Down a state champ
Cross country winner McGraw to leave W-DC
Web posted Thursday, April 8, 1999
By JASON HENKE, Sports Writer
The Brainerd Dispatch (MN)
Wadena-Deer Creek ninth-grader Casey McGraw works on
form running at track and field practice Tuesday.
McGraw, the 1998 Class A individual state cross country
running champion, is moving to North Carolina at the end
of the school year. (Dispatch Photo by Jason Henke)
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WADENA -- The Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines girls' cross country team would seem to be a shoo-in for another crack at a state championship next fall. After all, the 1998 class A state champions had no athlete older than the 10th grade and featured individual state champion Casey McGraw and third-place finisher Katie Lorentz. The Wolverines -- and Minnesota -- are down one state champion after McGraw's father, Dr. Charles McGraw, accepted a job at Grace Health Care Systems in Morganton, N.C. After the end of the school year and the completion of the track season, Casey will move with the rest of her family to North Carolina. "At first I didn't want to accept it," Casey said. "I was kind of mad for about two months. I went down there twice and it's gotten better." W-DC girls' cross country and assistant girls' track coach Terry Olson managed to find an optimistic take on losing one of the Wolverines top athletes. "Our team won't be as good, but we hope that she'll do as well or hopefully better down there," Olson said. "At a school like Wadena-Deer Creek, we take the athletes that we get. Some people would feel, 'Goll, it's bad she's leaving and we'll be missing her points.' If you want to think on the positive side, she was here for awhile." Not only was she there for awhile, McGraw continued a tradition of excellent girl runners for W-DC. McGraw's sister, Julie, won the Mid-State Conference meet for five years and Johanna Olson followed that up by winning the same meet for five years. Casey won the meet for two years to make it 12-straight years a W-DC runner won the conference meet. Olson said being around good runners like Julie McGraw and Johanna Olson coupled with a strong running partner like Lorentz helped Casey win her state championship. She placed fifth at state as a seventh-grader and improved to third as an eighth-grader before bringing home the title as a ninth-grader this year. "Those things I think all help Casey," Olson said. "Even though she's a good runner, she had the right environment. "A lot of kids may have the talent of Casey, but they may not have those other things happen." Her coaches rave about Casey's work ethic and attitude, something they say filters down to the rest of the team. It is a mark she will leave with the team as they go about trying to defend their state title without her. "It's enjoyable to coach her," Olson said. "She realizes what you're doing is helping her and she wants to do well. Some kids have talent, but they don't have the drive to do well and push through discomfort. She knows that going through discomfort is going to pay dividends in the end." "Not only is she an awesome runner, but she has the best attitude of any athlete you'd ever coach," girls' track and field head coach Patty Berg said. "She never complains, does her workouts and she has so much self-determination." Casey said some things will be fairly easy to get used to after moving to the south. She will attend Freedom High School in Morganton, a town of about 25,000 people. The weather will be different and the cross country races are a half mile longer in North Carolina than than they are in Minnesota. "I think I'll be about the same," McGraw said. "It may take a little bit of time to get used to the weather because its hotter down there and the distance maybe, but I think after a little bit of time it will all fall into place." Some things will be harder to get used to, like moving away from McGraw's best friend and running partner Kourtney Anderson. And a state championship team that could have had two more years with all of the same athletes. "I'm just really going to miss this town," Casey said. "My teammates and my friends -- the people I love here."
Original Source: The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Central Minnesota's Daily Newspaper. Continuing The Weekly Dispatch founded in 1881. Published daily except six legal holidays in Brainerd, Minnesota by The BraInerd Daily Dispatch, a division of Morris Communications, Corp. The official newspaper of Crow Wing County.
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