Lions count on Renfro; Valencia leads FSHS

Picking the elite distance runner out of the pack requires more than a study of the stride or the glide, the legs or the arms. Sometimes it’s best to look elsewhere.

“That look of determination is always on her face,” Lawrence High cross country coach Chip Anderson said of sophomore Kelly Renfro.

Anderson likes to see that look when he watches videos of Renfro running.

“We were up there at Rim Rock Farm, and she just attacked that hill,” Anderson said of a recent video he studied. “That’s the biggest thing with her, that determination.”

Renfro placed ninth in the state meet last fall.

“She’s ahead of where she was last year at this time,” Anderson said of Renfro, who also stars in soccer and track in the spring. “You can sure tell the difference between the people who ran during the summer and the people who didn’t.”

Renfro falls into the former category, as does freshman teammate Alissa Freeman, who attends South Junior High.

“She just keeps improving all the time,” Anderson said of Freeman, who already is running second for LHS.

Sophomore twins Jennifer and Kristina Taylor and Sue Schwartz and Brianna Di Iorio, a junior, add depth.

In practice, as at the meets, Renfro sets the pace.

“They try to stay with her,” Anderson said. “They’re getting closer. It depends on the day who’s with her and who’s not and on what kind of practice we’re doing. The longer the run, the easier it is for her to run away. On the shorter runs, we have a couple of runners who have a lot of speed and can hang with her for quite a while.”

LHS placed ninth at state last year.

Free State finished seventh a year ago and returns one of the state’s top distance runners. Alysha Valencia won the state title in the 3,200 meters in track and placed fifth in the state cross country meet. To hear Free State coach Steve Heffernan tell it, Valencia does not approach cross country as an individual sport.

In a recent meet, Valencia hung with teammates Kyra Kilwein, a freshman, and Jeannie Rheams for the first third of the meet and still was able to negotiate her way to first place.

“That takes away their nerves when someone of her caliber is running with them,” Heffernan said.

Valencia’s talent and exemplary attitude have drawn the attention of college powerhouses. Defending national champion Colorado is recruiting Valencia, who also has been wooed by Notre Dame and Arkansas, according to Heffernan.

Free State’s boys team, also coached by Heffernan, returns one varsity runner, Spencer Martin, from last year’s team that placed fourth at state, but shed no tears for the Firebirds.

“We have a chance to be just as good as we were last year,” Heffernan said.

The team is bolstered by the decisions of a couple of track stars to come out for cross country as seniors for the first time. M.J. Hassaballa and Jeff Stebbins have adjusted well to the 5,000-meter distance and cross country terrain, according to Heffernan.

Lawrence didn’t qualify for the state meet last fall, but with co-captains Matt Riley and Kyle Morgison and sophomore Dylan Hedges leading a deep team, Anderson has hopes of his distance runners having a better season than a year ago.

Eric Nelson, cross country coach at Seabury Academy, is looking for a better performance from his boys team as well. Bill Butler, who qualified for the state meet as an individual on a team that didn’t qualify, leads the way. The Seabury girls finished sixth in the state in Class 1A in ’04. Senior Katie Pottorff, regional champion a year ago, is joined by Regan Sisson.

“They’ll do some serious damage at all levels,” Nelson said.