Girls cross country runner of the year
Name: Tara Erdmann
School: Flowing Wells
Year in school: Junior
Sport: Girls cross country
From the archives: Southern Arizona's runners were expected to perform fairly well in Saturday's high school cross country championships at Cave Creek Golf Course.
However, not many would have predicted that local runners would account for three individual titles and two team titles.
Flowing Wells junior Tara Erdmann predicted last week that the state championship was going to come down to either herself and Glendale Sandra Day O'Connor's Lindsay Prescott.
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She was right - Erdmann beat Prescott to win the Class 5A-II championship with a time of 19 minutes 11 seconds.
Prescott finished second by 8 seconds.
The runners were neck-and-neck throughout the race, then Erdmann's strategy paid off at the end.
"At the very beginning, I let her take the lead, so there was no pressure," Erdmann said. "I was just trying to keep pace."
With 800 meters left, Prescott picked up her pace.
But Erdmann stayed with her.
The Flowing Wells junior made her kick at the 400-meter mark, which proved to be too much for Prescott.
"I wasn't sure how good her kick was going to be, so I went all out, hoping my kick was faster," Erdmann said. — Jason Scheer, 2005
