(Saturday, November 15, 2014)-KETTERING, OHIO: How does one follow up a top three finish in their State Championship meet?
By helping her state win a multi-state championship, of course.
Taylor Vernot, a senior at Wauseon, capped off a tremendous season by placing third in the Ohio State Championship meet, running an 18:37 to do so. This afforded her some attention from someone helping to assemble the Ohio Girls team that would end up competing in the Mid-East Cross Country Championship.
The Mid-East Championship is a cross country meet that pits twelve elite runners from Ohio against the best twelve from Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois, with separate boys and girls heats. Each state is allowed to use its own method of selecting their team, as the only requirement by those running the event is that all runners must be high school seniors.
Vernot was chosen to help represent Ohio in the meet.
Coached by Mark Albaugh, the Ohio Girls performed exceptionally well, as they broke a tie with Indiana for first place at thirty-seven points apiece. Michigan came in third with sixty points, and Illinois trailed behind everybody else with 130 points.
The fifth girl on her team to finish, Vernot contributed to the victory. Running an 18:55, she came in thirteenth place overall.
“(It was) definitely a great experience.” Vernot commented on the meet.
As great as it was, the experience had to be at least a bit familiar for her.
After all, winning just seems to come naturally for her.