Shawnee-Maranatha Academy has enjoyed a long history of success in cross country and track with head cross country coach Bianca Williams and junior high coach Suzy Manning.
Maranatha won the Class 2A girls’ cross country state title in 2008, and paced by Allison Bailey and Bethany Zarda, performed well at the distance events from ’08 to ’10 at the state track meet.
In 2009, Maranatha received regional and national attention when it gave away their gold medals in the 3,200 relay to St. Mary’s Colgan after Colgan was disqualified for going outside of the relay exchange zone when their runner collapsed while completing her leg of the race.
In addition, Keegan Williams won three straight pole vaulting state championships and set the Class 2A record in 2010.
But the Eagles tallied zero points at the 2011 state track meet.
After that year, Nick Knight took over as Eagles’ head track coach for Bernie Zarda, who remains as an assistant. Maranatha athletic director Dave Keener told Knight the track program had several fast freshmen coming up for the 2011-12 season.
“I was like, ‘Oh, OK, awesome,’” Knight said.
Those freshmen immediately dominated. Maranatha, paced by Lauren Harrell, Hope Manning and Taylor Morrow, rolled to the Class 2A cross country title in 2011.
Then, the trio, along with sprinter Caroline Bingham, collected the 2012 Class 2A state track championship with 64 points, the first in Eagle girls’ track history. All of the points came on the track – and all of the points came from freshmen.
“They exceeded my expectations a million times,” Knight said. “They are just such a fun and humble group of girls.”
Last year, Maranatha set a 2A state record with 78 points. The group, now sophomores, again rolled through the competition. Bingham swept the 100, 200 and 400 titles and ran on the gold-medal winning 1,600-meter relay.
The 3,200 relay also took first, Harrell won the 1,600 and finished third in the 800. Bethany Bailey set another 2A mark with a pole vault of 11-5, and Manning finished seventh in the 3,200.
“Our state meet was a dream meet last year,” Knight said. “I don’t know if it can ever be repeated by us.”
Then, Harrell, Morrow and Manning all finished in the top seven and helped the Eagles to the 2A cross country title last fall.
This spring, Bingham and junior Katherine Smith – who ran on both relays last year – have transferred to nearby Class 6A Shawnee Mission Northwest. Maranatha still returns Harrell, Manning and Morrow, all juniors, and looks for its third straight state title, the first by a 2A girls’ program since Osborne had a three-way tie for the crown in 1999 and then won three straight in 2000-02.
The Eagles should receive some strong competition from Ellinwood, Ell-Saline and Ness City, who especially will compete in many of the same events as Maranatha at this weekend’s state meet at Wichita State University’s Cessna Stadium.
Knight first started to hear about Bingham and Smith transferring around this time last year. Maranatha has long used SM Northwest’s track, because the Eagles don’t have their own facility.
Throughout the years, some students from Maranatha have transferred to Northwest. Bingham stands ninth in Kansas in the 200 (26.13), 16th in the 400 (59.77) and 18th in the 100 (12.63), according to state historian Carol Swenson’s performance list.
“We practice on Northwest’s track and have an extremely good relationship with their coaches,” Knight said. “Coach (Mike) Cooper and his staff. If we were to lose those girls to anybody, we were really happy to lose them to him.”
This year, Knight expected to have the girls take a more “selfish” approach to their events and not run in the relays. The Maranatha juniors want to post the best possible times for college recruitment.
Currently, Harrell stands first in the classification, and third in Kansas, in the 800 at 2:19.71. Manning is third in 2A in the 800 (2:24.39). Harrell has 2A’s best time in the 1,600 (5:02.43) and 3,200 (11:04.10) and stands second in the 400 (60.5). Manning is also second in the 1,600 at 5:12.91; third place is nearly 12 seconds behind.
“They are just such a fun and humble group of girls that you can talk to them, and you never imagine that Lauren Harrell won three state championships last year and Hope Manning is a top-20 miler in the state,” Knight said.
“These girls, they are just amazing,” Knight said. “I sometimes find myself putting limitations on them. I had to stop myself and look at what they had done and see that the sky really is the limit with them.”
Morrow has scaled back her workouts some this year because of stress fractures and reactions, but ran a 5:35.91 on May 9, currently seventh in 2A.
Even without Bingham, the talent could yield another team state championship.
“We really just focus on having a God-centered and positive and encouraging program, and it starts with Suzy and it carries on with Bianca in the fall, and then we just carry it onto the spring,” Knight said.
“What we really focus on is just having a really fun atmosphere. Track, I don’t think in general is very fun. “It’s a lot of hard work, but we try to build everybody up,” he added.
“These girls, they saw where they were at, and they made a decision that they wanted to be fast, and we are so happy that was a decision that they made. We’ve just gone with it.”
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