The Union Catholic girls concluded its record-breaking season by placing a very strong 10th for the second straight year at Saturday 19th running of the Nike National Championships at the Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland, Oregon.
UC, which came into this race undefeated and ranked No. 7 nationally, finished 10th in the 22-team field with 252 points. In a battle between Colorado powers, No. 1 ranked Mount Vista High defeated runner-up and No. 14 ranked Lone Peak, 75-107.
It's the third straight appearance in the Nike National Championship race for the Vikings, who placed 20th in 2022 and 10th last year,
The top five runners for UC's all underclassmen pack were Paige Sheppard, 30th in 17:56.4, sophomore Cayleigh Kaiser, 65th in 18:37.3, sophomore Sophia Thompson, 83rd in 19:49.8, sophomore Kayla Devine, 10th in 19:10.9, and junior Emmy O'Hearn,158th in 19:54.8. the sixth and seventh runners for UC were junior Ella Solorzano, 184th in 20:45.8, and freshman Jasmine Parran, 194th in 21:31.5.
Although their finish was the same as a year ago, the performance by the Vikings was much more impressive this time because so many of their runners dropped huge PR's for this course despite the awful conditions. Sheppard sliced 22 seconds, Kaiser 21, Devine had a monster race as she cut nearly three minutes off her time from last year, and O'Hearn chopped 47 seconds from her time a year ago. UC's average was 18:53, 26 seconds faster than a year ago.
There were several eye-popping highlights during an electrifying season for the Vikings.
UC won its third straight Meet of Champions title to finish No. 1 in the state for the third year in a row, captured the State Non-Public A Championship for the fourth consecutive year, won the Nike Northeast Regional for the second straight year with a NJ course record average of 19:01. Individually, Sheppard broke the Holmdel Park sophomore course record by running 17:41, she became the first girl from Union County to win the Meet of Champions race, and she repeated as champion at the Nike NE Regional. Sheppard and Kaiser were named First Team All-State and Thompsn was selected Second Team All-State.
With no seniors in its pack, the Vikings will have the firepower and the experience to make a run at winning the national title next year!!
