For many followers of Pennsylvania high school cross country, Saturday was their first look at Wexford, Pa. resident Madeleine Davison this season. The former PA state champ on the track didn't race for North Allegheny this year. Instead, she ran unattached this season, culminating with a win at Foot Locker Northeast. For the second time in her career, she will travel to San Diego for Foot Locker Nationals. Here's a look inside her season and her regional victory (Photo, above, by Don Rich)
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It may have been easy to write off Madeleine Davison. The homeschooled senior from Wexford, Pa. didn't race in the PIAA this season and at the mile mark at historic Van Cortlandt Park, she was nowhere to be found.
She hasn't ran a high school race all season, you may have thought. She's not ready for this atmosphere.
Davison proved that you would be wrong for assuming that.
The photos tell the story; she was in 28th place entering the woods (a little before the mile mark). Ask most prospective Foot Locker Nationals qualifiers and they'd probably tell you that's way too far back if you want a shot at the top ten. All the heavy hitters in the girls' field stated their intentions early on. New York Federations' champ Jessica Lawson led the way through one mile. Two-time national qualifier Hannah DeBalsi was right next to Lawson. Maryland star Maria Coffin was up there, and so was the South Jersey duo of Briana Gess and Alyssa Aldridge.
But no Davison.
"The crowd went out a lot faster than normal," she said, referring to the blazing pace set by Lawson and DeBalsi. "Usually it seems that the race tends to favor a more conservative start, but people took it out really fast. I just tried to stay calm and patient on the hills."
Davison (#19 above, Photo by Chuck Martin) entered the woods around the one mile mark in 28th place.
In the backwoods of Van Cortlandt Park, away from the big crowds that line the start and finish of the course, Davison picked her way through the pack. A place here. A place there.
She emerged from the woods into that very finishing stretch in third place-a far cry from 28th. As Davison crept back into view, she picked it up even more. When she finally crossed the finish line, there was no longer anyone in front of her.
"When I came out of the woods, I was feeling pretty good," she said. "I was just going to bring it home with everything I had to make sure I was in that top ten, then all of sudden, I started closing in on the girls in front."
Davison's rise to Foot Locker Northeast champion, however, started long before Saturday.
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During the first three years of her high school career, despite being homeschooled, Davison competed for North Allegheny High School. She had successes. She was fourth at Foot Locker Northeast a year ago. As a junior, she won the 3000 meters at the PTFCA Indoor State Championship and the 3200 meters outdoors on the track.
But this year, Davison made the decision to not run for North Allegheny. She started taking full-time classes at the University of Pittsburgh in the fall and felt the course load would be too much to run for NA.
"Up until this year, I have had little difficulty in balancing my athletic pursuits with my academic interests," she told PennTrackXC.com's Phil Grove over the summer. "Since the beginning of high school, I have taken numerous online AP classes and other online courses to make sure that my high school education was as rigorous as possible. However, after this school year, I felt that I was ready to move on from the online classes and try something a little bit different."
So it was set: she would run 2015 unattached. No duel meets. No invitational every weekend. No leagues-districts-states in consecutive weeks.
Instead, Davison and her coach Sam Bair mapped out a schedule. She kept a similar training regiment, and decided on races at Penn State, Notre Dame, and Michigan. Davison would see college competition that she hoped would ultimately get her ready for races like this past Saturday. In late October, she committed to run and continue hereducation next year at Syracuse University.
Early on, her season went as well as it could go. A 22-flat 6K at Penn State's Spiked Shoe Invite. A 17:25 at Notre Dame. A 17:42 at the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic. She also slipped in another important race two weeks before regionals: The NYRR Fred Lebow Cross Country Championships at none other than Van Cortlandt Park.
The 5K at Van Cortlandt would be a nice final tune-up, and she didn't disappoint. She was six seconds faster than she was at 2014 Foot Locker Northeast, dispelling any idea that she wouldn't be sharp for Foot Locker Northeast.
But still, there she was two weeks later. In 28th. At the mile.
Most runners might be worried at that point. But not Davison.
She stayed poised in the back hills. She didn't take it too hard on the uphills and used the downhills to her advantage. Surely enough, many of the overly ambitious runners came back to her. Her recent familiarity with Van Cortlandt came in handy.
Davison (above, photo by Steven Pisano) went across the bridge at Van Cortlandt at about 2K in 17th place.
"It was incredibly helpful in terms of confidence," she said. "Having the course fresh in my mind from that race helped me feel confident with my conservative strategy when I was far back in the back in the race.
"If I stayed patient on the hills, I would have more energy in my legs at the end of the race. It was a great learning experience to run [Lebow]."
Coming out of the woods, she felt good. Davison was confident she'd make the top ten and qualify for nationals in San Diego, and she thought for a moment that that was good enough. But then she heard a voice.
"I hear one of my future coaches from Syracuse yelling 'you can do this!' and I was like, 'I'm just going to go for it!' and I just sprinted to reel them in and when I crossed the finish line, I couldn't even believe it," an elated Davison said.
So Davison picked it up. She flew past DeBalsi and--despite the course's announcer declaring DeBalsi the winner--Davison was first across the line. Foot Locker Northeast champion.
After the race, Davison was pooped. She staggered after the finish, but finally made her way to the tent to fill out her personal information to get her a plane ticket to San Diego. When she emerged, there was no wiping the smile off her face.
Davison (shown to the left after her race, photo by Don Rich) credited her unattached season as a major contributor to her win Saturday.
"It was huge," she said of her training schedule this fall. "Being able to train consistently, keep progressing, and not have to worry about racing too much early in the season.
"It's helped keep me much more relaxed not having to race all the time and it's been great."
Her win makes it three in a row for the Pennsylvania girls. In 2013, Abington Heights' Tessa Barrett won FLNE (before taking the win at Balboa Park). Last year, Shaler's Brianna Schwartz, a sometimes-training partner of Davison, took the win. She's also the third homeschooled PA girl to win Foot Locker Northeast, joining Barrett and former state champion Neely Spence on that list.
At San Diego on December 12 for Foot Locker Nationals, Davison will try and erase the memory of a year ago, when she finished 40th of 40 runners. Racing too much early last season, Davison said, was what led to her "unfortunate" finish at nationals last year.
With a training regiment more tailored to keeping her fresher when it matters most, Davison is confident heading into nationals.
"I'm trying not to place too much expectations on myself," she said. "I'm just going to try to keep my strategy that's worked really well for me my last few races of just being patient at the beginning, trusting in my mental toughness at the end of the race, and not worrying about where I am in the first mile."
In early October, after her second place finish in the open race at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational, in a journal for PennTrackXC.com, Davison wrote: "It's going to take a while for me to shake off the remnants of my 2014 cross country season; every time I put on my spikes, I can't help remembering the humiliation of struggling to the finish line at Foot Locker in dead last place."
It's a safe bet that Davison has finally shaken off her race a year ago in San Diego.
For now, though, Davison will certainly relish her Northeast crown before turning her focus entirely to nationals. The win on Saturday was maybe a little unexpected, but it's surely sweet.
"I haven't really even processed it," Davison said after the race of her win. "[Winning] wasn't really the goal coming in. I was just hoping for top ten and anything better was icing on the cake."
Davison is enjoying that cake for sure.
Watch Davison's full post-race interview below: