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ST. LOUIS – Villa Duchesne’s Elise Marker feels she has some unfinished business to take care of this season.
She started off her season in the right direction, winning the White Division at Saturday’s Forest Park Cross Country Festival in 19:16.10, more than 40 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
Marker, now a sophomore, qualified for the state meet as a freshman last season. She fell in the first mile and teammate Cece Stock stopped to wait for her. The two Saints tried to work their way back through the field to get into all-state position, but they fell just short and finished 26th and 27th.
That motivated Marker to attack this season with even more fervor.
“I ran a lot more mileage, and I had so many amazing freshmen come on the team and new teammates, that I think they were so encouraging that all of us had a better summer together,” Marker said. “I was never aiming to win; I had no idea what I was going to do. I guess my main goal was to have fun and see if I was better than last year.”
Marker said she was instructed by her coach not to move into the lead until 2 ½ miles into the race if she was feeling good, but she felt better than even she anticipated and suddenly found herself leading the race at the first mile marker.
“I thought, ‘Should I wait for people to catch up so coach doesn’t yell at me for being in front,’ but I was like, ‘No, I’m not going to do that,’” Marker said. “I just kept running, and it worked out well.”
She led the rest of the race and bettered her PR by more than a minute. Stock came in close behind in fifth (20:01).
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