Everything was brand new to Madeleine Davison.
The course -- her first race on Penn State's Blue/White Golf Courses.
The distance -- 6,000 meters instead of a standard high school 5K race.
The competition -- 51 collegiate runners instead of dozens of high schoolers.
And the scenario -- the senior's first race as an unattached prep runner.
About the only thing that wasn't different was the quality performance turned in by the reigning teen-age distance queen of Pennsylvania.
Running without a mascot or school name on her uniform, Davison showed that she belongs at the next level when 2016 rolls around as she finished a strong eighth overall Friday in the Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational against a field of accomplished collegiate runners. The 17-year-old's time of 22 minutes flat was less than a minute behind the 21:02 from winner Tori Gerlach of Penn State and a result of a hard-charging second half that saw Davison pass four in the final mile.
"This race kind of serves as a metaphor for how I hope this season goes," Davison said. "I just want to start out kind of conservative and not push the training too much in the early stages of the season because now I know how long that season can feel, how easy it is to get caught up in the early season stuff and forgot about the later races and start pushing a little too hard in the day-to-day workouts early on. I'm hoping to just gradually pick up the intensity and the training."
Positioned at the start with a handful of collegians running unattached, Davison let the more experienced runners set the pace in her 2015 debut. As the field headed out away from most of the spectators, last spring's 3,200 champion at Shippensburg found herself at the back of a large lead pack that was running a "very controlled" pace, according to Gerlach.
The tempo for the opening mile (5:45) fit right into Davison's strategy as she was dead center in the middle of the field.
"I was surprised that Margo Malone (of Syracuse) and Tori Gerlach were taking it out that slowly, but it actually ended up working out really well for me because my plan was to start somewhere around 5:50 because I have been running my tempo pace in that neighborhood so I knew that I could finish the race if I started at that pace," said Davison, who stayed with the host Nittany Lions after the race to take the first of four scheduled official recruiting visits. "I also knew that the second half of the course was more uphill than the first half so I didn't want to take it out too fast and not have enough left for the hills on the way back. It ended up working out really well for me."
With the field now challenging the back part of the 3.7-mile course, Davison began to move up, occupying the No.12 spot with about 1.5 miles to the finish. Then the high school senior really started to make her mark during the extra kilometer of racing.
"It was a little bit strange because I passed the three-mile mark and I heard a time like 17:30 something and I was like, 'What is that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to be feeling at this point in the race?'" Davison stated. "All of those questions were going through my mind, but I definitely took a more conservative approach to save my energy for the last K and that was definitely a good idea, considering the heat, too. It was pretty hot."
Led by Gerlach and early leader Malone (21:11), a parade of former Pennsylvania prep standouts led Davison into the chute as six of the first seven - including former state and national champion Tessa Barrett in her PSU debut -- ran for state high schools. Davison pointed to lessons learned last year that led her to the best race strategy during her debut in college/open racing.
"I was just thinking back to Foot Locker (Nationals) last year when I really should have stayed toward the back with some of the other girls from my region," she said of starting conservatively. "After (that) race, I was kicking myself for not holding back more. Having a chance to apply those lessons, even though it was a little weird having this giant group of people ahead of me, I knew that I was doing what I was supposed to. I felt great. I knew I was going to have something left for the hills on the way home."
The next race for Davison will be on another golf course layout at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend on October 2. After that, she will compete in Eastern Michigan's EMU Fall Classic on October 23 outside Ypsilanti.
