Marty Stewart | Sunday, July 9, 2017, TRIB-LIVE
In her first year participating in cross country last fall, Fox Chapel rising senior Caelan Miller qualified for the WPIAL and the PIAA Class AAA championships.
She’s hoping to improve on her performance this season.
“We started our team practices a few weeks ago, and by the end of the summer, I should be running about 50 miles a week,” Miller said. “My goals this year are to again qualify for both tournaments, and I want to get my time down to 18 minutes.”
Her best time last year was 19 minutes, 50 seconds.
Miller has not decided on a college, but she knows she will major in physical therapy and will continue to run track and cross country.
“I’ve talked to a few coaches so far, but I really haven’t narrowed down my list,” Miller said.
Miller first became involved in running in seventh grade.
“In ninth grade, I began focusing more on track. I’ve always loved running,” she said.
In addition to track, she played on the FC soccer team as a freshman and sophomore before deciding to try out for cross country.
“I miss the sport of soccer, but I felt more comfortable sticking with cross country, indoor track and outdoor track,” Miller said. “I’ll be running the mile, the 800 and the 4X8 (relay) in track again this year.” She qualified for the WPIAL and PIAA track championships in each of her first three seasons with the team.
She believes the cross country team can qualify for states again in the fall.
“We have a pretty young team, but there will be a couple of pretty good sophomores on the team this year,” Miller said. “We’ll all be pushing each other to do our best. I think it will be a fun season.”