ROGERS — These girls really are on the run. And if they have it their way, they will keep on running until they can trade in their high school jerseys for a jersey with their college of choice on it.
Three high school students — Maggie Montoya, 17, Deirdre Sheets, 16, and Hannah Owen, 16 — are fierce competitors once the shoes are laced up, but loyal friends both on and off the running course. Although these young women attend and run for two different high schools, all three come together in the pews as parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers.
A meet Oct. 13 demonstrated their friendship as each girl competed and cheered for one another among 4,800 other runners in one of the nation’s premier cross country events, the 24th annual Chili Pepper Invitational at Agri Park in Fayetteville.
Montoya, a senior at Rogers High School, won the event two years in a row, but this year finished sixth overall because she was battling an illness. Sheets and Owen, both juniors at Heritage High School in Rogers, finished 11th and 26th, respectively, in a field of more than 400 female runners.
But cross country isn’t the only motivator that has kept them moving. This past summer all three girls competed for the first time on a national level in triathlons. Most summer mornings, the threesome and another teammate could be found pounding the pavement, swimming laps and logging miles on their bikes.
“We would usually start with an early run, swim for an hour later that morning and then bike in the late afternoon,” Owen said.
Sheets said the group would log around 30 miles a week, just running, but the focus was on improving the swimming component of the triathlon event that comprises a 750-meter, or half-mile, swim, a 12.4-mile bike ride and a 5-kilometer, or 3.1-mile, run.
“The swimming start of any triathlon is always intimidating,” Sheets said, “because you can get really behind.”
The other two triathletes conceded that swimming could be the most challenging.
“I’ve been pushed under and had another athlete swim over me,” said Owen, with a slight smile.
Montoya, who just began swimming on a competitive level in triathlons this past summer, said swimming was her weaker area.
“My goal is to just get out of the water,” she said of the first leg of the event.
But despite the challenges of training in three different sports, all three young women have excelled in the event, competing in events locally as well as in Kansas City, Mo., Dallas and Des Moines, Iowa. All three qualified to attend nationals in West Chester, Ohio, in August. Montoya pointed out that many of the Elite Cup athletes had been training for years.
“We were competing against athletes in the 16-19 year age group,” she said. “We were a young team.”
Running, though, has remained the constant in the lives of these young women. After the heat and long summer days faded away, so did the triathlon training, but the crisp fall air has hearkened the beginning of the running season, and girls are busy training and preparing for the state meet in Hot Springs in November. Having parents that currently run or formerly ran in high school has also been a source of encouragement to the girls.
Running for a college team is a goal the young women share. Montoya said she is exclusively focusing on her running right now and has the interest of about five universities.
Owen and Sheets also have their sights set on some universities with competitive running programs.
Their faith lives, Owen said, also plays a part in strengthening their running as the young women commit themselves to prayer before a race.
“On a weekly basis, I sometimes ask myself why I am doing this,” she said. “But in the end, God gave me the gift (of running) and I want to glorify him and that’s an amazing feeling.” Sheets agrees with Owen, adding running can be really tough on certain days.
“Running on hard days, I think of the pain Jesus was in on the cross and the pain I’m going through reminds me to pray,” Sheets said. “You can’t stop training because you know there is another day, another week and a month that you can’t stop the training.”
Yet, all three agree that, in turn, their running improves their faith lives and having one another as friends and as sisters in Christ is where their faith and training intersect.
“I’ve always gone to church,” Montoya said, “but being around peers that are Catholic gives all three of us a better appreciation for what we are doing and why we are doing it. I love running, but I remind myself that God gave me a gift, and I have to use it to glorify him.”
