November 17, 2017 at 11:56 a.m.
Franson saves best for last at Nike Regionals
Franson saves best for last at Nike Regionals
Following an 11th-place run at last month's WIAA Division 2 state championships, Rhinelander High School senior Alayna Franson had one more race left in her high school career and she made it count.
Franson placed 118th in an elite field of 243 runners in the championship division of the Nike Cross Heartland regionals Sunday in Sioux Falls, S.D., and did it in record time.
Franson completed the five-kilometer course in 19 minutes, 18.55 seconds - roughly 13 seconds faster than her previous PR at last month's Great Northern Conference meet and nearly 30 seconds better than her time at the state meet.
"I just wanted to better my time," Franson told the River News this week. "Especially since basketball (practice) had started, my focus was just to better my time because I wasn't really training for it. I was just really happy with that."
Franson ran with the Thunderbird Track and Field Club out of Minocqua with a couple of her Great Northern Conference rivals from Lakeland Union High School. Aubrey Anderson finished one spot, and 0.05 seconds behind Franson. Ashley Peterson, the Great Northern Conference champion, finished 149th in a time of 19:32.15.
"I felt like I was getting passed most of the race just because Ashley and I started out in about 60th place," she said. "Everyone was just passing us throughout the race, so I just thought I was at like 21 minutes, or around there."
But Franson's time was much faster than that. She said the course was fast and flat, comparing it to the Edgewater Country Club course that Tomahawk High School uses for the annual Hatchet Invite. Freshman Tierney Wolfgram won the race in a time of 16 minutes, 48.67 seconds. Overall there were 21 runners who broke the 18-minute barrier and 98 who finished in under 19 minutes.
"It was a really good experience," Franson said, comparing it to her experience at the Roy Griak Invitational in the Twin Cities this past September. "There was a huge field of girls. It was just a really good experience to see a lot of the competition again and it was just cool to see how many girls there were across the Midwest and how much competition there is."
Franson plans to run collegiately, though said she's still deliberating between several schools that have expressed interest in her.
"It's going to be really really exciting for what's next," she said. "I know if I need to beat my time by like a minute or two minutes, I'm going to really have to work in the offseason and I know that, wherever I go, I'll get the right amount of coaching to get to the next level."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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