By Christopher Hunt
Cornwall coach Dave Feuer said he couldn’t’ ask anything more of Aisling Cuffe. She kept herself in the race. She chased the biggest names in high school distance running and fought until her tank hit “E.”
But when Chelsey Sveinsson (Dallas, Tx.) dropped one last surge in the last half-mile of the Foot Locker Nationals, she put the race into a place that Cuffe had yet to venture before. Only Megan Goethals (Rochester, Mich.) could follow and when it looked like Sveinsson had locked up the national championships Goethals made on last move to win in 17:06.9 at Balboa Park in San Diego, Calif. Sveinsson finished second in 17:07.1.
Cuffe faded to fourth – Emily Sisson (Chesterfield, Mo.) caught her before the line – to finish in 17:21.4. Sisson crossed in 17:18.8.
“She just couldn’t respond,” Feuer said of Cuffe. “I think they’re a little stronger than her. Last year she ran 18:03. This year, 17:21. You’re talking a 42-second improvement. Her time this year is the winning time last year and that race had Jordan Hasay (who won in 17:22) and (Ashley) Brasavan. This is actually a better field.”
Cuffe said: “For the first loop, I felt good. I was excited to see what was going to happen. The at the 2-mile mark I started to feel really tired. At 2.5 miles I was just done.”
The junior admitted that the torrid pace started to take a toll and when she needed to switch gears one last time, there was nothing left.
“I felt like with each step in the last mile the pace was becoming a little faster,” she said. “Then we cross the road and then it one step the pace picked up even more and it just happened to be uphill. So I couldn’t even open my stride. It was in that moment that I felt them pull away. Even mentally I couldn’t stay with them.
Feuer called Cuffe’s junior year a dream season. She ran the second-fastest times in history on the course at Paul Short, Bear Mountain Park and the fourth-fastest all-time on the 2.5-mile course at Van Cortlandt Park at the Manhattan Invitational. Then Cuffe grabbed the nation’s attention when she sent the course record at Sunken Meadow Park on a dreadfully windy day at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional two weeks ago. It rained throughout the day in San Diego – a light rain for the girls race and a heavy downfall for the boys race, which Lukas Verzbicas of Orland Hills, Ill., dominated in 15:07.8, about 15 seconds ahead of Matthew McElroy of Huntington Beach, Calif.
Craig Lutz, who won at NXN Nationals, finished fourth in 15:29.6. Quinn Raseman of Ward Melville in Long Island, finished 19th in 15:44.8.
As for Cuffe, the race was the first time in her undefeated season that she had seen any challenge. Pre-race predictions had her anywhere from first to fourth. She finished 12th at the meet last year. Cuffe made her name last season, her first cross country season after competing in the racewalk in the indoor season of her freshman year. Goethals and Sveinsson, Feuer said, were simply bigger and stronger runners and that made the difference in the end.
“It was like the pace that I would normally run to break away from people, going into the last mile, we were already running that,” Cuffe said. “I just didn’t know what to do. “
Despite Cuffe’s marked improvements this season, Feuer said the race will be a learning experience.
“There’s no shame in this season,” he said. “To me it was a dream season. She was undefeated up until today. Only one girl can win here. Only one girl was supposed to stay undefeated. We still have next year.”
Reach Christopher Hunt at chunt@armorytrack.com.
