Right Choice
ADAMS TWP — Hailey Long is used to excelling on the lacrosse field, but she was a newcomer to cross country this fall.
"I didn't expect much," said Hailey, an eighth-grader at Mars Middle School. "I just wanted to run to my potential."
She certainly did that, surprising herself and everybody else who saw her compete.
Hailey won all nine meets she took part in as well as two inviationals. The victories themselves would have been noteworthy, especially for someone with no prior experience in the sport. But it was the manner in which she won the races that truly impressed Mars Middle School cross country coach Dave Kuremsky.
"There were so few girls who could stay with her into the second half of those runs," he said. "Every once in a while, a girl would be right behind her and she would turn it up a notch. The closest finish she had she still won by 15 or 16 seconds.
"I've coached sports at Mars for 32 years, have worked with college athletes and young kids in football and basketball. She competed as hard as anyone I've ever coached. Losing was never an option for her."
Hailey, a midfielder in lacrosse, picked up that sport six years ago and recently thought about challenging herself with something new.
"I was thinking about running cross country and some of my friends on the team said they thought it was a good idea," she said. "All of the work I'd put in had been related to lacrosse, but we had a practice before the season started and I placed fourth out of everyone on the team, boys and girls. That made me raise my expectations a bit."
Kuremsky could tell he had a talented athlete on his roster.
"The first thing I noticed about her was that she had really good foot-speed and that she would make a good sprinter," he said. "But that doesn't always translate to cross country. The average course is between 1.5 and 1.9 miles."
Hailey won Mars' first few meets, but it was when she placed first in meets against Pine-Richland and North Allegheny in late September that Kuremsky began to realize what she was capable of.
"Winning against runners from those two schools, and dominating them, that definitely raised an eyebrow," he said. "She ran 11 minutes, 39 seconds at NA, which was the eighth-fastest time ever turned in on their course."
Less than two weeks later, Mars returned to the same course for the NA Invitational. This time, Hailey finished in 11:32, the sixth-best time ever run there.
"Someone told me that of the five kids who ran faster times, three of them ended up as state champions in either cross country or track," Kuremsky said.
Hailey capped her season by winning the Midwestern Athletic Conference meet Oct. 12. She would be a welcome addition to Mars' varsity team next year.
"It took me a while to get used to cross country, but considering how well I did, I think it would be a good idea to stick with it."
