Central Mountain runner Grace Keohane makes strong showing at states
HERSHEY, PA – Central Mountain sophomore Grace Keohane competed in the 2023 Cross Country PIAA AAA State Championships on Saturday. Keohane finished in a time of 21:15 and was 140th out of 237 runners.
She bettered her time by almost one minute from when she competed at the Hershey course back in late September at an invitational. Keohane lined up in the 17th starting box. On the sound of the gun, she was off.
“Grace got a great start. She was in the top 50 by the time the course narrowed at the first turn. She did exactly what we talked about prior to the race” said Coach Scott Bair.
She opened with a 6:11 first mile. She continued to conquer the tough hills on the course and reached the mile two marker by 13:11. Keohane continued to push hard the entire race and finished in 21:15.
Coach Bair was very impressed with how well Keohane raced in her state debut. “Grace gave it her all today just like she has every race this season. I am so proud of her and how hard she worked all season. This was Grace’s first year running cross country. Her first race of the season she ran 23:39. She continued to train hard and ran better and better as the season progressed. At Districts, she ran a PR of 20:14. I am super excited to see how much Grace will improve over the next two seasons.”
Now that states are over, Keohane will put her cross-country spikes away and start preparing for the upcoming basketball season.
