Baldwin ? After struggling with illness and injury during her sophomore year, Baldwin High cross country runner Heather Garcia made up for it this season.

Garcia hit only one bump in the road on her way to winning the Kansas Class 4A state cross country meet. That bump was Allison Eckert, who won the South Dakota state cross country championship in Class AA and has run nationally in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

“It was pretty cool to lose just one meet,” said Garcia, who finished 22 seconds back of Eckert during the competition at Rim Rock Farm. “And (Eckert) won it last year, so it’s not like they weren’t expecting her or anything … so it was all right to get second at only that meet.”

“We were giving her a hard time that she took second at a meet, but they had to bring somebody from South Dakota to beat her,” said Baldwin coach Mike Spielman. “But she’s definitely one of the top runners in the whole state and she’s beaten all of the really good girls in the state. So she can lay claim to being pretty good in the state of Kansas.”

The nearly perfect season made Garcia the runaway choice as the 2006 All-Area Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.

Garcia turned it on full-throttle late in the season, as her time of 14 minutes, 5.25 seconds at the state meet in Wamego was a personal record. It was also nearly 20 seconds ahead of runner-up Brittney Graff, the 2005 Class 4A champ from Eudora.

“I knew she was going to be the top competition and has been for as long as I can remember in both track and cross country,” Garcia said. “With her pushing me it helps a lot and we just work off of each other and it motivates both of us. So it was just nice to get it since last year it was a struggle to not be able to compete to my best.”

Garcia’s return from a tough 2005 cross country season actually began last spring in track, in which she took first at the state competition in both the 1,600 and 3,200 meters.

“It was just a deal where everything kind of caught up with her at the wrong time of the year – it was at the end of the year where the meets are important and she just couldn’t get going,” said Spielman about last year’s cross country struggles. “And she just got herself healthy over the winter and then just had a tremendous track season last year and was just able to carry that on through the summer and into cross country. So I think running track last year just helped her kind of get over all of that.”

The Baldwin runner will now take her training to the hard court for basketball season.

“I try not to stop running – I play basketball also – so I just keep going from one thing to another and just take what I have and motivate myself with that and carry it through the season,” Garcia said. “I might see about running a couple of different events (in track) this year so that should make a difference.”

While Garcia still has a year left before heading to college, she has already begun to receive looks from Kansas University, Arkansas, Boston College, Missouri and some smaller schools. But the 2006 state champ said the hometown team may not be the front runner.

“KU’s a good school, but I think I want to expand myself,” Garcia said. “Kansas is where I’ve been, so I have no idea of anywhere else. So it would just be cool to see what else is out there and see how they run differently.”