SAN DIEGO – Finishing with a time of 17:48.5, MHS junior Irene Riggs was able to secure herself 14th place out of 39 participating runners at the Eastbay Cross-Country National Championships on Saturday.
The annual Eastbay Cross-Country National championship brings the best runners for both boys’ and girls’ divisions, from four regions: South, Northeast, Midwest, and West.
Each runner participating in the national race made their way through regional qualifiers.
Riggs placed eighth in the South region with a time of 17.21.95 to qualify for nationals.
The finish is one Riggs is proud of and says that she executed her initial plan coming into Saturday’s race.
“I knew going into the race that the course was going to be hard, so I had to come in with some sort of a plan,” she said. “I wanted to take out the first mile controlled and really focus on the hill coming into the second loop. Once I knew I was in top twenty range, I wanted to at least get to top 15.”
Aside from her impressive performance, the experience alone is something Irene will take home with her. For Riggs, it was mostly the things she did outside of competing that she says will stick with her as she returns to everyday life.
“This weekend has been so much fun,” Riggs said. “I’ve been able to meet so many people and make a ton of new friends and experience some great racing competition.”
For someone achieving national results, it wasn’t until Riggs became a student at MHS that she knew she wanted to be competitive in running.
“I think around freshman year was really when I knew that I was going to stick with running,” said Riggs, the daughter of WVU swimming coach Vic Riggs. “I had so much fun with my team that year which made it so much fun. Coach (Mike) Ryan also has been a great leader and been able to teach me how to be the best runner I can be.”
Saturday’s race wrapped up the fall/winter outdoor season for Riggs. She now looks forward to spring where she plans to run for the Mohigans track team.
“As for what’s next, mostly just training. Of course, I will take some down time this week, but then I will get back to training to try to get a good base for outdoor track.” Riggs said.
–Story by MICHAEL GRIFFITH
