By John Raffel
The McConnell sisters are getting things going with the cross county program at Sacred Heart Academy.
It hit a high note at the state finals. Sacred Heart finished third with 130 points, behind Beal City with 94 and Hackett Catholic Central with 108.
Alexis McConnell, a sophomore, finished first for the Irish in 18:58.1 and second for all runners. Bailley McConnell, a freshman, was 18th in 19:47.8. As individuals, Alexis was second and Bailley 13th for all-state honors. Rowan Fitzpatrick was in 26th to also get honors for Sacred Heart.
“We did very well,” Alexis said. “We’re definitely going to push harder next year. We want to get No. 1. We have a bunch of eighth graders that are back. Our team is made up mostly of underclassmen.”
Coach Mark Zitzelsberger has been coach 17 seasons for Sacred Heart and knew coming into this year that the McConnells had extraordinary potential. Alexis was an all-stater as a freshman.
“This year, she moved up from No. 6 on our top-10 board [for all-time runners] to No. 1,” Zitzelsberger said. “She ran a school record 18:23.”
Alexis obviously pleased her coach with her improvement this season. “She went from the low 19s down to 18:23; that’s quite a jump,” Zitzelsberger said. “She works hard year round. She ran throughout the winter time. As bad as the winter was, she logged the miles. This past summer, she put in a lot of hard work. She’s consistent throughout the race. She can start out hard, then she can maintain it. She has the potential of breaking 18 minutes.
“She’s been consistent, along with her sister. These girls have no fear. They go out, run their races, and push themselves through.”
Bailley, like her sister, adjusted to the high school cross country course right off the bat as a freshman.
“These girls have been running, they’re from a running family,” Zitzelsberger said. “Their dad, Rob, he’s a No. 1 senior runner, he just turned 40 this year. He’s the best in the state.”
Bailley’s best time going into the postseason was 19:25. “That puts her No. 6 in our top-10 board at our school,” Zitzelsberger said.
Bailley and the team’s No. 3 and 4 runners, Rowan Fitzpatrick and Megan Nowak, are also freshmen.
“Alexis will go out with whatever pace that whomever she’s racing against wants to go out with,” Zitzelsberger said. “Bailley, she runs her miles much more even. She’s a come-from-behind runner. She’ll start picking runners off at the mile mark and then just continue. At a meet in Shepherd, at the mile mark, she was 18th place. By the end of the race, she was up in fourth, whereas her sister led from start to finish.”
Getting runners of this caliber at the Division 4 level is something special for Zitzelsberger. What makes the McConnell family even more unique is that the McConnells have sisters in the eighth (Cammine) and seventh grades (Desiree). Zitzelsberger expects the two younger sisters to also be promising runners.
Alexis noted that she was able to shave her times by 45 seconds to a minute from last season. “I’ve had different training styles from this last year to this year,” she said. “I’m trying to push it to get below 18:20. My first mile always tends to be a little faster, but then I even it out during the middle. Toward the end, it’s pretty consistent.”
She enjoyed having a sister on the varsity with her this season. “It was really good,” Alexis said. “She pushes me and I push her.”
“It’s been fun to be close to her and get the time she got when she was in ninth grade,” Bailley said.
They frequently run on their own. Alexis figures she goes from 44 to 48 miles a week.
Bailley was happy with her season. “During the summer, I didn’t do so well for training,” she said, adding that her health was been sound during the fall to allow her to have a strong season. “During my first mile, I try to stay back to my normal pace, because a lot of people start out really fast. During the second mile I start to go by people. I pick off each person during the race.”