Parkes Kendrick was six when her dad issued the challenge before he left for work every morning. He would shout “Go!” Kendrick would chase his car all the way down the street. Her younger sister, Rennie, sometimes joined in.
The Donaghu sisters – Piper and Ella – have parents who ran in college and found their love for running at a young age. Piper loved going to recess and took pride in being the fastest kid on the playground. Ella remembers going to meets with her dad, who was a coach. She wanted to be just like the older runners.
When Abbie Nilan was young, running made her feel powerful. She would push through the pain because she relished the feeling of accomplishment it gave her.
For Maddy Kaczmarowski, running as a kid was a calming experience. Today, her favorite place to go is Forest Park where she can be connected to nature.
And Libby Kokes has spent more time in the last 12 years perfecting her ballet technique than running. But dance had to take a back seat when she discovered the athleticism and physicality in long distance running.
Two Grant High School seniors, two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen. The seven girls make up the Grant cross country team that trained together, hurt together, and emerged together during the fall 2012 season. “The group is really bonded together,” says Rennie Kendrick. “I love going and getting to see everyone every day.”
So on a historic day for Grant at the Oregon School Activities Association State Cross Country Championship meet in Eugene last month, the seven girls accomplished something that no other Grant running team has since 1974. They became state champions by knocking off running powerhouses St. Mary’s and Jesuit.
Grant took first in the team race with 66 points. St. Mary’s finished second with 68 points followed by Jesuit (76), Sunset (82) and South Eugene (95). Cross country is a sport with an unorthodox way of scoring. The lowest point total wins, with teams scoring based on where each of their top five runners finishes. At the state meet, scoring is broken up into team results and individual results.
Individually, Grant senior Parkes Kendrick finished third and freshman Ella Donoghu took fourth. Junior Piper Donaghu came in 11th; freshman Rennie Kendrick took 27th; senior Maddy Kaczmarowski was 40th; sophomore Libby Kokes took 49th; and junior Abbie Nilan was 84th.
Head coach Doug Winn – who has pioneered a cross country revival of sorts at Grant over the last two years – was ecstatic. He had nothing but confidence in the girl’s team. “We saw this coming,” he says. “We knew that we could contend at state but we weren’t overconfident or even confident that we could win. I don’t know if people can even appreciate how good they are, and I don’t know if they even realize it.”
Assistant coach Jim Tucker beamed. “We knew this year would be special,” he says. “We had the best in the history of Grant working together.”
No team at Grant has ever had so many fast girls. Since 1992 when girls started running 5-kilometer races rather than a 3k, there has only been one other girl at Grant to have a personal record under 19 minutes.
This year there were three. In addition, two of the girls had personal records under 18 minutes: Ella Donaghu ran a 17:32, and Parkes Kendrick ran a 17:52.
In cross country, a typical 5k time for boys is usually about three minutes faster than girls. In the case of Ella Donaghu and Parkes Kendrick, Winn says their times rivaled the boys’. “Almost no boy in this building could run that fast,” Winn says. “You probably can count them on one hand.”
For most of the girls, running has been a large part of their lives for years, along with other activities.
Parkes Kendrick started running in third grade, and has played soccer and run track every year of high school. She decided to do both soccer and cross country this fall. Her sister, Rennie, started running in fourth grade, continued through middle school and made varsity cross country as a freshman.
For the Donaghu sisters, this is the first year they focused on cross country. Ella played club soccer in middle school and Piper gave up her spot on Grant’s varsity soccer team in order to focus solely on cross country.
Kaczmarowski has been running track since middle school and swimming competitively for five years. This is only her second year running cross country. She spent her summer living in Ecuador and still managed to train at 13,000 feet above sea level, a challenging task for any runner.
Kokes, who has been doing ballet for 12 years, attempted to do both ballet and cross country last year. This season, she needed to decide between the two. Wanting to be more of a “normal kid in high school,” she chose cross country but still takes ballet classes on the side.
Abbie Nilan – after a broken ankle discouraged her from continuing with soccer – is also in her second year of cross country, plays lacrosse, and runs track.
A factor in the team’s overall success has been the enthusiasm of Winn, who is in his second year as head coach. His mantra is “breaking boundaries.” His approach isn’t to win at all costs and he doesn’t focus on cultivating individual superstars.
Instead, he wants kids to enjoy running. Cross country, he says, shouldn’t be “a jogger with their head bent down, getting through the agony of it.”
Winn started recruiting last school year in middle schools to get students involved early so they could train together all summer. Almost half of the 160 students on this year’s team were freshmen, and Grant had one of the largest cross country teams in Oregon.
In October, he organized a Halloween party, treasure hunts, bike relays, and even a dog race in order to bring the team together and generate positive energy.
The seven girls, along with some of their teammates, started their training in June under the close supervision of assistant coach Michael Donaghu, their primary guide throughout the season. He said right from the beginning, the coaches could tell this particular group was special. “The first few meets confirmed everything we felt,” assistant coach Donaghu says.
The team preformed well at Nike Pre-Nationals, one of the biggest meets in Portland, which included more than 120 schools from all over the Northwest. They also performed well at other meets, winning the Concordia Cross Country Classic.
But the season wasn’t without setbacks. Rennie Kendrick developed plantar fasciitis, a foot injury that made running painful. She had to miss a week and a half of training before the state meet.
The girls continued on to the Three Rivers District Meet at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City, a challenging course full of sharp turns and potholes. Seven teams competed for a shot at state. Even without Rennie Kendrick, they won easily. “We blew them away,” recalls Piper Donaghu.
Running without Kendrick was a confidence booster. “We had a secret weapon,” Piper Donaghu says.
Rennie Kendrick still had doubts once they got to the state meet. “It was going to be really hard to win because there were a lot of teams that were good,” she remembers.
“We all knew that each of us had to run our best race in order to win,” her sister, Parkes, recalls.
“Everyone knew that this year could be pretty wide open, there were three to four teams that could legitimately claim” the state title, says Mike Donaghu. But as long as each of the seven girls ran their best race, “we would be tough to beat.”
Before the race started, nerves were high. “I get this pit in the bottom of my stomach,” says Piper Donaghu.
Each girl had their own quirky way of releasing nervous energy before a race. Rennie Kendrick anxiously ran around hugging everyone. “Maddy sings more, Libby does more ballet, Parkes gets a little silly,” says Ella Donaghu.
Once the pistol fired and the race started, all the hard work the girls had put in over the last five months began to show. “You could see that our girls were doing everything they had to do to win. But you also saw the other teams were running great races,” Tucker says.
During the race, the girls had the attitude of: “If you’re gonna beat me, you’ve gotta beat me,” explains Winn. If someone was going to pass them, they were going to have to fight to do it, he said.
At the end of the race, Parkes Kendrick crossed the finish line in third, less than 20 seconds behind individual state champion Sara Tsai of South Eugene. Close behind Kendrick was Ella Donaghu, who fell into the arms of finish line officials looking ghostly, her body trembling with exhaustion.
During the last incline, “I started to feel really bad. I didn’t think I was going to be able to finish,” she recalls.
Winn was ecstatic, barely controlling his emotions. “I was jumping up and down and pounding Jim Tucker’s back. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt before,” says Winn. “Nothing is better than winning.”
The girls couldn’t agree more. “Rennie and I had the exact same dramatic expression on our faces and we gave each other a huge hug,” says Parkes Kendrick.
The Grant cross country varsity team will lose two seniors next season: Parkes Kendrick, who will be going to University of Portland to play soccer, and Kaczmarowski, who plans to attend a Division III school where she will continue running.
The other five will continue to run next season and, with the large freshman and sophomore base that Winn has built, others with potential will put the team in position to battle for a state title next year.
Now, Winn says, “they know how to win.”
