By Terry Jacoby/weloveannarbor.com
With three freshmen runners competing in the state finals, the Skyline girls’ cross country team has a bright future ahead of them. And if success does run throughout the program in the coming years, they can point to some strong senior leadership they experienced in 2023-24 as one of the reasons.
Leading the pack was Allison Mayer, Skyline’s top senior runner who left her mark on the program with a fantastic final year as an Eagle.
“Allison had a phenomenal season,” said Skyline Coach Serena Kessler. “She had a solid summer of training and that consistency over time has paid off. She consistently ran low 19s, with two sub-19 performances. Allison had six top-ten finishes this season, including fifth in the Region 4 championship.”
Mayer leaves the program with the second fastest girls’ cross country time in Skyline history and helped lead the Eagles to the MHSAA Division 1 State Finals in November. The Eagles, who qualified with a third-place finish at Regionals, finished 17th with 424 points out of 28 teams in the field.
Leading the way at MIS was ninth-grader Becca van Lent who finished 48th in 19:01.2. Mayer completed her strong senior season with a time of 19:15.1 to finish 64th overall. The rest of the Skyline scorecard featured freshman Irie Scrase, 89th (19:33.7); junior Ayla Balazer, 159th (20:14.2); senior Alexandria Mason, 233rd (21:20.2); freshman Katie Yuan, 243rd (21:43.1); and senior Aileen Bachrens, 254th (22:23.2).
“It was an exciting season,” says Mayer. “We were ranked 8th in the region and then we ended up getting third and qualifying for States. It was really unexpected and exciting. We did a lot of fun stuff together like trips to Dairy Queen after practice, movie nights, corn mazes, and every season we do a sleepover at Planet Rock.”
Mayer, who says her desire to always want to get faster keeps her motivated, joined cross country in middle school. “Racing made me super anxious but I stuck around because of my coach Kelli Bert,” she says. “I did it in high school because I needed something to keep me going during Covid. Once I got into shape, I ended up really liking it because not every run was quite as painful.”
She “got into shape” by running six days a week in the off-season and running higher mileage and lifting weights.
So, what’s “running” through her head when she steps up the starting line? “On the starting line, I’m thinking about how I need to get off the line quickly to make sure I’m not swallowed by the crowd,” she says. “While I’m running I try to catch as many people in front of me as possible. If I was giving advice to younger runners I would tell them that the races aren’t that big of a deal so don’t put that much pressure on yourself. Bad days happen but they don’t define you.”
Mayer didn’t have many bad days for the Eagles. She placed fifth at the Holly Regional with a time of 19:23.1. She ran 12th at the first SEC Jamboree and moved all the way up to fourth at the second Jamboree with a PR time of 18:37.5 in a very fast field. She also ran third at the Fr. Gabriel Richard Invitational and was ninth in the D-1 run at the Holly/Duane Raffin Festival of Races.
As a junior, Mayer was 14th at Regionals in 19:27.1 and 59th at the State Finals in 19:28.1. She also ran at the State Finals as a sophomore where she finished 68th.
Allison, 17, is the daughter of Kristin Burgard and Paul Mayer. She has a 3.96 GPA and is a member of the Ecology Club. She enjoys hanging out with friends, tennis, skiing, and working at The Washtenaw Dairy.
And running will remain part of her schedule in the future.
“After high school I plan to run in college at a D3 school,” she says. “I am still deciding on which one. I want to study something along the lines of math and business.”
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