ROCORI runner wraps up six-year career with tenth consecutive state appearance

For many prep athletes making the state tournament and giving themselves or their team the opportunity to win a championship is an accomplishment in and of itself. Cecelia Woods, a ROCORI graduate and Arizona commit, has done it for ten consecutive seasons.

Dating back to her freshman year, Woods has qualified in a section round and competed in state for the Spartan diving, dance and track teams, covering three seasons each year. The MHSL does not track the statistic, but officials within the sport believe it's never been done before.

“She’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime person,” ROCORI hurdles coach Dave Rarick said.

At the state meet in early June at St. Michael-Albertville, Woods placed third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15 seconds and she placed fifth in the 300-meter hurdles, an event she won last year with a class record. She placed second in the 100-meter hurdles last year and sixth in the 200.

This year as a team, the ROCORI girls finished second in Class 2A but they placed first at the true team meet earlier in the season, which weights individual finishers in addition to winners in each event and better determines the depth and breadth of teams competing in an event. The ROCORI girls have a legacy of doing well in the meet, having finished on the podium in six of the last ten years, winning it in 2021, 2018, 2017 and 2015.

In the state meet jumper Ava Thoennes and thrower Brianna Schnieder won an event each for ROCORI. Thoennes long jumped 17 feet 6.25 inches and also took fourth in the high jump, clearing 5-4. Schnieder’s 39-10.75 shot put broke the Class 2A record of 39-03.75. She also placed ninth in the discus.

To start the season, Woods was chasing school and state records, but a nagging back injury sustained from overwork during the winter forced her to refocus her goals starting midway through the season. Pain from her sciatic nerve, which starts in the lower spine and runs down the back of each leg, prevented her from pushing too hard in workouts or meets.

“With hurdles, you never know – one fall can take you out of it,” she said. “Just to have fun with my team – ROCORI always wants to win the true team meat and we have a long history of doing that – so winning that my senior year was super fun.”

Woods didn’t shut down entirely, but she had to limit the workouts she needed to get really fast. To still finish in the top five runners in the state in both events shows Woods’ talent and competitiveness. Rarick said the coaches had to all but drag her of the track during those workouts because she felt like she was “cheating the team.”

Woods’ freshman season was also stripped from her thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“At the section meet we talked with one of the meet officials and said once she’s done with the 100m hurdles we want to have her checked out to find out if she can go in the 300 and when she finished the 300 hurdles on finals day in tears – I think she was more scared than anything – and (Woods) looked right at the official and said ‘I’m running the 300,’” he said.

She’s been mostly resting since the state meet and said she feels a lot stronger.

Woods is the fifth of six siblings who have made an impact on ROCORI sports. Raised by ROCORI High School social studies teacher Julie Woods, Raquel Woods and Jayda Woods ran long distance and played basketball, McKinley Woods played soccer and Broderic Woods will play basketball as a sophomore. Oldest brother Donovan Woods is stationed at Army Fort Bliss and Jayda Woods graduated this spring from Georgia, where she ran for the Bulldogs.

“It was really hard with transportation for everybody, when we were all younger especially because we couldn't drive, but it helped when some people started getting their licenses,” Cecelia Woods said. “But, (mom has) just always been there to support us and there has been a lot of other nice people in the community that would help give us rides.”

Additionally, Cecelia Woods has long looked up to ROCORI graduate Erin Huls as a sister figure and someone to chase on the oval. Huls ran for Minnesota and Oklahoma State and has coached the Spartans for two years since graduating. Woods said that she, diving coach Cassie Schiewe and Rarick have been incredibly supportive and helpful with generating the confidence needed to line up against good runners or attempt a difficult dive. Woods said she would miss all of the coaches and community that surrounds ROCORI.

The Woods family has had a lot of attention from the media throughout her high school career, including TV spots and interviews for St. Cloud Times stories. She said the higher profile was a lot at first, but she’s been learning to handle it.

She has competed for the Spartans’ varsity track team since she was a seventh grader and said finally leaving the team knowing the future is bittersweet. She knew she wanted to travel out of state for college and all of her visits were in the southwest, especially centered around schools with good track programs. Woods said she fit in at Arizona where coach Fred Harvey is a hurdles specialist and where Wildcat senior Talie Bonds placed fourth in the 100 meter hurdles championship with a 12.72.

“I remember when her sisters were going through ROCORI and Cece would be out there even as just a little young tyke doing back handstands in the starting blocks,” Rarick said. “I've watched the family for a long time, been around the family a long time and you knew she was going to be something special.”

This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Cecelia Woods finishes ROCORI track, diving and dance careers