Goethals races Foot Locker win

By: JournalNow Staff | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 13, 2009

SAN DIEGO

Megan Goethals out-leaned Chelsey Sveinsson at the finish to win the girls' race and Lukas Verzbicas became the first sophomore to win the boys' race at the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships yesterday.

Sveinsson pulled away to a 15-meter lead over Goethals with about 800 meters left. But Goethals began cutting into the lead as the two ran down the final straightaway. Goethals, a senior from Rochester (Mich.) High, narrowly passed the faltering Sveinsson, who fell at the finish line.

Both girls were timed in 17 minutes, 7 seconds in the 5,000-meter race that was run in a light rain. It was the closest girls' race in 31-year history of the Foot Locker.

Verzbicas, from Carl Sandburg High in Orland Hills, Ill., ran away from the field to finish in 15:08, 15 seconds ahead of Matthew McElroy. The margin of victory was tied for the third-largest on the boys' side.

Goethals, the Midwest regional champion, said she was surprised she came back to win.

"I don't know what to think," said Goethals, who finished third last year, one place ahead of Sveinsson. "Shock and amazement."

When Sveinsson pulled out to the lead late in the race, Goethals said she thought she was going to pull away.

"But I noticed that she wasn't going any faster and I figured I had nothing to lose," Goethals said. "I started going faster and I saw I was catching her."

Sveinsson, a junior from Greenhill School in Dallas, didn't realize she had pulled away from Goethals late in the race.

"It's disappointing," said Sveinsson, the South regional champion. "I felt like I made a good move to get out in front, but it just wasn't enough."

Emily Sisson from Parkway Central High in Chesterfield, Mo., finished third in 17:19 and Northeast regional champ Aisling Cuffe from Cornwall Central High in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y., was fourth in 17:22.

Verzbicas took the lead near the midway point, and steadily increased it throughout the race.

"I knew that I was in good shape when no one went with me," said Verzbicas, the Midwest regional champion. "I felt good, I felt strong."

McElroy, from Edison High in Huntington Beach, Calif., finished second in 15:23, 1 second better than Wade Meddles from Sierra Lutheran High in Gardnerville, Nev.