The Lucky Ones

It’s okay if you’d like to forgive Class C cross country coaches for not having Scotus Central Catholic on their preseason radar.

Oh, sure you can see them there, listed outside the top-10, one of ten other “contenders” the coaches listed. Scotus co-coaches Besty Rall and Amy Sokol wouldn’t have blamed them either.

“We only had seven or eight girls come out last year,” Rall said. And not a single one of them qualified for the state meet in Kearney.

It was a sort of down year for the Shamrocks who had championship or runner-up finish every year at state from 1999-2004 and also sport state titles in 2012, 2013 and 2016. There is tradition there. 

“We kind of caught some bad breaks,” Sokol said. “We just didn’t have the numbers and we had a couple of girls who were hurt. There were times that it was hard to get a team score.”

One of the girls who did run last year was current senior Josie Sliva. Her times aren’t going to wow you; she ran a 24:20.2 on Monday at the UNK Invite — a sort of state preview for you non-running folks. The kind of time that had her squarely on the varsity team last fall.

But doggone if Josie didn’t want a few more people to run with this fall so cross country would be just a little more fun.

She knew that junior Emma Brezenksi wouldn’t be running after suffering a broken leg in soccer last spring. She knew that there was talented freshman Evilyn Kavan coming in and that Hannah Heinrich would be back after sitting out her freshman year with a stress fracture.

But after that? The Rocks needed some runners and Josie went to work.

First it was Mary Faltys, a talented swimmer and soccer player already. She thought about running last year but decided not to. Then came volleyball players Mia Fehringer and Sofia Karges who would join Josie and fellow returner Addi Schumacher for summer workouts, among a group of others.

“When we saw all those girls show up for summer running,” Sokol said, “we got a little excited.”

When the season kicked off on September 1st, Sokol and Rall were excited to see what they had. What they had was 24 team points at the Boone Central Invitational and a team title over now Class B, No. 5 Hastings.

Heinrich second. Kavan third. Faltys fifth. And it wasn’t so much the placing but the times — all three under 21:10. Times you can build around for a state championship run. Fehringer was in under 23:00 — a sort of Mendoza line for the fourth runner to really make your team a contender in the smaller classes.

Four other runners were at 24:06 or better. Not only did the Rocks have a team, Josie Sliva had recruited herself right off the varsity team.

The hits kept coming and Scotus kept running. First at the small-school Platte River Rumble. First at the Malcolm Invitational. And, on Monday, first at the UNK Invitational; you know, that state preview.

“We had pulled them together last week before Kearney and had a meeting and said, ‘You have a wonderful opportunity to do something really special the rest of the season,’” Rall said. “We could see the times and who we were competing against, and I think they might have known a little bit, but we wanted to be really honest with them.”

They took it well, but on Monday morning before the vans loaded up for Kearney the coaches almost didn’t leave the Scotus parking lot. Girls were sore from a weekend full of homecoming activities and worried how they would perform on a new and challenging course for most of them.

“We almost didn’t leave,” Sokol said. “I think the girls were putting some pressure on themselves to really perform well. We kind of just had to tell them to go out and have fun and run your race.

“If you aren’t having any fun doing this, then it’s probably not worth it.”

With 54 points Scotus won the team race for the fourth time in four tries.

This week, the “big three” are all ranked in the Prep Running Nerd’s top-15 in Class C with Kavan sixth and Heinrich and Faltys 10th and 11th. They finished 4th, 8th and 9th at UNK respectively.

For their part, the coaches thought those runners might have a chance at some big things. Kavan was a talented junior high runner as was Heinrich before sitting out last season.

“Both of those girls have trained with the high school when they were in junior high,” Sokol said of their program that practices together with the junior high daily. “We knew they could have a chance to medal at state.”

Faltys was, indeed, a wild card. A summer fun run opened the coach’s eyes.

“We thought she was fast, but she went in our Downtown Run Around and ran a 13:31 2.1-mile in the road race, and that caught our attention,” Rall said.

By now, the coaches are having so much fun they can complete each other’s sentences.

With the volleyballers — Fehringer and Karges — giving Scotus solid fourth and fifth runners the goal of a state championship is now right in front of the Shamrocks. Schumacher and freshman Leslie Medina continue to battle for the sixth spot on the team.

“Anytime you are trying to win a team championship, having those supporting runners is huge,” Rall said. “They have fit right in, worked hard and done a great job for us.”

And Josie Sliva?

She’s well on down the line (but in the center of the team photo). She’s got more friends to run with for her senior season and, just maybe, making those memories is what high school sports should be about anyway.

“Has never complained for a single second,” Rall said.

“She just does all the right things for the team,” Sokol added. “She still, at every single meet, leads our team stretching. She’s been very important to us.”

As the end of the season ticks near, the “full participation sport” as coaches Rall and Sokol like to call it, will inevitably end for some runners. Runners like Josie Sliva. Maybe there is one at your school, too. You see, you can only run six when district and state meet time comes.

But that doesn’t mean the Shamrocks won’t need everyone — the top-end talent, the supporting cast and even the ones not running — to win a state title. Who knows how much a friend at the 2,000 meter mark can make a difference? Or a spray of water from another at the 2-mile hill.

Heck, Josie Sliva somehow knew that last spring, just trying to get lucky enough girls to put a full team together.

And, the girls she found — that she leads through those stretches — maybe they are the lucky ones.

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