Maine And New England Champion Treasures Signed Shirt From Last Year's Meet In San Diego

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Photos by Becky Holbrook

It was an opportunity Ruth White knew was too good to pass up.

It was December of 2022 and White was at her first national high school cross country competition, the CHAMPS Sports Cross Country Finals in San Diego, Calif.

More than 3,200 miles away from her home of Orono, Maine, with a plain white T-shirt and marker in hand, White, all of 4 foot, 8 inches, was on a mission: seek out all 80 competitors, herself included, to sign the shirt.

White wanted to commemorate this special moment.

“It was an incredible experience in every way,” White said. “Meeting high school runners like Sadie Engelhardt, Kole Mathison was incredible. To get to meet and get signatures of people who are already famous in the running world, and are going to continue to do well and likely be the future Olympians and world record holders, to get those signatures and get to talk to a lot of different kids, was really cool.”  

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Her dad, also the Orono cross country coach, Lin White, said the signing effort is in line with who she is. 

“She loves the sport, she loves the community, and she's an incredibly inclusive individual,” Lin said.

Finishing first or not, White’s mentality has always been about the experiences that running provides, and making each race and competition count. She’ll travel again to San Diego to race Dec. 9 at Balboa Park’s Morley Field (the name of the race has returned to Foot Locker), looking to see what she can accomplish in her final high school cross country competition.

White finished 17th (17:55.5) last year. This fall she was undefeated, winning the Maine state title and New Englands for the third consecutive year, before heading to the Foot Locker Northeast Regional Championships, which moved to Boston's Franklin Park for the first time. She finished third in that race, behind two more returning national finalists, Zariel Macchia of New York and Ellie Shea from Massachusetts.

“She’s all in when she commits to something and running has been one of those things,” Lin said. “I don't know if I've ever had an athlete that works as hard as she has and I've had some incredible athletes.”

White is the middle child of three. Her older sister, Nora, is a sophomore at Marist and runs on the track and cross country team. Clara is a sophomore at Orono, also on the track and cross country team. The trio grew up around the track and trails as their dad was actively involved in the summer track program in the Orono community of roughly 11,000 people. Running became second nature for the three. 

“Perpetual motion was always important, so running became a part of it,” Lin said of making sure his kids were active in some way. “And they’d hang out on the edge of the cross country course and tracks since they were toddlers.”

White continued to run, but never felt the pressure to perform at a certain level or make it her sole identity. To this day she still participates in Nordic skiing in the winter and has a passion for the sciences. She plans to major in Engineering at Boise State University next year. 

“Early on (Ruth) was fairly successful with it (running), but you never know with it with kids, it clicks and then fades off,” Lin said. “We kind of let her enjoy it as it went along. As a coach I appreciated her being committed to it but again running had to be fun, it was never a training aspect.”

Of the three sisters, Ruth has experienced the most success, excelling in the longer distances from an early age, winning the USATF Maine Association Junior Olympic Championships as a fifth and sixth grader. With her freshman season of competitive running abbreviated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she didn’t get her first real taste of the prep running scene until her sophomore year.

She made her presence known at the high school level early on, however, winning the prestigious Maine Festival of Champions in Belfast, racing 17:28.5 to become the first female runner to break 17:30 on the course. She went on to claim the Class C title and win the New England Championship title at the tough 5-kilometer course in Thetford, Vt., finishing in 18:44.8. 

“When I won New Englands sophomore year, that was probably one of the first times I realized I could compete well outside of the state,” White said. 

As a junior, she won all of her cross country races in Maine, continuing to progress and become a faster and smarter racer. She made the trip to the Bronx at the end of the season where she finished in fourth at the CHAMPS Northeast Regional Championships, qualifying for the first national high school cross country race. 

“I love the feeling of pushing my body and seeing what I can do,” White said. “And I just love the feeling of running, especially longer races. I just find it fun.”

On the track, she's been just as successful, focusing on the mile and 2-mile. Last spring, she won the New England 3,200-meter title in a personal-best 10:30.49, and went on to place 10th in the 2-Mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals in 10:32.90 — the fastest time of her career — which ranked No. 28 nationally in 2023. Between track and cross country, White is a 10-time state champion. 

“For Ruth it’s never been about winning. It's always been about trying to find a way to be a little bit better every single time and so that's our discussion,” Lin White said. “How do you become that and achieve that? She puts a lot of thought into that.”

This fall she obliterated her own course record at Belfast, where she went under 17 minutes, running 16:57 to win the Festival of Champions. She won her third straight New England title in November, joining legendary New England prep runners Hannah DeBalsi and Amie Schumacher in the achievement. But perhaps, more importantly, this fall she guided Orono to the program's sixth consecutive team title. 

“It’s been fun to see how I can improve and also help my team over the past couple years,” White said. “I’ve been fortunate to be on some really good teams and it’s so great to be part of that and improve my individual performance to help the team's performance.”

Lin, as a gushing father but proud coach, describes White as a caring and competitive individual. She said it’s become tradition to always wait around the finish line after she crosses and offer congratulations to her fellow runners – a tradition she picked up from her older sister Nora at a young age. 

“She’s committed to everyone coming in and she knows what it takes for each individual to commit to the sport,” Lin White said. 

This weekend, White’s mentality to the national race is the same – do the best she can for herself and the team and enjoy the opportunity. She has contributed to the Northeast girls lineup winning the past two team titles in San Diego.

“I’m really looking forward to the whole experience again and meeting high school runners that love running and are focused in a way that I am,” White said. “And I'm excited to run Balboa Park again. Hopefully, I can help the Northeast team to do well.”