Dreams do come true.
And for Allie Ostrander, that dream came in the form of a national cross-country title on high school's biggest stage.
The diminutive senior from Kenai Central, Alaska, broke away from a tight pack with less than a kilometer remaining to capture the girls' crown on Saturday morning at the Nike Cross Nationals in Portland, Oregon. Given the conditions from a steady night of rainfall, she ran a relatively-fast clocking of 17 minutes, 19 seconds on a soggy five-kilometer course at the Glendoveer Golf Course.
Less than 12 hours earlier, Ostrander envisioned she would be the first across the line.
"I did dream that I won and I woke up in the middle of the night and was like, 'Oh man, this is awesome. I feel so relieved that it's over,'" she said. "Then I was like, 'Wait, that was just a dream.'"
It was reality.
Ostrander finished about 50 meters ahead of runner-up Paige Hofstad, a junior from New Braunfels, Texas. The NXN South Regional champion was timed in 17:26. Placing third was senior Dani Jones of Desert Vista, Ariz., at 17:29. Fiona O'Keeffe of Davis Senior, Calif., was fourth in 17:31.
"I just wanted top 20," said a surprised Hofstad, who came in second at last week's Foot Locker South Regionals with a personal best of 16:47. "I didn't know I could do that."
Speaking of regionals, Ostrander's race at NXN was her first since suffering the only 5K loss of her high school career (except the Alaska State Meet her freshman year when she collapsed and did not finish) three weeks ago at the Nike Northwest meet on Nov. 15 where she was second to Oregon's Ella Donaghu of Grant.
Just like she did to her competition, Ostrander put the loss in the rearview mirror with a steady race from gun-to-wire.
"I felt really great," she said. "The first (kilometer) was a breeze. It was pretty conservative at the start. I just accelerated from there and built on that speed. It's all great."
Running through an opening mile at just under 5:40, Ostrander held a slight edge over her rivals, including O'Keeffe, the California state champion and a fourth-place finisher last year. O'Keeffe, who was one of the pre-race favorites and owns a 16:40 5K best, was in contention until a mile remaining.
"We went out through the first mile not superfast. I was feeling pretty good," she said. "I tried to start pushing at two miles and Allie went with me. We kind of went back and forth through the hills out there and the last mile she and Paige just took off."
After brushing off the challenge from O'Keeffe, the recent national champion had to still contend with a determined Hofstad, who hung with her until about 800-meters left. Ostrander could feel the pains that go with a hard effort, but she wouldn't let it deny her a chance at getting across the finish line in first.
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"Always, you hit that 3K and it feels really hard, but today you just got to hang, you just got to push it, just give it everything you have. It's your last high school cross-country race of your career," she said. "That's what I did. It's on the national level. When I got tired I said, 'You know what's on the line? A national title is on the line. It's not a course record, a state title or a regional title or a PR, this is your only chance to get that.'"
In MileSplit's feature series, On the Rise: Allie Ostrander, the Alaskan teen talks about her experience competing in Mount Marathon, 3,000-foot ascent and descent race that she has won several times. That was something she was thinking about in the late stages of NXN, particularly on the final 40-meter incline less than a quarter mile from the finish line.
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"It definitely went through my head," she said. "I got to the last kilometer and I was like this is like the end of Mount Marathon, you feel dead but you have it in you. You can do it. I just went for it."
Junior Megan Hasz of Alexandria Jefferson, Minn., was fifth overall with a time of 17:40. Also placing among the top 10 was Air Academy, Colo., junior Katie Rainsberger (sixth, 17:41), Herriman, Utah, senior Lucy Biles (seventh, 17:41), Central Magnet, Tenn., freshman Taylor Cuneo (eighth, 17:41), Alexandra Jefferson junior Bethany Hasz (ninth, 17:42) and Grant's Donaghu (tenth, 17:43).
- NXN Results: Boys - Girls
- NXN Race Videos: Boys - Girls
- Watch ON THE RISE: Allie Ostrander
