Returning to Monongahela after the WPIAL Cross Country Championship meet at Cooper's Lake near Slippery Rock Oct. 26, Ringgold coach Scott Frederick quietly thought about his team's ride to the prestigious event -- next year.
"This season just ended, but I'm already looking forward to and thinking about next year," Frederick said, with more than a hint of excitement in his voice.
After last year's team compiled an 11-3 record, one most coaches and teams would relish, Ringgold "lost three good seniors," Frederick said, "but our top three runners from last year returned this year and a freshman became our No. 3 runner."
And the team?
That youth movement is more than already in action, establishing a school record this season with 13 wins -- against a single loss -- to Connellsville, which denied the Rams the Section 4 AAA title. With an experienced squad returning next season, section and WPIAL opponents are certain to keep a wary eye focused on the Lady Rams.
In fact, by class this season, Ringgold's top seven runners -- junior, junior, freshman, junior, junior, freshman and freshman -- bode well for next year and the next. (By name, the top seven runners have been Loren Cortopassi, Jessica Russell, Jackie Barner, Jessica Barner, Melany Smith, Jenna Lander and Lauren Bandi.)
"At the beginning of this season, we really didn't anticipate this," said Frederick, in his 26th year as Ringgold's cross country coach. "We really didn't see this coming." Frederick's freshman find, Jackie Barner, Jessica Barner's sister, "has been good from day one."
Ringgold's 18 runners, excluding only one senior whose season ended early due to an injury, were divided evenly among the freshman, sophomore and junior classes.
"With 18 runners on the team, the higher number encourages others to reach their potential. With the larger group, more runners are pushing the lead runners to have better times," Frederick added.
Frederick also pointed to his team's strategy of staying close to each other and running as a pack during races as another reason for their success.
But there is more to the team than the new school record, Frederick noted. "This team is good academically and they are well-disciplined," he said. "Being a good cross-country runner and academically disciplined go hand in hand. Our girls are coachable. They work hard and have good work habits."
Frederick referred to the girls' off-season work as one of the reasons for the Rams' productive season, and credited a senior project with aiding in that success.
"On their own, two of the girls put together a cross-country camp this past summer as part of their senior project," Frederick explained. "That camp helped create a lot more interest in cross country for boys as well as girls."
Held at Ringgold's cross-country course at Mingo Park, the camp was for middle- and high school-aged runners, with 23 prospective runners attending. Campers were charged a nominal fee, which paid for camp T-shirts. Workouts were both supported and supervised by parents of team members.
"There was a core group of parents there all the time," Frederick noted, "and this camp was one of the reasons why we were able to attract more girls interested in running."
Frederick, in his 31st year as an American history teacher at Ringgold, refers to the Mingo Park course as a "challenging course with three big hills, one of the more difficult courses in southwestern Pennsylvania."
Junior captain Loren Cortopassi, the Lady Rams' top runner this season, helped to organize the camp.
"We came up with the idea of the camp for our senior project," Cortopassi said, referring to herself and camp co-organizer Melany Smith, also a junior.
"We had 23 people and more boys than girls were there," Cortopassi said. "We made announcements in the high school and went to the middle schools to see if there was anyone who wanted to run. It was so successful that we plan to continue it again next summer."
At the park, Cortopassi and Smith organized the runners into two groups who either ran hills or participated in various races and running events. Team members offered instruction at the same time.
As a freshman, Cortopassi finished her WPIAL championship race 13 seconds short of qualifying for states, and was 40 seconds from qualifying for states last year. After running in local races and in middle school, Cortopassi decided on cross country in high school rather than soccer. Her time of 20:38 at the 3.1-mile Mingo Park course ranks second on Ringgold's all-time list.
As a member of the Rams' track team, Cortopassi competes in the 1,600 meters (one mile) and 3,200 meters (two miles) events and is also a member of the swim team.
Junior Jessica Russell, the team's No. 2 runner, was kept out of last summer's camp due to a stress fracture in her leg that had her on crutches and not on the cross-country course until the season began in August.
Russell, whose best time has been 22:18, credited the team's closeness for the Rams' success.
"We all get along, support each other and work well together well," Russell said. "We practice hard together and work on lowering our times. We worked together and grew as a team. We have fun running together and celebrate everyone's birthdays."
Russell became involved in cross country, thanks to a pitch made to her by Rams' assistant coach Peggy Flynn.
"When I was in ninth grade, Coach Flynn told me all about cross country," Russell said. "That's what got me interested in running."
Russell's goal is to get her time in the 21-minute range, but "as long as we do well as a team, that's what is important," she added. "We are determined to win our section next year and lost by one meet this year." Each of Ringgold's three losses last year came at the hands, er, feet of section opponents.
On the Ringgold track team, Russell competes in the 4 x 400 relay, 800 meters (one-half mile), 1,600 meters (one mile), and 3,200 meters (two miles) events.
Cortopassi and Russell both average in the neighborhood of 25-30 miles running each week. In the classroom, Russell has a 4.0 grade average and lists her favorite classes as biology, trigonometry and AP English. Cortopassi's favorite class is chemistry and maintains a 3.75 grade average.
With Ringgold's individual-meet season over, the Rams competed in the Tri-State Cross Country Meet Oct. 19 at Cooper's Lake and the WPIAL championship meet Oct. 26 at the same site.
In the WPIAL championships, Ringgold finished 28th. Cortopassi hit the finish line 49th out of 307 runners, with a time of 20:55, 37 seconds shy of qualifying for the trip to the state championships in Hershey Nov. 4. After Cortopassi, Russell finished in 89th place. An injured Jackie Barner did not participate, but Ringgold's other runners included Smith (158), Jessica Barner (191), Lander (232), Bandi (270) and freshman Chelsie Brown (270), giving the Rams invaluable experience for next season.
After all, cross-country season begins in 10 months.
