Girls cross country runner of the year
Name: Amber Quigley
School: Sunnyside
Year in school: Senior
Sport: Girls cross country
From the archives: Amber Quigley of Sunnyside needs more time to properly reflect on her 4A state cross country championship.
"Not really," Quigley said when asked if being state champ had sunk in. "I am just shooting for nationals."
Quigley, the 1999 Arizona Daily Star girls cross country runner of the year who also won the regional championship, has moved on to bigger things. She is training for the Footlocker Championships in California, where she will compete in the elite class.
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An eighth-place finish there would send her to the national championship in Orlando.
Quigley runs six days a week, taking Sunday off. Well, sort of. She still either swims or bikes on the seventh day.
"It is the same as any other race," Quigley said. "I am just trying to stay focused."
She stays with a game plan, something she has had little problem doing.
"That is what makes her so special," Sunnyside coach Ruben Ruiz said before the state meet. "She is very coachable. We set up a plan and she sticks to it."
The game plan at state was to let the other runners do the hard work early and then take over at the second mile mark. Quigley had to admit, however, that the coaches for her pursuer, Chinle's Kristen St. Germaine, helped her as well.
"They kept saying, 'Go! You have to take her now!' So that just made me go harder," Quigley said.
With a homecoming queen crown to go with her state championship, Quigley has no complaints about the season.
"This has been the funnest year," Quigley said. — Joel Flom, 1999
