Confidence the key for Coldwater's sophomore

HEBRON - Cross country is a team sport contested by individuals. While none of the local schools were able to win team titles at the state cross country meet on Saturday at the National Trail Raceway in Hebron, one local athlete was able to earn a championship of her own.

Coldwater's Sarah Kanney entered the Division III girls' race as the favorite and she met all expectations with an eight-second victory over what has become her top rival, Liberty Centers' Brittany Atkinson. Kanney's winning time of 17:58 was well over a minute faster than the time of 19:10 she posted while finishing ninth as a freshman last year.
  "I knew Sarah was going to do that," stated Coldwater's coach Marty Schoenherr after the race. "I saw the confidence in her this week."
  Kanney agreed with coach Schoenherr as for the reason for her improvement from last year's ninth-place finish to this year's championship.

"The difference is definitely having confidence and believing in yourself," said Kanney.
  Kanney wasted no time at the start of the race moving to the front of the field.

"I usually go out fairly hard," explained Kanney. "That was not a big change from my normal races."
  About halfway through the race, Kanney had a five-second lead. At that point, before a short downhill stretch, she was seen to take a look backward to check out her competition.
  "I was checking to see if I had to put a surge in on the downhill. It is a bad habit I have," she confirmed. "I decided to stay calm and put a push on at the end."

Atkinson was still only a few seconds behind Kanney as the two reached the final homestretch. But you could quickly tell from the look on Kanney's face that she still had more than enough left in her tank to hold off the challenger and even stretch out her lead a bit.