For the first mile of the girls’ Class B cross country state championship race, the Jefferson High athletes moved in a pack – running together as they’d done countless times before.
But Assistant Coach Jamie Stearns, stationed at the top of the course’s biggest hill just before the two-mile mark, knew something was wrong. Emma Ahlers appeared first. Then Piper Dawson. Then Isabella Warren. Then Ava Carey.
The three freshmen and one senior were all ahead of Peyton Stearns, the team leader and one of its fastest runners. “I immediately knew something was going on,” said Coach Stearns, who is also Peyton’s mother.
