Erin Strzelecki ran her race. Allowing the field to set the pace and pushing the pace for herself as the race went on, running the 2nd fastest individual state meet time across 5000 meters. The FW Carroll girls used a strong 1-2-3-4 to win their 2nd straight team title.
Bishop Dwenger's Erin Strzelecki had the race of her high school career in her final state meet. She cruised for her first ever state individual title in either cross or track, running 17:22.90 on a slightly muddy, windy and chilly day at the Lavern Gibson course.
The recent University of Notre Dame commit hung out in wait and allowed the Annalyssa Crain and Karina James to take the race out fast and worked her way to the lead not long after the halfway point of the race. She came into the final grueling 400 or so meters to the finish all on her own and that's how she would finish, not being caught at all. Strzelecki crossed 22 seconds ahead of Annalyssa Crain in 2nd place. Her time landed her as No. 2 all-time for the state meet in terms of finishing times, behind Anna Rohrer who finished in 17:08.80 in 2014. That time of 17:22.90 also now ranks her No. 9 all time for high school girls on the LaVern Gibson Course. The athletes who sit just in front of her have all gone on to earn All-American status at either Nike or FootLocker, only two of those girls are still competing in high school, Katelynne Hart and Taylor Ewert.
Annalyssa Crain of Edgewood also had one of the best races of her high school career, finishing 2nd overall in 17:44.50. Crain, a junior, earned her third straight top 10 finish, taking third last year and sixth her freshman year. Next up for her? She has plans to compete at both NXR Midwest and FootLocker Midwest in the coming weeks and hopefully earn a spot to one of the national meets out west.
Brebeuf's Madeline Keller took third in 18:02.20, Sophomore Karina James took fourth in 18:04.30, while freshman Sophia Kennedy took 5th in 18:09.70 to round out the top five all under 18:10 for 5K.
It looked like it would be a repeat of last year with a team battle between reigning champs FW Carroll and runner-ups Zionsville for the title once again this year. And that's exactly what happened. The FW Carroll Chargers pulled out the win for the second year in a row with an impressive 101 points as the Eagles of Zionsville took 2nd with 143 points.
FW Carroll placed four runners in the top 25 with their number five coming in 48th for scoring purposes. By the time the Chargers had four in, the Eagles only had two in with their third runner just a couple places behind Carroll's No. 4 on the day.
Carmel took 3rd with 162 points, Fishers fourth with 192 and Columbus North fifth with 195 points to cap off the podium teams.