Boise Braves Prove They Can Succeed In All Terrain
In the Girls Sweepstakes race, Boise Senior's top three, Maggie Liebich (Sr.), Rosina Machu (So.), and Eve Jensen (Sr.) all ran under 18-minute mark. Molly Elliott (Jr.) and Mikella Tobin (Fr.) shut down the 56-second spread and collected the Team Title for the Braves with just 87 points.
Discussing their victory, at Desert Twilight Molly Elliott shared her take on the overall experience. "I think this race was really good for us. We were very mentally tough on this course because it's a very flat course and we're a lot better at hills in Idaho."
Despite the speed that a flat course can offer, it can also be deceptively hard to plan surges and execute kicks when you don't have the challenge of hills or other difficult portions like the Boise Braves did at Bob Firman.
(Right: Maggie Liebich led the Braves with an 8th place finish in the Girls Sweepstakes race-photo by Jesus Ruiz)
To prepare for an all-out effort in Casa Grande, Maggie Liebich said that they ran their first cross-country workout of the season on the track. "Mentally it's really tough where you're used to having tough spots like sand or hills. It's fun and it's really fast but you can't think about your attack points as much," said Liebich.
As a junior Liebich won two State Titles at the Idaho State Championships for 800m and 1600m, this past spring. Now a Senior, she finished 8th in the Sweepstakes race with a new PR of 17:26 and has led the team in each of their races.
According to Liebich, "What's so exciting is having so many underclassmen that can carry the team as well. I want to leave the underclassmen with the knowledge that they can do well on the national scale if they keep working at it."