Ella Donaghu, arguably one of the best female high school runners in Oregon history, took second place Saturday in the Nike Cross Country Nationals meet at Glendoveer Golf Course in Northeast Portland.
Donaghu, a Grant High School senior who is headed to Stanford University next year, covered the muddy 5-kilometer course in 17 minutes, 10.2 seconds. She finished behind Colorado Air Academy High School’s Katie Rainsberger, who took top honors with a time of 16:56.8. There were 197 runners from across the country who participated in the race.
“The conditions were kind of tough but at the same time I liked it because you know I live here,” Donaghu said after the race. “It’s kind of like the home course advantage. The sogginess sort of slowed people down but I think that kind of played to my strengths.”
Doug Winn, Donaghu’s coach for four years, is happy to see what she has accomplished. “She’s like a once-in-a-coach’s career athlete and I’ll miss her. I’m going to cheer her on when she runs for Stanford. I’m a lifelong fan. She is incredibly talented and yet incredibly humble.”
Donaghu’s finish comes three weeks after she placed third in the Nike Northwest Regionals in Boise. One of the two runners who beat her in that race – Christina Aragon of Montana’s Billings Senior High School – finished a distant 35th in the national championship race with a time of 17:57.1.
Annie Hill of Glacier High in Montana, who won the regionals, apparently didn’t compete in the national meet.
Donaghu, for her part, felt that the meet in Idaho was great preparation. “I think getting third in the regional race was really the best thing that could have happened to me because I realized that, you know, I need to be tougher in the middle of the race,” she said.
Her father and Grant assistant coach Michael Donaghu said his daughter has always shown a level of consistency in her career. “It’s impressive. I’m just really happy for her,” he said. “Ella has done a good job of just keeping herself healthy she does a lot of the little things right.”
Donaghu has had a season to remember, her last as a Grant athlete. This year, she has grown as a runner and set a personal record of 16:46.61 for a 5k.
She dominated the Oregon high school season, finishing No. 1 at the state championship meet on Oct. 31 with a state meet record time of 17:26. The victory in the state meet was her third such win in a row.
She’ll run distance races in the spring for the track and field team before graduating and heading to Stanford, where she’ll run for the Cardinal.
“It’s been a great year,” Donaghu said. “Whatever happens, it’s going to be awesome so I just go out there and run really really hard and see what I can do and be happy with it at the end of the day.
“I’m super excited for that and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun there,” she said. “I have the possibility to do a lot of cool things there too, with some great new teammates coming in also.”
For Donaghu, her time at Grant has been one to remember and for those who followed her career, she will go down as one of the school’s greatest runners in both school and state history.◊
