Brad Osborne

Junior Maddy Brown raced at the District meet, placing 4th and helping her team to make it through to Sectionals for the second year in a row. Though the team did not make it to state, Brown qualified individually and placed 3rd at the state meet. “I’ve realized that running is not a right, but a blessing, because so many people are not even able to walk, much less run. I want to run like I’m the most privileged girl in the world and use my talents well,” Brown said.

On Nov. 9, junior Maddy Brown ran in the state cross-country meet for the third consecutive year. She ran the fastest 5k of her life, earning third place at the state cross-country meet with a time of 18:32.

“The state course itself actually isn’t that hard, but the competition is. As my coach says, ‘it’s for all the marbles!’ But really, it’s a privilege to go to state and it’s awesome I’ve been able to go three times so far,” Brown said.

Freshman year, Brown placed 15^th, earning All-State honors. However, she did not even place in the top 50 runners sophomore year due to sickness.

“Last year I barely qualified for state because I was sick with the flu. However, running when I was sick helped me because it really taught me mind over matter: if I can race when I feel that sick, then I can certainly push through the pain of racing when I’m healthy,” Brown said.

Like most sports, running requires mental strength as well as physical endurance.

“This year I viewed the state meet as my redemption race. I wasn’t trying to redeem myself from placing so badly sophomore year, but from giving up during my race. Running is a mental game, and I stayed mentally strong to place so well this year,” Brown said.

While she finished in third, Brown did not hold these standings for the whole race. She was in 7^th place at both the first and second runner. She managed to out-kick a runner from Lafayette at the end of the race to snag third place overall.

“I’m pretty evenly matched with the Lafayette runner, but I thought it would be awesome to catch her and beat her during my final race of the season. So, I gave it all I had and ran her down,” Brown said.

Though Brown was the only runner to place at State, three others accompanied her on her trip: Rachel and Andrew Osborne and James Morse.

“Since we are all runners, James, Rachel and Andrew really knew how to keep my mind off the race. We played cards and hung out – we can all get really silly when we’re together. They calmed my nerves, and I’m so glad they were there,” Brown said.