HEBRON, Ohio — From the end of the first mile on, Hawken sophomore girls cross country runner Ella Gilson thought she was in control of the 2018 OHSAA Division II state cross country meet on Saturday at National Trail Raceway.
She just tried to pull away from the pack from there.
And she did, winning the race and a state championship with a time of 18 minutes, 37.40 seconds. The runner up, Grace Hartman of Dayton Oakwood, finished in 18:55.90, about 18.5 seconds behind Gilson.
“In the second mile, in the woods, I tried to pull away there,” Gilson said. “I liked just kind of being away from everybody. And I think it was a nice area to pull away, especially because it’s not like up in the open.”
Gilson competed in the state meet in 2017 and finished in 15th place (18:57.7). But this year’s race was a little different.
The meet was postponed a week due to poor weather, and the course was changed as a result of the conditions.
But even running in the cold weather in the day, Gilson liked the new course better.
“I thought it was really nice,” Gilson said. “I like how it was like the last mile (was) in a loop. It’s nice for the audience. And I guess it’s nice for us, too, because it’s a good, nice straightaway. I wasn’t as cold as I anticipated. It was pretty nice weather for running, surprisingly.
“The only thing that was really a little bit kind of bad was the mud. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was because they put the hay down. And it was nice for us.”
With the help of Gilson’s first-place finish, Hawken took fifth place as a team with 220 points. Lexington won the team title (109) followed by St. Vincent-St. Mary (122) in second.
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