Cross-country: Cornwall's Karrie Baloga pulls away on uphill to become national champ

When the University of Colorado recruited Karrie Baloga, it knew it was vying with other top national programs, including now-two-time women's national cross-country D-I team champion North Carolina State, to get a runner with strong credentials.

Baloga, after all, finished 11th at the then-Footlocker Cross Country Nationals in San Diego, California as just a freshman at Cornwall High School.

Then, after nationals were canceled due to COVID her sophomore year and renamed for East Bay, Baloga finished fourth last year at nationals on the same 3.1-mile, Balboa Park course.

In between then and Saturday, Colorado won the Baloga sweepstakes.

Saturday, it learned in doing so it won a national champion.

With Colorado coach Heather Burroughs looking on and cheering, the 17-year-old beat 35 regional qualifiers to capture the girls title at what's now the Champs Sports National Cross Country Championships.

Baloga clocked 16:49.2, one of the fastest times ever run on the course by a high school girl.

She was in the front pack from the get-go.

"I knew I wanted to take the lead pretty early," she said. "This was my last one. I wanted to make a statement. I really wanted to follow a plan we created and visualized the whole week."

She first took the lead a couple of minutes into the race with, among others, Ellie Shea of Massachusetts close at hand.

Shea had won last month's nationals Northeast qualifier in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx with Baloga second.

But that script would be rewritten Saturday with Baloga not merely looking to get a qualifying finish for something, but to win the race.

Baloga alternated among first, second and third place — the three slots within whispering distance of each other — until taking the lead for good shortly before hitting the 2.5-mile mark.

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This occurred on a steep uphill competitors ran twice. And the timing of her move wasn't accidental.

Baloga, her dad, Barry, who's a former North Rockland High cross-country and track coach; and her mom Katie, had discussed where she'd take the lead and try to pull away if other runners were close to her in the second half of the race.

Baloga, who's good on uphills, thanks in part to experience on local vertical challenges like Bear Mountain and Bowdoin Park, liked the spot.

Many people, including a slew of former University of Colorado runners, lined the course, cheering for various runners. Baloga still made out much of which specific members of her personal cheering squad (including her two brothers, her maternal grandparents, her mom and dad and Cornwall coaches Dave Feuer and Brian Creeden and Creeden's wife) were saying.

She could hear her mom telling her, "You know what to do."

Her first time on the hill, she heard her dad say, "You look great. You're under control. You can do it."

Her second time, he yelled, "This is your moment — your time to go."

And she knew he was right and she was ready.

"We harped a lot on confidence," Baloga said of pre-race discussions, explaining if she didn't enter the race believing she was going to win, "What was the point of being here?"

And from the moments even before the race began, her confidence was high.

"I knew I was ready for it even in the (warmup) strides beforehand. I really knew I was going to be able to do it," she said.

Still, the words of support as she ran were extra fuel. Her parents were saying they believed in her.

"'I believe in you.' Those words are so encouraging coming from parents. If they believe in you, you believe in yourself," she said.

Her response was simple.

"I ran seriously as hard as I could," Baloga said.

And neither Shea nor eventual third-place finisher Paityn Noe of Iowa had that extra gear.

Not long after gapping Shea and Noe on the hill, Baloga hit the finish.

Shea, who'd beaten Baloga by 14.2 seconds at Van Cortlandt Park, crossed in 16:55.1, and Noe in 17:01.5.

Shea and Baloga were part of the Northeast squad that won the four-area team championship by six points over the South.

Baloga, whose first memory of running is of chasing her brothers (Michael, now 19, and Jack, now 13) on a beach years ago and who said her folks never pushed her to run, has tons of trophies and ribbons. Included is hardware from winning last month's girls state public school Class B championship and then the girls state Federation title for beating the top public and private school runners from schools of all sizes across New York.

Those races were special but Saturday's win was another level of special.

Baloga, who posed for photos with the boys race winner, Kole Mathison of Indiana, who, like Baloga, will run next year for Colorado, said she'd worked hard to put herself in a position to win, so she wasn't surprised.

But happy?

Oh, yeah.

Pointing to the many people who made the trip west to support her, Baloga said, "I think everybody knew this would be a special one."

"Today," she said, "was pretty awesome."

.Nancy Haggerty covers cross-country, track & field, field hockey, skiing, ice hockey, girls lacrosse and other sporting events for The Journal News/lohud. Follow her on Twitter at both @HaggertyNancy and at @LoHudHockey. 

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Cross-country: Baloga wins Champs Sports National Championship