really liked it. It was fun,” she said.
Larson said she was a little nervous making the leap from middle school running to high school. Larson said the seniors really helped her and younger runners adjust to high school cross country.
Dougherty and Long helped her and the other young runners all year with their senior leadership. “They’re really great people. They were great leaders and helpful for us, always giving us tips,” she said.
Larson started off well during the season with consistently high finishes all year, but she just kept getting stronger as the year went on.
“I just wanted to get a feel for it at first. It’s much more competitive than middle school.”
Larson made her mark right off the bat, finishing second in her first varsity meet, a three-way event with Bremerton and Port Townsend, finishing behind her teammate Long, who was coming off a top 11 finish at state the year before.
Then came a fourth at the Bellevue Invitational and a second at a meet with North Mason, again beaten only by Long.
She had some nice finishes at the Curtis and the Hole in the Wall invitationals (21st and 10th), but nothing that indicated just how great her second half would go.
As the season progressed, Larson felt herself getting more confident.
“I was setting more and more goals and those goals got more ambitious,” she said.
When she really began to shine was at the Olympic League championships. She was now leading a very a strong Roughrider girls’ team (Eight Riders finished in the top 22 spots) that won the league championship.
She finished second there, beaten only by a freshmen from North Kitsap, Madison Zosa. In fact, the two freshmen girls blew away the rest of the field, as they were the only two runners to crack 20 minutes at the league championship (Larson finished with a time of 19:47.).
Larson followed that up with a fourth-place finish at the West-Central District 3 meet, leading the Port Angeles girls to a district championship. Zosa won that race, but her and Larson were the only two freshmen in the top 20 at district.
She doesn’t really see a rivalry developing between her and fellow freshman from North Kitsap, who finished fourth at state. “I focus on myself and not so much what others are doing,” she said.
As intimidating as it was to make the leap from middle school to high school, it was even more awe-inspiring to run at the state meet in Pasco, where only the best of the best runners are in the field.
“I was pretty nervous,” she said. Larson responded not only with the top 10 finish, but also had her personal best 5-kilometer run of the year at 19:23.
“I was really excited, I just wanted to do my best,” she said.
Larson had senior Port Angeles teammates Long and Dougherty with her at state. Larson, Doughtery and Long all finished in the top 42 (out of 160 runners), helping Port Angeles finish ninth in the state as a team.
Her goals now? She plans to run distance events for the Port Angeles track team this spring, and next cross country season Larson already has a goal to crack a 5K time of 19 minutes.
________
Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or plabossiere@peninsuladailynews.com.
Lauren Larson
