Rebels girls sprint to runner-up finish

The Vestavia Hills High School girls cross country team made a strong push, but ultimately finished second in Class 7A at the state meet, held at Oakville Indian Mounds Park on Nov. 6. 

Crawford West, a senior, capped off her high school cross-country career with a stellar race, blistering the competition by over a minute and winning the race with a time of 17:06. 

West was followed by Claire Spooner (eighth, 19:08), Kaitlyn Wende (ninth, 19:10), Jasmine Zhang (31st, 19:56), Riley Zeanah (33rd, 20:01), Angela Zhang (39th, 20:05) and Anna Claire Gannon (52nd, 20:32), which gave Vestavia a total of 80 points in the race. Auburn won the team competition with 68 points.

“Some people that don’t know our team well didn't think the girls ran the first half of the race very strong,” said Brett Huber, head coach of the cross-country team. “Those group of girls are closers and they all ran very smart and had a great fight at the end.” 

Huber said the state meet reflects what the girls team has done all year, which is “running with each other and for each other.” 

West has gained attention across the state and nationally for her continuous success, posting the fastest time of the season and earning the 2020-21 Gatorade Alabama Girls Cross Country Player of the Year. Huber said runners often have two or three of these characteristics: tenacity, potential, gritty, good trainer and competition. But West possesses them all. 

“She’s super talented and she’s trained really well this season,” Huber said. “Her season so far has been preparing for the state meet and the regional meet that’s coming up.”

The boys team placed seventh in the state championship. The team was led by junior Will Jordan, who placed 13th in the race with a time of 15:58. Alex Leath (23rd, 16:16), Andrew King (34th, 16:29), Wilson Holt (74th, 17:16), James Bentley (78th, 17:20), Davis Wylie (85th, 17:30) and Mitchell Schaaf (96th, 17:38) all scored points. 

“Every team has a story and every meet has a story,” Huber said. “For us, the big story is that out of our top five upperclassmen, three of our five were injured. We thought we were coming back with a pretty talented team but we just had different types of injuries.”

He said the boys team had a great meet, with a “handful” of freshmen running their best races of the year and showing much improvement.