Oswego East’s Michalek looking to repeat

Updated: September 14, 2011 7:55PM

If you think all there is to cross country is running as fast as you can as long as you can, Ariel Michalek is proof that’s not the case.

The Oswego East senior heads into this school year as the state’s premier female distance runner after sweeping the Class 3A cross country title last fall and the 3A 3,200-meter championship in the spring. But getting to this point wasn’t just a matter of putting in the miles — it also was a case of Michalek learning what works and what doesn’t.

She has qualified for state in cross country every year since she arrived at Oswego East, finishing 42nd in 18 minutes, 1 second as a freshman, dropping back to 98th (18:57) as a sophomore and surging to the front last fall with a remarkable drop of 2:25 from the year before.

“Freshman year, I had no idea what to expect,” said Michalek, who paced herself against other people rather than trying to hit certain splits. That worked out pretty well, though she didn’t know what to do when she got stuck in a pack.

The next fall, Michalek went out too fast and paid the price in terms of time and place. “But then I learned from that and came up with a win [in 2011],” she said.

“She was very green when I first met her as a freshman,” Oswego East coach Stephanie Scapino said. “The biggest change between then and now is she knows how to race.”

It shows, too, in the results and in Michalek’s calm under pressure. Both of her state titles came in close races: a two-second winning margin in cross country and less than a half-second in the 3,200.

“She’s just such a good sport about everything all the time,” Scapino said. “The girls who are her toughest competition are people she likes and has a genuine affection for and respects. She kind of takes every race in stride. She’s not always thrilled about how she runs, [but] asks, ‘What can I do to get better?’ ”

Michalek knows the focus is on her now more than ever, but isn’t fretting about what happens in September as long as she’s ready for Peoria in November. “It’s a little more pressure on me,” she said. “But ... I’m just making sure I get down to where I want to be [time-wise].”

Where she would like to be is around 16 minutes, which would break the all-time state record of 16:22 set by Woodstock’s Kayla Beattie in last year’s 2A state final.

Not an easy task, but Michalek breaks it down analytically. “I definitely think that if you were there once, you can be again,” she said.

So far, it’s hard to argue with her logic.

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