Fruehling, Augustine help Notre Dame-West Burlington girls take third
WINFIELD-- Hadley Augustine just wants to be normal again.
The Notre Dame-West Burlington high school junior qualified for the state cross country meet last year along with teammate Hannah Fruehling. Together, they became the first runners in program history to make the trek to Fort Dodge for the state meet.
But late last season, Augustine began to pass out toward the end of races, blacking out for a few seconds before gradually coming out of it.
Doctors still have not found the cause of the problem, but put restrictions on Augustine this season.
Augustine was having her best race of the year Thursday at the SEI Superconference meet at Twin Lakes Golf Course. She was in the top 10 coming up the final hill when she decided to give it everything she had left, something she had not done all season.
Augustine finished the race 11th in 23 minutes, 22.6 seconds, then everything went dark.
Augustine collapsed to the ground, her parents, teammates and coaches rushing to her side.
Two minutes later, Augustine was fully conscious and 10 minutes after that she was back to normal, other than her head feeling a bit foggy.
Augustine helped her team finish third with 83 points. Pekin won with 25 points, while Danville-New London was second with 56 points.
But all eyes -- and prayers -- were on Augustine immediately after the race.
"I don't hear anything and my eyes just go black and I kind of just fell over. By the time I can feel it there's not much I can do," Augustine said. "I think it's more scary for everybody else. I don't even know it's happening. Five or 10 minutes after I wake up I feel normal again, but then my head is just foggy for a little bit."
"This was the first time she has passed out this season. It's always in the back of our minds that she could again. As much as we don't want it to happen, it did tonight. I was talking to her afterward and she's thinks it's because she pushed super hard at the end. She hasn't done that as much during the season. It's all a learning process for us to find out what causes it," said Fruehling, who finished fourth in 22:08.4. "It scares me pretty bad. Last year it was every meet. I got to the point where I wasn't too concerned about it happening this year and then she did it tonight. When I saw it happen I was really nervous and scared for her. She was out for a while. It's always scary to not know why."
Fruehling stayed with the lead group -- Pekin's Chloe Glosser and Lauren Steigleder and Danville-New London's Alaina Gourley -- for most of the first mile before dropping off the pace. She was able to hold onto fourth place ahead of a fast-charging Kamryn Sherwood of Danville-New London, who would finish fifth.
"That was the goal was to go out and stick with the lead group," Fruehling said. "I tried my best, but they were a little faster than me. From that point on I just tried to stay in the position I was and I did fairly good. I was happy with it."
"I ran smart. I was really just focused on going for the next person in front of me and I really wanted to beat the Pekin girls," Sherwood said. "That's really who I was looking at. It was a good run and a good show for districts. (I leanred) not to get freaked out like at the beginning. I was much farther place-wise in the beginning than I was when I finished. Just not get freaked out. Whatever is going to happen was meant to happen. It's all going to be fine."
Gourley, meanwhile, was able to stay with Glosser for much of the race until the Pekin freshman pulled away in the final mile to win by 28 seconds.
That serves as further motivation for Gourley, a fellow freshman who has three more years to race against Glosser.
"She's really fast. I just have to stay with her and not get in my head," Gourley said. "I'm really proud of all of my teammates. They all did really good."
Mediapolis finished fourth in the team race with 95 points. Freshman Vivian Pfeiff was the Bullettes' top finisher, taking 12th in 23:37.4.
Van Buren County freshman Rylee Phillips finished ninth in 23:15.9.
With state qualifying assignments expected to be announced next week, the season is winding its way down to a finish.
There is still plenty of work to be done.
"There are always things to improve on. I definitely need to do hills more for next season or even finish off this season with them because you don't think hill repeats work that much, but going uphill and downhill on courses like this, it definitely makes a difference," Fruehling said. "It seems like flats have been fairly good for me this season. If it's a flat course I think I can definitely do pretty good. I'm going to try to get some hills in in case it's hillier and try to be prepared. It's always the goal to make it a second year."
"Staying mentally into the race instead of getting distracted by everyone else. Just focusing on myself and not worrying about who is in front of me or who is behind me. Just staying mentally focused on myself," Sherwood said. "It's really nice to have a training partner. (Gourley) definitely pushes me a lot. She's really doing well. It makes me so happy to have a bigger team and just someone who can really be there to push me and go on runs with."
TEAM SCORES
1. Pekin, 25; 2. Danville-New London, 56; 3. Notre Dame-West Burlington, 83; 4. Mediapolis; 95; 5. Louisa-Muscatine, 138; 6. Columbus, 145; 7. Winfield-Mount Union, 175.
TOP 10 MEDALISTS
1.Chloe Glosser (P), 20:12.4; 2. Alaina Gourley (D-NL), 20:40.4; 3. Lauren Steigleder (P), 21:04.2; 4. Hannah Fruehling (ND-WB), 22;08.4; 5. Kamryn Sherwood (D-NL); 6. Brooke Miller (P), 22:34.9; 7. Audrey Fariss (P), 22:44.4; 8. Vivian Zaruba (Lone Tree), 23:00.8; 9. Rylee Phillips (Van Buren County), 23:15.9; 10. Brooke Sylvester (P), 23:22.0
Matt Levins is a sports reporter for the USA Today Network in Burlington, Iowa, who has covered local sports for 32 years at The Hawk Eye. Reach him at mlevins@thehawkeye.com.
This article originally appeared on The Hawk Eye: Fruehling, Augustine help Notre Dame-West Burlington girls take third
