Grace Ping brings State title to Cotter
Cotter 7th grader Grace Ping crosses the finish line at the 2015 state cross country meet in Northfield, Minn.
Cotter’s Grace Ping is Minnesota’s youngest State champion. Ever.
The 7th grader became the youngest person to win an individual title in track or cross country in a virtuoso performance at St. Olaf in Northfield, Minn., while also becoming the first girl at Cotter to win a CC State title.
Ping won the Class A girls cross country race last Saturday with a time of 17:52.0, 50 seconds ahead of runner-up Morgan Richter of Breck. Watertown-Mayer’s Hannah Truniger finished in third. This comes two months after placing first in the gold race of the Roy Griak Invitational, an annual race hosted by the University of Minnesota. There, she outdueled some of the best runners in the country.
According to MSHSL’s John Millea, Ping became the youngest state champion in Minnesota’s history. She turned 12 just last July. In Millea’s “of John’s Journal” segment on MSHSL.org, Ping joins acclaimed company. The only runner in the league’s history to win 5 state races was Carrie Tollefson of Dawson-Boyd. Tollefson eventually ran as an All-American at the University of Villanova in Philadelphia. From there, she became an Olympian. Nobody has ever won 6 times, but, as of now, Ping has a shot at history.
To support Ping, athletic director Shane Hedeen offered to bring students on a fan bus to the meet. The bus was met with acclaim, as over 25 students rode the big yellow automobile to Northfield.
“It was great to have so much student support and support from the Cotter and Winona community at the meet,” cross country coach Mike Costello said.
“I think the coaches and parents were more nervous than Grace was. Looking at times, we knew she had a good shot at winning, but things could always go wrong,” Costello added.
Ping took over the race at 200 meters, and had opened up a 5 second lead by the end of the first mile. That grew to 50 seconds by the end of the race, and that’s all she wrote.
“It’s an unheard of margin of victory at the state meet,” said Costello.
