All that glitters is gold for Daphne Weller, girls’ cross country state champion

TERRE HAUTE – Daphne Weller said she waited until the Stairway to Heaven to make her move. And when she did, it was glorious.

The Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran junior followed in the spikeprints of sister Mallory, running to a cross-country state championship Saturday. Moreover, Daphne set a 5,000-meter state meet record of 16 minutes, 52.2 seconds, the fastest ever by an Indiana high school girl on the iconic LaVern Gibson Championship course.

The outcome followed an autumn of self-doubt, journaling and defeats. Daphne said she spent Friday night texting Mallory, a two-time national champion and now a freshman for North Carolina State’s reigning NCAA champions.

“She definitely helped me through this,” Daphne said.

Daphne twice lost races in September, including one in which she was beaten by three girls from the same school, Ann Arbor (Mich.) Pioneer. But she was fifth at state last fall and eighth as a freshman, so she knew the course and the stage.

And she had witnessed her sister win this.

“With this race, I just know I can, and I know I’m capable,” she said. “Your mind-set is so much stronger than anything else in running.”

That “stairway” is what Concordia Lutheran coach Scott Steffen calls the distance from the 2- to 3-kilometer mark on this course. Daphne Weller stayed off the pace – “I didn’t want to burn myself out” – until she knew she could no longer wait.

“Once I got around them,” she said, “I just took it to the finish.”

Previous state meet record was 17:06.7 by Indian Creek’s Libby Dowty, who did so in winning the first of her two state titles in 2023. Dowty also held the best Indiana time of 16:55.7, set in last year’s Nike XC Town Twilight race.

Terre Haute North sophomore Addyson Bautista was just off the state meet record, clocking 17:06.8 for second. Hamilton Southeastern junior Anya Zoeller was third in 17:08.0 after placing sixth last year for Pendleton Heights.

“I stayed in the back of the pack and went at the end,” Zoeller said.

Carmel’s Annabel Pollert was fourth in 17:21.8. Columbia City’s Kenya Leitch, who beat Daphne Weller by 21 seconds in a Sept. 16 meet, was fifth in 17:26.0.

Zoe Gebhardt, also of HSE, was sixth in 17:33.3 and Heritage Christian freshman Aliyah Yorek seventh in 17:33.9.

In team standings, Lake Central won its first state championship in this sport with 136 points, a record high score. (Previous high was 134 by Concordia Lutheran in 1983.)

Homestead was second with 151 and two-time defending champion Carmel third with 176. Floyd Central was fourth with 207.

Guerin Catholic also had 207 but was fifth on a tiebreaker – top No. 6 runner – for its first podium finish. Guerin’s top finisher was Lilly Higgins in 13th.

Coach Andy Cowan said the outcome was the culmination of a program built by former coach Tom Gallagher.

“The group of girls we had this year was a really talented group, a really gritty group,” Cowan said. “And a resilient group, too. I just tried to get them to the line at the state meet healthy, and knew we would be in the mix to potentially be in the top five.

“They were ready for the moment.”

So, as it turns out, was the latest Weller state champion.

“Everybody has their own timeline,” she said. “Focus on myself and what I could work on instead of comparing myself to other people.”

Contact David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: All that glitters is gold for Daphne Weller, girls’ cross country state champion

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