Four McConnell sisters highlight Sacred Heart team
John Raffel
Sports Scene
It’s a one-two-three-four punch with the McConnell sisters this fall at Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart.
Coach Mark Zitzelsberger has another Division 4 cross country state championship contender on his hands at Sacred Heart.
Last season at the state meet, the Irish won without a single senior on the team. Alexis McConnell (18:55.6) and her sister Bailey McConnell (19:11.4) placed fourth and fifth respectively. Alex was a junior and Bailey a sophomore. Their younger sister, Cammie, a freshman, placed 17th (19:31.2). But the third Sacred Heart runner was Scout Nelson (19:19.4), who took 10th. Also back are sophomore Lauren MacDonald and juniors Rowan Fitzpatrick and Megan Nowak.
But a fourth McConnell sister, Desiree, freshman, is on the 2016 team.
In the first Mid-State Activities Conference meet on Sept. 21, Alexis, Bailey, Nelson and McConnell took the top four spots. Desiree was seventh.
Alexis’ PR is an 18:02.8 this season, which she achieved at the Mount Pleasant Oiler Earlybird Invite. Bailey got her PR 18:59.5, at the same meet, as did Cammie with an 18:45.7. Desiree had her best, a 20:22.1 at the Michigan State Invitational as the team’s fifth runner.
Four sisters, four different classes, on one varsity cross country team? How often does that happen?
Zitzelsberger laughed at the question.
“Not often, it’s a perfect storm we’ve got going on,” Zitzelsberger said. “Alex has been all-state three years in a row. So we’ll be in the fight to win it this year. I think the top three McConnells have the talent and put in the mileage last summer so they could possibly finish in the top five. You have to run the race. Each one of those girls put in close to 500 miles last summer. They prepared themselves.
“Desiree, we think she’ll get under 20 minutes, and that’s pretty darn good for a freshman. Her last three races, she’s dropped major times in each race. She had a little injury so she was cross training a lot early in the season.”
Nelson was in the 19 minute range last year and is expected to be there by the end of the season.
Depth has never been better.
“Rowan Fitzpatrick was all-state athlete her freshman year,” Zitzelsberger said. “Last, she was on target. She was running 19:30s but got sick three days before the state finals. She raced on Saturday and ran in the high 20s, which I thought was amazing. She has all-state experience too.”
Nowak was No. 6 or 7 last year and got under 19 minutes.
“For a small school like ours to have eight great runners is almost unheard of,” Zitzelsberger said. “We put seven runners in the top 15 at Michigan State.”
Alexis McConnell admits she is ready to have a memorable season.
“I want to improve from where I was last year and possibly breaking the 18s and see where that puts me at the state meet,” she said. “I’d like to go 17:59, just try to get close. I’ll have to get out to a pace and stick to it. The third mile is a little bit tougher.”
Having three sisters on the same team definitely makes it a unique season.
“It’s fun,” McConnell said. “It can be really competitive. We practice at home together and throughout the summer. We work hard. We go one-two-three and see the fourth sister. It’s fun to see how that’s coming along.”