Lane delivers inspirational championship performance following emotional week

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

SAN DIEGO -- For Claudia Lane, it wasn't just about achieving the biggest goal Saturday. It was about the bigger picture.

Although all eyes were on the Malibu CA junior at the 39th Foot Locker Cross Country Championships and her pursuit of the greatest record in finals history, Lane's greater incentive was to provide hope and inspiration for people more than 150 miles north of Balboa Park's Morley Field.

And despite battling illness leading up to and during the national final, Lane wanted her performance to contribute to the healing for family, friends and peers affected by several fires throughout Southern California.

Lane became the sixth female athlete in meet history to win multiple titles, covering the 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 3.4 seconds to repeat as champion, becoming the first back-to-back winner since Erin Sullivan of Mount Mansfield VT in 1997-98.

"I think it's a really hard time for everyone with the fires right now and so many people being evacuated," Lane said. "It's a pretty rough time, so today I kind of wanted to give people some hope and make them happy."

The week began with Lane's grandmother, an Ojai resident, being evacuated because of the Thomas Fire and living with the family until they attended the meet.

Lane then had to depart Wednesday for San Diego, a day earlier than expected, in order to complete her scheduled track workout since poor quality from the Skirball and Thomas fires resulted in Malibu High being closed.

Only adding to the stress and emotion of the experience, Lane developed a sore throat and cold Thursday, which she endured throughout the race.

"Just to get through all of the fires in L.A. and being here, even though I've been sick, I'm really relieved," Lane said. "I've been looking forward to this meet for such a long time and having gotten sick two days ago was kind of a bummer, but during the race, I'm just like, 'I'm not going to let it bother me.' I definitely felt it, but I knew I had to push through it and it was going to be over in 18 minutes or less, so I knew I could get through it."

Lane had aspired to challenge the 1990 course record of 16:39.2 set by two-time champion Melody Fairchild of Boulder CO, but her margin of victory was still 19.1 seconds, the 10th-biggest spread in meet history.

"I really think if she felt her best, that she could have broken the course record, but the most important thing was getting the win," Malibu coach Mark Larsen said. "She had to be really tough out there. I just told her to run what her body feels like. I think she ran a great first mile and then held strong the rest of the way.

"She loves this place so much and she has so much respect and appreciation for the course and its history and she knows she'll have another opportunity to go after it again next year if she chooses."

With Lane already establishing a 12-second lead at the mile and expanding the advantage to 15 seconds at the 2-mile mark, the individual battle for second place was thrilling, with Glenbard West IL sophomore Katelynne Hart and Lansing Catholic MI senior Olivia Theis trading surges before sprinting the final 400 meters nearly stride for stride.

Hart prevailed by a 17:22.5 to 17:22.6 margin over Theis, leading a dominant performance by the Midwest Regional, which won for the third time in six years with 29 points. For only the third time, the Midwest placed six athletes in the top 10 and had all 10 qualifiers place in the top 30 to contribute to a regional sweep, along with the boys edging the South 31-32, led by champion Dylan Jacobs of Sandburg IL.

Although Katherine Lee of Shoreham-Wading River NY (17:38.3) and Jacqueline Gaughan of Exeter NH (17:44.6) gave the Northeast two athletes in the top five for the first time since 2013 and Lawton Chiles FL senior Ana Wallace (17:48.1) finished sixth for the South, the rest of the top 10 belonged to the Midwest.

Math and Science Academy MN freshman Tierney Wolfgram (17:51.9) rebounded from a 27th-place finish Dec. 2 at Nike Cross Nationals to place seventh, Naperville North IL senior Sarah Schmitt (17:56.8) equaled her NXN performance by taking eighth, Minneapolis Washburn MN junior Emily Covert (17:58.8) bounced back to secure ninth after illness resulted in her finishing 77th at NXN and Hart MI junior Adelyn Ackley ran 18:00 to round out the top 10.

The Midwest lineup, which featured five athletes from Michigan, also had Ericka Vander Lende of Rockford, Cecilia Stalzer of Mason and Rylee Robinson of Waterford Mott finish 25th, 26th and 30th. Phoebe Bates of Carmel IN was 27th for the Midwest, which scored under 30 points to capture its seventh team title in the past 15 years.

The Midwest and Northeast tied with six All-Americans apiece. The South, last year's team champions, also had Hockaday TX junior Adoette Vaughan finish 11th to join Wallace earning All-America honors.

Lane was the lone All-American for the West, but her legacy at Foot Locker continued to grow by joining Erin Keogh of Langley VA (1985-86), Fairchild (1989-90) and Sullivan as the four female athletes to repeat as champion. She became the third two-time winner in the past 13 years, along with Anna Rohrer of Mishawaka IN (2012 and 2014) and Mission Prep CA graduate Jordan Hasay (2005 and 2008).

"I'm just trying to soak it all in. I feel like the past two years, I've been given such amazing opportunities and having coach Larsen with me has been incredible and I don't take any of it for granted," Lane said. "I'm always so grateful for everything, especially this year. This isn't about me, this is about everyone who has supported me along the way and I can't thank them enough."