Leone, Seton Catholic cross country up and running after late start

Alexis Leone is still looking for that first normal season of high school cross country.

When Leone came to Seton Catholic a year ago, it made an already strong girls cross country team even better.

But then the pandemic scrubbed the cross country season last fall. When the season was held in February and March, it was a short season that ended with the district meet and not a state meet. Leone edged out teammate Lara Carrion for the district title last March.

This fall, with Leone back for her sophomore year and Carrion back for her senior season, the Cougars were primed for a run at the state title.

Then COVID hit, again.

Leone contracted the virus last month, and much of the Seton team was placed on COVID protocols over the opening weeks of the season.

“(Last week) was basically our first week of practice as team,” Seton coach Jaysun Pyatt said.

Leone, Carrion and several other Cougars made their season debuts on Saturday at the Nike Portland XC meet at Blue Lake Park in Fairview, Ore.

“It was pretty hot and little painful,” said Leone after placing 16th in the Danner Championship division of elite runners just three weeks after recovering from COVID. “It’s been a climb getting back in shape. I haven’t run too bad, but I’m just trying to get back to where I was.”

Pyatt was very pleased with Leone’s time of 18 minutes, six seconds, as well as with Carrion’s season-opening performance.

“I’m sure they’re going to say their times aren’t what they wanted,” Pyatt said. “Alexis’ 18:06, that’s not too far off her (personal record), so that’s pretty good coming off a COVID. Lara ran (18:48), and she started off last year around 18:30, and that was will a full year of training and not having to take time off for COVID protocols.”

Last April, while Carrion was racing to district titles in track and field in 1,600 and 3,200, Leone was running laps around the softball diamond.

Because Seton Catholic does not field a team, Leone played softball last spring for Camas, leading the Papermakers in hitting while playing second base.

“I used to do softball competitively, but then I stopped that so I could run competitively,” Leone said.

She started running for Whisper Running club in Vancouver in 2018. She qualified for the Junior Olympic cross country championships in 2019 before finishing second in her age-division last December.

But after the high school cross country season ended in March, Leone thought the pandemic year was a good time to give softball a try again. And that was fine with Pyatt.

“I don’t put too much pressure on her,” Pyatt said. “If she wants to do softball, I think that’s great as long as she’s doing something. I’d love to have her out track, but what can you do. She’s also a very good softball player.”

Leone is undecided if she’ll stick with the cross country/softball double during her sophomore year.

“I like to play softball,” she said. “I don’t know if I will have time this year with school and stuff. School work comes first.”

Right now, she hopes the Cougars come first in the state cross country meet in November. That’s why she was so eager to resume her training once her health improved.

“I think I could be in better place right now, but I’m going to try to improve each week over the season,” Leone said. “I really want to get back up there to where I was before (getting sick). But I just over COVID so it has been tough to run. Like just the other day, I did an easy run, and I was like ‘it’s hot. This is hard.’ “

It was warm at Blue Lake on Saturday, but Pyatt was still pleased with what she saw in Leone and her teammates. Given their late start, he knows this was just the beginning for the Cougars.

“These were probably the best runners in the Northwest, so it was good test to see where they were at and see what we can work on,” Pyatt said. “Actually, after what I saw today, I think we’ll be OK.”

Girls cross country

Top 5,000-meter times this season:

Alexis Leone, so., Seton Catholic, 18:06

Lara Carrion, sr., Seton Catholic, 18:48

Elle Thomas, so., Washougal, 18:51

Gracie Buzzell, jr., Camas, 19:01

Evelyn Reed, fr., Skyview, 19:12

Charlotte Wilson, so., Union, 19:17

Sydney Boothby, jr., Washougal, 19:25

Beatrice LeGore, sr., Evergreen, 19:26

Hanna Bailey, jr., Columbia River, 19:28

Claire Rogge, fr., Evergreen, 19:29

—source Athletic.net