Marcus High School's Online Newspaper

The Marquee

Marcus High School's Online Newspaper

The Marquee

Marcus High School's Online Newspaper

The Marquee

Racing to the Finish Line

Quinn+Owen+stands+on+the+stadium+track+before+her+cross+country+practice+that+occurs+every+weekday+before+school.
Sarah Newton
Quinn Owen stands on the stadium track before her cross country practice that occurs every weekday before school.

Sharp breaths escape senior Quinn Owen’s mouth as her feet push her forward toward the finish line. Her heartbeat pounds in her ears. Sweat drips down the side of her face.

Almost there. She pulls every ounce of energy she has left in her. The footsteps of the other runners echo behind her. Their looming presence pushes her further, closer to the finish line.

Cheers from the crowd boom around her, but the overwhelming noise seems distant. Other runners’ parents and teammates cheer them on. She pushes forward the last few feet.

Despite her physical exhaustion, she is strong. She is confident. As she crosses the finish line, she smiles. She’s done. The weeks of preparation finally paid off. The small bits of doubt that lingered in her mind before she started the race are gone now. She steps aside from the finish line and tries to catch her breath.

She made it.

Owen placed second in the UIL Regional Cross Country Championship with a time of 16:56, qualifying her for the State Championship. An accomplishment less surprising than one would expect.

“I was confident because times on paper showed that I should make it out,” Owen said. “There’s always that uncertainty when you get on the line.”

This is not the first success under Owen’s belt. During her freshman year, she placed 13th at the UIL state competition, her first year running competitively.

As a sophomore, Owen placed fourth in the 800m race at state. And just last year, she won first place in state at the 1600m race with a time of 4:47.32, a new personal record.

She’s even been called one of Texas’ best mid-distance runners by MileSplit US.

On Nov. 4, Owen competed in the state competition in which she placed tenth overall.

Despite her great success in running, Owen has only been running competitively for three years. Before then, she played soccer, but she didn’t have passion for it. She said, for her, it lacked the true team environment that she was looking for.

She began running cross country and track in middle school. However, her heart wasn’t in it yet. It wasn’t until she began serious training that she started to love running. So she quit soccer and focused all of her time and energy into running.

Intense athletic activity like running requires athletes to train and work their body year round, hardly ever taking a day off. All of cross country and track run almost every day all year round to ensure their stamina stays up for competitions.

Even when they take time off, their bodies are yearning to train again because they have grown accustomed to the intense training program.

Owen runs about 45 miles a week with daily runs varying from six to 10 miles a day. A mixture of short and fast, and long and paced workouts keep up the runner’s stamina and endurance.

Steve Telaneus, the head coach of the cross country team, believes that Owen’s commitment to the team and success boosts the confidence of the other people on the team.

“Everybody’s doing the same type of training,” Telaneus said. “She’s having a lot of success with it, so everybody will buy into the methods that are going on.”

Owen also found the team family she was looking for.

“You can’t be an individual in running,” Owen said.

She explains that for a sport that seems very individual, the girls form a strong bond that carries over into competing. Owen explains that if one girl is struggling during a run, her teammates help and support her through the end of the race.

“We’re all really close. It’s like a family,” Owen said. “I mean, we wake up and we die together every morning.”

On Nov. 4, Owen competed in the state competition in which she placed tenth overall.

Owen recently signed with the University of Arkansas and is going to participate in their running program. She will be attending next fall and hopes to make the traveling team, which has won multiple consecutive Southeastern Conference (SEC) titles.

“The sky’s the limit,” Telaneus, said. “I think she’s got the chance to have a fantastic collegiate career coming up.”

Leave a Comment
More to Discover
About the Contributors
Alex Anderson, Entertainment Editor
Hi, my name is Alex Anderson, and I am a senior this year, and this is my second year on staff as a writer. I love film and film journalism, so I plan to study Journalism and Film and Screen Studies in college. My favorite films are the Dark Knight, the Empire Strikes Back, and Ladybird. I’m super excited about the upcoming year, and I can’t wait to see what the staff achieves this year!
Sarah Newton, Photo Editor
My name is Sarah Newton and I am a photographer and designer for the Marcus Newspaper. I listen to music and spend time with people I care about. I’m a junior, and this is my first year on staff after taking most of the photography classes offered at Marcus. Through newspaper, I hope to learn even more about photography and expand what I have learned about designing.

Comments (0)

All The Marquee Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *