Momentum building for Cheboygan’s Harke after first varsity cross country win
CHEBOYGAN – As she battled through the first race of her junior cross country season, Cheboygan’s Sammy Harke had a couple things in mind.
“Don’t throw up, and beat my time from last year,” said Harke. “Last year I threw up at that race, but my goal was top-15.”
Not only did Harke not throw up – she won the race by a wide margin.
Harke built a ton of early-season momentum and confidence by capturing her first-ever varsity victory with a personal-best 22:05 time at the Larissa Vartti Invitational in Munising on Tuesday, Aug. 22.
“It was surreal,” Harke said. “When I finished, it felt like any other meet because all I did was just run a race, but it was really crazy, honestly. When I was actually running, I was in sixth to start the race, and then right before I was in second, and right after the two-mile, I passed her. I beat her by about 30 seconds.”
It was a dream start to the season for Harke, who had a strong track and field campaign last spring. While her summer of running opened in promising fashion, she did hit a wall in the middle. Near the end of July, however, she took on the challenge of running at the HQ2 cross country camp in Hersey.
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Since then, all she's done is build momentum.
“I got a lot of miles there,” Harke said of the camp. “I had to get the miles for that, so I started picking that up and it kind of carried me to the start of the season.”
The running paid off for Harke, who feels good as she enters what she hopes will be a huge fall.
“I want to go sub-21:30, so my (personal record) last year was a 22:08," Harke said. "I want to beat my first team (All-Straits Area Conference) place from last year. I think that’s my big goal.”
Impressed by Harke’s quick start is Cheboygan coach Sandy Safford, who lauded the work ethic of one of her top runners.
“This past summer, especially, I feel like she’s been way more consistent than she was in the past,” said Safford. “She did our team camp this year, she did the HQ2 Camp, so she really has put in the miles, and you can tell that even in her workouts she’s making a really strong effort to try and keep up with the boys as much as she possibly can, to be a leader of the pack, and I just think there’s some very exciting things in the future."
As much as she wants to succeed individually, Harke’s in it for the team as well. With a terrific freshman class entering in the program, it’s helped push Harke to be an even better performer on the course.
“I enjoy the running, but I really enjoy the team factor,” Harke said. “Our incoming freshmen are crazy fast, so there’s going to be good competition. I think it’s pushing me further because I haven’t had that extra competition that I had in previous years, but I think it’s also helping the team to try harder and work harder, because now we have the (junior varsity) team, too, so they obviously want to be on varsity, right? Who wouldn’t? So, they have to push harder for that compared to previous years.”
With her sixth year of cross country underway, the mindset remains the same with Harke.
Stay strong – even when things aren’t always going your way.
“If I’m running well and I feel good, then it’s really good. Whenever I start to think negatively, I have to tell myself to stop and be like, ‘I’ve got this,’ even though it’s like the hardest race I’ve ever ran,” Harke said. “I just kind of have to push myself through that.”
Harke breaks personal record at Red Devil Invitational
EAST JORDAN – Harke’s remarkable start to the season continued Wednesday, as she broke her own personal record by running a 20:38 and finishing seventh at the East Jordan Red Devil Invitational.
Other Cheboygan girls running included Cloee Rupp (22nd, 22:28), Briahna Campbell (26th, 22:49), Isabella Hingston (34th, 23:35), Addison Ptasnik (51st, 25:03), Nola Ecker (58th, 26:08), Jillian McKinley (59th, 26:24), Haley Blaskowski (68th, 29:22), Ava Hayden (75th, 31:07) and Avery Jones (80th, 36:52).
Leading the Cheboygan boys was Carson Kiefer, who finished 24th at 18:42.
Russell Abernathy (30th, 19:11), Andrew Kiefer (No place available, 19:19), Gavin Smith (39th, 19:36), Alex Hudson (58th, 21:23), Collin Mersch (64th, 22:29), Evan Blaskowski (72nd, 23:27) and Jose Castro III (75th, 24:45) each raced for Cheboygan.
Inland Lakes also competed on Wednesday, with the boys being led by Logan McMullen (17th, 20:14), Connor Wallace (19th, 20:31) and Remi Bollinger (27th, 25:57).
Elizabeth Furman (eighth, 21:24) and Francis Bunker (37th, 29:13) each raced for the I-L girls.
Contact sports editor Jared Greenleaf at jgreenleaf@gannett.com. Follow him on X @sportsCDT
This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Momentum building for Cheboygan’s Harke after first varsity cross country win
