Ritzenhein Wins Individual Race, Bethany Michalak Leads Academy's Team As Colorado Shows Out In Girls Championship

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Coloradoans enjoyed a watershed day on a water-logged course Saturday at Nike Cross Nationals in the girls 5-kilometer championship race. 

Niwot sophomore Addison Ritzenhein displayed the same championship mettle of her father as she reeled in mid-race leader Elizabeth Leachman and went on to win in 17:10.4 at Glendoveer Golf Course in Portland.

"Conditions were perfect considering we're from Colorado," Ritzenhein said. "I guess I really like the mud."

Bethany Michalak, right behind her in second, led Academy to Colorado's first NXN team championship with 61 points. 

RESULTS/VIDEO | PHOTOS

Academy, which secured seventh place last season, had six athletes in the top 60, with Tessa Walter achieving 29th in 18:20.5, freshman Mariah Hook 36th in 18:28.2, sophomore Jordan Banta placing 54th in 18:39.2, junior Emily Beers grabbing 56th and ninth-grader Chamorra Cooper earning 57th, both in 18:40.3.

Colorado teams swept the top three spots. Niwot was second with 72 points and Denver (from Mountain Vista High) was third with 163 points.

Niwot placed in the top five for the fourth consecutive appearance at NXN, including a third podium finish in a row, along with back-to-back runner-up efforts. Olivia Alessandrini was the top fifth scorer in the race for Niwot, taking 55th in 18:40.3.

Lone Peak from Utah finished with 201 points, completing a four-team sweep of the top spots by the Southwest region. It marked the third straight time at NXN that Lone Peak finished fourth.

No region in either gender in the 18-year history of the meet had ever swept the entire podium, let alone taking the first four team spots.

Wexford matched the best finish by a Pennsylvania girls program in meet history by placing fifth with 218 points, ahead of two-time defending champion Kinetic of New York, which secured sixth at 242 points. Wexford equaled the fifth-place effort of Pennsbury in 2015.

Emily Wisniewski, the Oregon and NXR Northwest champion won a photo finish for third place with another Colorado athlete, Isabel Allori, as both finished in 17:37.4. 

Pre-race favorites Rachel Forsyth and Leachman ran with confidence out of the gate. 

Forsyth, the NXR Midwest champion from Ann Arbor, Mich., sprinted out to the lead and led for the first 1,000 meters of the race. 

That's when Leachman of Boerne, Texas zoomed past Forsyth and shot into the lead. There were moments when it seemed Leachman would run away with it and she built a 15-second lead by the 3,000-meter mark. 

But Ritzenhein and Michalak slowly reeled in Leachman in. And when Ritzenhein took the lead, she really started to roll and powered through the final mile. 

"When she came up next to me that was my saving grace, honestly," Ritzenhein said. "We worked together."

Ritzenhein's father, Dathan, an Olympian, won two Foot Locker national championships in 1999 and 2000. Her mother, Kalin Toedebusch, was a classmate of Dathan at Rockford High in Michigan and was also a standout runner who placed fifth in the 2000 Foot Locker final. 

Ritzenhein was born in Eugene and spent her childhood in Beaverton while her dad was still a Nike-sponsored professional runner. She said visiting the Nike campus now is "nostalgic."

"Growing up here, I remember him doing his runs and working out," she said. 

The family's extended legacy should only grow from here. Ritzenhein is only a sophomore, joining the likes of Sarah Baxter and Katelyn Tuohy as 10th-graders to win NXN. And her younger brother, Jude, is on the horizon, champing at the bit to get into high school cross country. 

Beyond Wisniewski and Allori and third and fourth, Forsyth was fifth in 17:38.6 and the NXR Southwest champion, eighth-grader Gianna Rahmer from Albuquerque, N.M., was sixth in 17:38.9, with junior Ella Hagen of Summit High in Colorado taking 10th in 17:47.6. The youth movement continued, with sophomore Jaelyn Williams from Chula Vista Eastlake in California securing seventh in 17:39.9 and freshman Isabella Keller of St. Anthony in Illinois earning eighth in 17:43.3, followed by senior Logan Hofstee from Spokane East Valley in Washington grabbing ninth in 17:45.0. 

Rahmer tied Grace Ping as the highest placing eighth-grader in NXN history. Ping, of Park City UT, was sixth in 2016.