Born to run—until she couldn’t

With 800 meters to go in the Class B girls cross-country state meet on Oct. 23, Renae Parker was set to make her move. She was even with Broadwater High’s Emma Stolte for the lead; they had pretty much matched strides the entire race, just 0.57 seconds apart at the mile mark and 0.07 seconds at two miles.

Parker had talked this through with Jefferson High coach Karson Klass. They had seen Stolte all season, and they knew she had a strong closing kick. Their plan was for Parker to break out with half a mile to go—and, hopefully, to build a lead that Stolte couldn’t make up by the finish.

Parker had not come into the race with high expectations. She wasn’t feeling well, and she was still coming back from an injury—iliotibial band (IT) syndrome—suffered in a meet in Butte a month earlier. “I had no idea how it was going to go,” she said. “I just turned my brain off and ran. And I tried to stay with Emma.”