Val Clark’s high school athletics career will ultimately produce 10 varsity letters, making her a dinosaur in an era of sports specialization.
Excelling in three sports over the course of four years requires commitment, sacrifice and time-management skills that belie her age.
The Center Grove senior, the Daily Journal’s Runner of the Year in girls cross-country, can’t imagine doing it any other way.
Presently a 5-foot-10 guard/forward for her school’s girls basketball program, Clark in November signed a national letter of intent to play hoops at Eastern Kentucky University.
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She’s taken part in her final cross-country competition.
“With Eastern Kentucky being a Division I school it’s not really feasible to do more than one sport,” Clark said. “For me, the hardest thing will be leaving my core group of friends and my coaches.
“These four years have gone really fast for me because I have formed these great friendships. I’m so, so excited to go to college, but I still feel I have work to do here.”
Clark’s last cross-country season resulted in her winning individual honors at the annual Johnson County meet in a time of 20:05.65. She went on to finish third at both sectional and regional and then take 15th at semistate to qualify for the state finals as an individual.
A slow start at state came back to haunt Clark, who placed 112th of 208 runners in 20 minutes, 29.6 seconds.
Disappointed with her performance that late-October afternoon in Terre Haute, Clark is nonetheless proud of her last high school cross-country season.
“Obviously, no one wants to end their career on a low note, but I do feel I improved a lot this season,” said Clark, who holds a 4.0 grade-point average and plans to major in biology (she wants to be a physical therapist) at EKU.
“I’m glad I was able to do well in a lot of meets this year.”
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Val Clark by the numbers:
Event;Place;Time
Johnson County Meet;first;20:05.65
Franklin Sectional;third;19:31
Shelbyville Regional;third;18:52
Shelbyville Semistate;15th;18:35.1
State Finals;112th;20:29.6
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The 2016 All-Johnson County Team for girls cross country:
Kaley Brewer, Whiteland senior: Took eighth at the Franklin Sectional and 13th at the Shelbyville Regional. … Returned to Shelbyville the following week and finished 66th at semistate.
Rachel Chan, Center Grove senior: Placed 13th at the Franklin Sectional, but actually improved her standing to 11th at the Shelbyville Regional. … Placed fifth at county meet.
Val Clark: Center Grove senior: The lone Johnson County representative at the State Finals, Clark took first at the Johnson County meet and placed third at sectional and regional.
Isabel Dawson, Indian Creek senior: Came in 13th at the Brown County Sectional in a time of 20:37.89, and returned the following week to place 17th at regional in 21:00.9 and secure a spot in the semistate.
Nina Fujii, Center Grove sophomore: Among the youngest runners of what made up the nucleus of a very balanced Trojans squad, Fujii followed her sixth-place performance at county by coming in 19th at sectional and 20th at regional.
Tori Martin, Center Grove junior: Produced a solid junior campaign, placing fourth at county and 11th at sectional. She went on to come in 19th at the Shelbyville Regional and 61st at regional on the same course.
Maddie Keeley, Center Grove, senior: Runner-up at the Johnson County meet, Keeley finished 16th individually at sectional, 22nd at regional and 72nd at the Shelbyville Semistate.
Honorable Mention
Julia Arruda, Greenwood; Alexandra Boardman, Franklin; Sierra Bowman; Indian Creek; Abby Burton, Franklin; Allie Dalton, GCA; Julia Falcone, Center Grove; Delsi Fraser, Whiteland; Gabrielle Harrell, Center Grove; Taylor Leytham, Whiteland; Kelsie Ross, Whiteland; Carly Sandrock, Franklin; Chloe Selking, Franklin; Marissa Smith; Indian Creek; Emma Treibic, Franklin; Mallory Watson, Greenwood; Bailey Woodall, Edinburgh.
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