MFL MarMac girls have top team and individual at home cross country invite

By Audrey Posten | Times-Register

For the second straight season, the MFL MarMac girls cross country team has won its home invitational. The Bulldogs finished the Sept. 4 meet at Tri City Golf Course near Luana with a team score of 28, well ahead of second place North Fayette Valley with 52. 

MFL MarMac accomplished the feat with five runners finishing in the top 10, including McKenna Kozelka as the individual champion. Kozelka turned in a time of 21:52.19, several seconds ahead of runner-up Annie Murray from NFV. 

It’s been an exciting start to the season—and a career—for Kozelka. Although a junior, she’d never competed in cross country until the season opener at Edgewood-Colesburg, where she placed seventh.

“It was very surreal. My first meet, I knew nothing about cross country. I didn’t know what it took to get a medal. I just knew that my heart was in it, and I was gonna do the absolute best I could for myself and for my team,” she said.

Running isn’t new for Kozelka, who started it to improve her mental and physical health.  

“I started running because there was a time where I physically was not strong enough to do it. I decided to retake control of my situation, and I did that by running. I just did a little bit more whenever I could, and a little bit more went to a lot more,” she explained. “I ended up going out for cross country because I figured I could maybe find other people with similar experiences or even help people who had gone through similar things.” 

“I think it’s really important that people can use sports and any extracurricular as an outlet to sort of express themselves and to help them through those harder times of their life,” Kozelka added.

When Kozelka showed up to her first practice, on team picture day, at the encouragement of a friend, head coach Eric Koenig admitted he didn’t know what to expect.

“I kind of knew going into it that she had been running several miles a day. But the speed, it was surprising. I didn’t expect that. Especially from someone who’d never been out before,” he said.

Now, Kozelka said she is all in. She credited her family, coaches, teammates and others for cheering her on and fostering a positive environment.

“I love to improve myself, and to improve with such a positive environment and to improve with all my teammates too,” she said. Looking ahead, “I am just going to try to keep doing the absolute best that I can. I want to keep improving, and I want to keep showing up for myself and for everyone around me.”

In addition to Kozelka, MFL MarMac saw top-10 finishes from Charlotte Meyer, who was fifth with a time of 22:15.90, as well as Emma Grau in seventh at 23:10.48, Evie Fritz in eighth at 23:34.68 and Cora Keehner 10th at 23:50.10. Another string of Bulldogs filled out the top 20, including Brooklyn Landt in 11th with a time of 23:55.74, then Brooke Donlon and Taryn Moser a respective 14th and 15th with finishes of 24:11.09 and 24:37.32. Skylar Fisk turned in a 24:48.62 for 17th place.

Aaliyah Corcoran crossed the finish line in 25:48.89, for 21st place, followed by Kacie Picha in 25th at 26:07.11. Emma Koether and Emma Driscoll took the 35th and 36th spots with times of 28:12.72 and 28:27.59, while Lauryn Sandstrom came in 39th at 28:53.16. A 30:59.44 locked Charlotte Koether into 46th place, and Jerica Wille finished 52nd with a 31:43.46.

Koenig said the cool weather helped the runners. 

“Five in the top 10—that’s definitely an improvement from last year. A lot better meet from a lot of the girls, a better race,” he commented. “I knew they would perform well here. Leading up to this week, we’re doing nothing but hills, getting ready for it. And it only helps us for down the road.” 

The coach is excited to see what the Bulldogs can do as they encounter stiff competition from around the region.

“We have a lot of ranked teams in this area. I think we’ll see them a few times this year, so we’ll continue to understand how they’re performing and who we stick with in races,” he said. 

In the boys race, MFL MarMac was unable to field a team score, but saw some strong individual performances. Trace Moser led the group with a time of 20:47.77, in 22nd place. Adian Reynolds crossed the line 29th, in 22:14.18, followed by Jude Onken in 33rd with a 22:43.50. Wolfgang Martins-Sabrina finished 38th with a time of 23:24.51.

The Bulldog boys and girls will race twice this week, starting at the Guttenberg Golf and Country Club on Sept. 9. They will head to North Fayette Valley on Sept. 11.