She grew up in a soccer household.<\/p>\n
But when push came to shove two years ago, Kailey Ulland chose cross country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a joke with my family that I chose cross country instead of soccer because we\u2019re a soccer family,\u201d laughed Ulland, a Kentwood senior.<\/p>\n
Rest assured, however, Ulland\u2019s performance on the local and state trails have been no laughing matter. In fact, the Kentwood senior\u2019s rapid ascension in the sport has grown by leaps and bounds since bypassing the pitch for the trails.<\/p>\n
As the cross country season continues to unfold, Ulland once again has risen to the top of the South Puget Sound League North Division pack, joining friendly rivals Alexia Martin of Kent-Meridian along with Tahoma\u2019s Julianna Mock and Elizabeth Oosterhout. All four finished among the top 21 at state last year, though Ulland \u2013 the same girl who gave up soccer for cross country \u2013 delivered the finest performance of all, snagging eighth place at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco after crossing the finish line in 18 minutes, 52 seconds.<\/p>\n
Ulland didn\u2019t just break her previous personal best. She shattered it by 18 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was like the greatest thing ever,\u201d she said. \u201cThe whole next week I was exceptionally happy. Everything was perfect that day (at state).\u201d<\/p>\n
It was an almost perfect end to a season in which Ulland improved every step of the way. During sub-district and district competition, the Kentwood standout had been edged by Kent-Meridian\u2019s Martin. This time, it was Ulland\u2019s turn as she edged Martin, who finished in ninth place and just two seconds back at 18:54.<\/p>\n
And while Ulland shattered her previous best, it\u2019s worth noting that a year earlier \u2013 in her first season in the sport \u2013 she took 49th at state with a time of 19:47.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of fun that year and it helped me do better (as a junior),\u201d Ulland said. \u201cI knew what to look for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is just another part of Ulland\u2019s cross-country tool kid that makes her a considerable threat to win it all this fall. Garfield\u2019s Anna Dailey took home top honors last year, breaking the tape in 17:58. However, Dailey graduated as did Redmond\u2019s Devin McMahon (3rd\/1823) and Stanwood\u2019s Natasha Verma (7th\/18:51). The rest of the top 10 are seniors this year, except for juniors Martin and Lewis & Clark\u2019s Alison Keenan. While Stanwood\u2019s Minna Fields (2nd\/18:17) entered the season as the favorite, Ulland\u2019s rapid rise in the sport suggests she\u2019s certainly one to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve thought about (winning state),\u201d Ulland concedes. \u201cIt would be really cool. Right now, I just want to beat what I did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
To do that, Ulland has put in the time \u2013 and the miles \u2013 since school got out last spring. Outside of taking the occasional day off during summer, Ulland\u2019s schedule included a variety of 3 and 5-mile runs, sometimes both in the same day. In addition, she joined the Federal Way Track Club and she stopped playing club soccer.<\/p>\n
Giving up soccer, both during club season and for the high school team, has had its ups and downs, Ulland admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to all (Kentwood\u2019s) games last year,\u201d said Ulland, a midfielder. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t hard at first, and I really liked cheering for my friends. But when it got to the playoffs (last year), especially in the state semifinals, I wanted to be out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I don\u2019t regret not playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only regret would have been to not give cross country a try in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the start, when you have 200 people and the gun goes off. It\u2019s like a stampede.\u201d<\/p>\n
A stampede that\u2019s more often than not led by Ulland. And that\u2019s no joke.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
RUNNERS TO WATCH<\/b><\/p>\n
Alexia Martin, Kent-Meridian; Kailey Ulland, Kentwood; Julianna Mock, Tahoma; Elizabeth Oosterhout, Tahoma; Molly Shiroishi, Kentridge; Sarah Robbins, Kentlake; Danny Lunder, Kentwood; Tim Pettit, Kentwood; Derrick Daigre, K-M; Matt Bailey, K-M; Alex Horton, Kentridge; Kyle Koon, Kentlake.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She grew up in a soccer household.
\nBut when push came to shove two years ago, Kailey Ulland chose cross country.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s kind of a joke with my family that I chose cross country instead of soccer because we\u2019re a soccer family,\u201d laughed Ulland, a Kentwood senior.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":6963,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-6962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6962"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}