Panthers’ Rhyan all-state runner
by Greg Ceilley of The Review staff
Plymouth sophomore Niki Rhyan was named to the Wisconsin Cross Country Coaches Association allstate girls second team for the 2009 high school cross country season.
PHS head coach Jay Grosshuesch believes that Rhyan is the first Panther female cross country runner to earn all-state honors. Rhyan, a sectional champion, finished 13th in the Division 1 state meet with a careerbest time of 15 minutes, 11.3 seconds over 4,000 meters (2.5 miles).
The all-state teams are based on all of the times in the state meet from all divisions. The runners with the top-18 times are on the first team, the next 18 are on the second unit and the next eight make honorable mention.
“Niki had a fantastic season,” Grosshuesch said.
“She battled about a week-long illness the second week of the season and that slowed her progress early in the year. However, she kept working hard and was patient with her season.
“As the season wore on, she just got stronger and really finished the year in great fashion.
“The coaches feel that the workouts she was doing all season brought her to her top fitness level at the end of the season and it resulted in her great ending year.
“Also, Niki clearly grew in her self-confidence and she ran some real smart tactical races. Her best racing strategy is to go out conservatively and run a real fast last half. That is exactly what she did in all her meets and the last three [state, sectional and conference] resulted in great places against real strong competition.”
Rhyan, who competed in her second straight state meet, was also the Eastern Wisconsin Conference champion this past season.
Sophomore Molly Seidel of University Lake School (Hartland), the Division 3 champion, led the girls all-state first team with a 14:33.9 clocking.
Senior Josh Mulloy of Cedar Grove-Belgium earned boys first-team honors with a 16:15.4 effort on the 5,000-meter (3.1 miles) course that gave him his second straight Division 3 state title. Marcus Paulson of Sussex Hamilton, the Division 1 champion, headed the first team with 15:41.0.
