Trending
TERRA HAUTE, Indiana -- It has been a whirlwind week for Heartland Christian sophomore Rebecca Geiss.
A week after becoming her school's first state champion, Geiss was running in the Nike Cross Country Midwest Regional on Sunday afternoon.
She posted her second-fastest time to place 32nd out of 259 runners in the girls 5,000 meters championship race.
She covered the 3.1 miles at LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course in 18 minutes, 1.8 seconds.
Geiss was 41st in the first 1,000 meters and settled into 32nd at 2,000 meters.
Her only faster race was at the Ohio Division III state meet last Saturday in 17:55.0, winning in one of the closest OHSAA state finals finishes ever.
Sunday's Midwest Regional was one of the largest meets in its history with the top runners from host Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Missouri.
Twenty-eight runners went under 18 minutes and 133 were under 19 minutes.
Ann Arbor senior Rachel Forsyth, a two-time Michigan state champion, won in 16:31.1.
Ottawa Hills senior Selma Anderson was second (17:18.1) after also finishing second to Forsyth in the Michigan state meet last Saturday. Both ran faster last weekend.
Smithville sophomore Kaitlyn Carr finished 39th (18:10.7) after being third behind Geiss at the Ohio Division III state meet.
In the boys championship meet, Brebeuf Jesuit (Indiana) senior Cameron Todd won in 14:43.8, the fastest time on the course this season.
Todd, a Notre Dame commit, became the school's first Indiana state cross country champion on the same course two weeks ago.
Several Ohio boys also had good showings.
Fairfield Union junior Andrew Walton was eighth out of 286 boys runners in 14:57.4. He is the Ohio Division II state champion.
Tipp City sophomore Landon Kimmel, who was third in the Ohio Division II meet, placed 15th (15:06.3).
Rittman sophomore Luke Snyder, the Ohio Division III state champion, was 39th (15:28.4).
There were 113 boys runners under 16 minutes and 236 runners under 17 minutes.
The top finishers advance to the national meet in Portland, Oregon, on Dec. 2.