Looking back on their talented but inexperienced freshman selves – and, really, when you’re a teenager, four years can seem an eternity – Coconino High School seniors Mary McGinlay and Laine Davis could be forgiven for thinking that running cross country was easy and success a given.
Neither had run seriously before entering high school, but both took to it right away. McGinlay was the No. 2 runner on the Panthers’ Division 3 state title team that year, and Davis reached his goal of breaking five minutes in the mile after just a couple weeks of working out and made the varsity as a freshman.
But the two know now that cross country offers many obstacles – literal and metaphorical — that can curtail that upward trajectory of success. But both have overcome much and will lead the Coconino girls and boys on Thursday to the AIA Division 2 Sectionals at Glendale Heroes Regional Park.
For McGinlay, it was an extended period of dealing with the female athlete triad, a subset of RED-S (Relatively Energy Deficiency in Sport), which saw her skip track last spring in order to restore her physical and mental well-being. And for Davis, it was dealing with a lingering and baffling knee injury that has dogged him all fall.
Both, however, are confident that they can lead their respective squads not only to the state meet on Nov. 2 but finish high in the standings at Cave Creek Golf Course both individually and team-wise.
Obviously, in four years, McGinlay and Davis have grown physically and emotionally into their roles as leaders, and Panthers’ coach Shannon (“Cookie”) Taylor said she’s confident that the two will end their cross country careers in style. In fact, no matter what happens in the next two weeks, Taylor has been impressed by the two.
“Mary and Laine are our leaders, and the other kids look up to them,” Taylor said. “They set the tone for the team.”
That’s especially true for Coconino’s girls team, which is young and inexperienced and lost several runners to the introduction of prep flag football for girls this year. Taylor said McGinlay has been a steadying hand, leading by example more so than by words. And McGinlay, too, has taken on the role with alacrity, but she’s also had to learn to rekindle her love of running.
As a freshman, McGinlay looked to be a prodigy. She never competed competitively before that, but would ran with her mom, Liz, an avid trail runner. Success came quickly and easily – until it didn’t.
“I ran a little in elementary school for (the) Girls on the Run (program), but that’s about all,” she said. “I just decided the summer before my freshman year to do it. I started exercising more – lift and run. But I wasn’t very coordinated in any other sport, so xc was my only hope.
“I remember that first practice I went to in the summer (before freshman year). We were running 400 repeats and just got into it. I loved it. It was hard and it pushed me, and I realized I liked the competition. Throughout that season, I started getting faster and beating my other teammates, which helped my confidence. I finished as second on the team.”
McGinlay, though, said she struggled with eating, and the female triad affected her both as a sophomore a junior – especially her sophomore year. The Panthers, before McGinlay’s sophomore year moved up to Division 2, and expectations for her were high.
“In the beginning, I was very underweight and struggled a lot,” she said. “That was kind of the reason I got into running in the first place: to lose weight. And then it became an obsession. It caused some injuries.
“My sophomore year was probably my worst year because of those injuries and recovering from that. My body had problems. I had women’s triad and then, after my sophomore year, and learning dealing with that that, I also got costochondritis, this chest thing (inflammation of the cartilage along the chest wall). It was really hard my sophomore year, especially coming from freshman year winning state.”
She found inner strength to overcome, which led to a newfound physical strength, which helped her have a solid junior cross country season. But McGinlay was feeling burned out last winter and made the difficult decision to forgo track season. It was a blow to Coconino’s distance program, but Taylor said she understood McGinlay’s reasons and supported them.
A spring and summer of just running for fun – and placing high in some trail races – restored McGinlay’s joy. She said she returned late this summer to cross country training with renewed enthusiasm.
“Some personal stuff was going on in my life (last spring), and I just really needed a break. I got to the point where I just didn’t love it anymore,” she said. “Like, running is my favorite thing to do but I wasn’t feeling it. I talked to my coach about it when I had to tell her I was stepping down (in track), she was like, I know this is what’s best for you and I’m glad you’re not pushing yourself to do it.”
This fall, McGinlay has been a solid third in every head-to-head race with Flagstaff High’s powerful duo of Olivia Baker and Taylor Biggambler. There is a good chance that McGinlay will crack the top 10 at the Division 2 state meet, but she said she’s not concerned with the outcome, just the process of running her last prep races with her friends and teammates.
She has served as a mentor to many of the Panthers’ underclassmen, including promising sophomore Savanna McKerracher, the team’s No. 2 runner. McGinlay, who hopes to study nutrition next year at NAU, says she’s stressed to all her teammates the importance of fueling before and after races.
“It’s definitely something that’s been normalized, which I don’t think is OK, at all,” McGinlay said of disordered eating among distance runners. “It’s important to eat healthy but, more important is just the intake. Make sure you’re eating enough before, after and during (training). I know people who won’t eat the whole day of their race, and I just don’t agree with that. It harms your body. Everyone is different in their (nutrition) needs but it’s important to stay fueled.”
Davis’ challenges, especially this year, have centered around a balky left knee.
Davis, whose family moved to Flagstaff in 2020 from Little Rock, Ark., where he won the city championship in swimming, still has been able to keep his spot as the Panthers’ top runner in meets, but he said his training (and speed) has been curtailed because of the knee injury.
“I’ve been dealing with a knee injury the past year,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what’s wrong. I’ve been going to PT (physical therapist) for a year and been diagnosed with four different things. I’m about to go to a different PT. It could be patellar tendinitis, but it also might have something to do with the meniscus or ACL – just that general area, you know.
“It has affected me very much. I worked (over the summer) at Olsen’s Grain, lifting hay bales on top of running every morning, and maybe (that contributed to it). I don’t know. The past two races, I’ve probably gone a minute to a minute and a half slower. It’s frustrating.
“My legs are pretty burned out. It’s rough because I really do want to run in college but I don’t want to run through the pain because that would take away the joy.”
This is not the first injury with which Davis has dealt in high school. In that breakout freshman year, when he vaulted onto the varsity, a nagging hamstring injury made it difficult for him late in the season and ruined his first track season.
Last spring’s track season was mostly injury-free for Davis, and he made a big jump in performance in the metric mile and two mile, qualifying for the state meet in both events.
“Right before track last season, I had (a breakthrough),” he said. “I had never done any pre-training before the running season. I ran extra miles last winter and I could feel the difference in races.”
Davis plans to attend Grand Canyon University next year and he’d like to run for the team. So much depends, though, on whether he can stay healthy.
“I’d love to run in college, but the knee,” he said. “I’m thinking of dropping running for a month or two after (the) state (cross country meet) and focus on physical therapy, maybe get a proper diagnosis.”
For now, though, their focus is on the sectionals and then the state meet, hoping to end their high school cross country careers on positive notes.
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