Cook Wins Second National Caliber Meet, Hough Pulls Ahead Late In San Diego

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

SAN DIEGO -- Neither Natalie Cook nor Riley Hough began the season believing they were destined to hold a silver platter aloft at Morley Field after winning the Eastbay Cross Country Championships. 

But both of them made it happen on Saturday. Cook, of Flower Mound, Texas, became the first girl to sweep national championship meets and she did it by building a substantial lead and then holding on over the final 200 meters against late challenges from New Jersey champion Angelina Perez and Pennsylvanian Jenna Mulhern to win in 17:15.0. 

Cook became the first winner of the girls championship from Texas. 

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"My finish sometimes isn't the best, but today I'd say I finished pretty well when they were closing. I tried my best to finish," she said. "I heard my dad say 'They're coming.' You've got to run for your life."

Cook, who won the RunningLane Championship race as week earlier in Alabama, was the Eastbay South Region champion and also won the Texas UIL 6A title. 

But she didn't go undefeated in 2021. In September, she traveled to California to run in the Woodbridge Cross Country Invitational and placed third. 

Ultimately, what happened in September didn't matter in December when Cook was at her best. 

Hough gave Michigan a winner for eighth time, matching California for the most victories at the national finals, which began as the Kinney Cross Country Championships in 1979 and were know as the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships from 1993 to 2019. The 2020 event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Hartland High senior was behind Gavin Sherry of Connecticut until the final long downhill along Upas Street. Hough unfurled his long legs and went by Sherry and then carried the momentum into the flat part of the park before making the drive toward the finish. Hough's lead quickly grew from a stride to 15 meters in a few decisive moments. 

"I was able to make it around him somehow," Hough said. "I honestly thought they were still going to be right behind me. That's what kept me pushing through here. I couldn't hear them over the crow. I was expecting them to come zooming past me."

Hough studied video of fellow Michigander Grant Fisher's wins on the Balboa Park course in 2013 and 2014 and learned how important that final downhill can be. 

Sherry, the East region champion and a slight pre-race favorite, dictated the tempo from the lead through the middle and late stages of the race. And he chugged up the hill the second time with a couple seconds of a lead on a group that included Hough, San Diego native Kenan Pala and Colorado's Zane Bergen. 

"When I got to the top of the hill the second time I could feel the lactic acid and it was like, 'Ewww,'" Sherry said. 

He made the turn and headed downhill with the lead, but Hough's long legs reeled him in. 

Hough finished in 15:11.4 and Pala, who is well accustomed with the course, was second in 15:14.8. Sherry finished third in 15:17.3. 

A week earlier, Hough finished fifth in the RunningLane Championships behind three members of the Newbury Park team -- Colin Sahlman, Leo Young and Lex Young -- and Bergen.