While she admittedly didn’t run as many miles during her 2021 summer training, Dodge City High School cross country runner Serenity Larson still did enough to prepare her for her final season competing for the Lady Red Demons.
She had put in endless miles before her junior year of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic that had prevented her junior track and field season from ever getting started. She had to mostly train alone in the summer of 2020, again primarily due to the pandemic.
In her fall junior season, Larson blossomed into one of the top runners in western Kansas while capturing the Western Athletic Conference individual title and being named the WAC Runner of the Year.
To nobody’s surprise, Larson met or exceeded all expectations in her final prep season of 2021, capping off the regular season with a repeat victory at the WAC championship on her home course layout at Mariah Hills Golf Course. That resulted in her repeat award of WAC Girls Runner of the Year.
“I just really came into this season wanting to improve my stride and to get a better picture of what a race looks like before I actually run,” Larson said recently in a telephone interview. “While I didn’t run as many miles this summer, I did work on strengthening and lifting weights to get stronger and it’s helped a lot.”
Larson said that being able to visualize her races has been a key to improved time and placement.
During her final season, Larson has captured first-places at Great Bend, Perryton, Texas, Hays, Salina, the WAC, and on Oct. 23 captured the Class 6A regional at Wichita’s Cessna Activity Center to earn her spot at the Oct. 30 state meet to be run at the 4-Mile Creek Resort outside Augusta.
“I think I just have a better way of understanding how I want to run the race,” Larson said of her change in approaching the events. “At Rim Rock (Lawrence) I was able to look ahead and know where there would be a hill to run up, or a long downhill. The main focus was to keep improving. I told myself that I could do that.”
The only non-winning meets this season was a runner-up finish at Newton and a third at the tough Rim Rock Invitational. Her best times in the 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) races have been a 19:17 at Salina and a 19:19 at Rim Rock.
Larson said winning WAC at home in her senior year and final regular season proved to be an emotional day.
“A lot of hard work went into everything, so knowing that it was my last one at home, it was just some happy tears of knowing everything paid off,” Larson said. “It’s been one of my main goals the past two years.”
While she hasn’t decided on where she plans to attend college, Larson did say that her recruiting has mostly come from NCAA Division II, junior colleges and smaller NAIA schools.
“I know I want to run somewhere, but I just don’t quite know yet,” she said. “I’ll wait until state is over and then see what happens.”
Larson said she hopes to pursue her bachelor’s degree in education and/or athletic training.
“I like teaching kids at the grade school level and I think that’s where I can best make my mark,” she said. “Having moved around a lot as a kid, I want to provide some stability not only for myself but the kids I’ll be teaching.”
Cross country training and running can be a lonely sport in which to compete, but Larson said it seems to fit her personality.
“The motivation to do well definitely helps how I think about myself,” she said. “How will I talk to myself at the end of the day?”
Larson said she hopes her performance at Dodge City will inspire other younger girls to run and attain their own set of goals.
“It would be neat if young girls wanted to be like me,” she said. “The main thing is to find something you love and then give it your best shot.”
Larson said she hopes her state performance this season will replace the disappointment she had in 2020 when she finished 38th only to find out later that she had contracted COVID before and had little energy in the race.
“Something didn’t feel right, but I didn’t know it at the time,” she said. “I had to quarantine for an entire month after, so my main goal this year is as high a finish as possible. Certainly a top 20 would be good, but I want to finish higher than that.”
For Larson it all goes back to being able to enjoy and celebrate the accomplishments for all the hard work that she had put in during her four years of competing.
“Getting the second WAC win and runner of the year award, I just had some tears,” she said. “I earned it and I did what I needed to do.”
Larson’s effort helped the Lady Demons to a runner-up team finish behind Great Bend and she headlined the All-WAC first team (top five finishers) that included Marissa Boone, Diane Alvarez and Addy Nicholson of Great Bend, and Liberal’s Daniela Cerda.
In guiding the Lady Panthers to a dominating team title, Great Bend’s Lyles Lashley earned WAC Girls Cross Country Coach of the Year honors.
2021 WAC Championship Team Standings
| Team | Points | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Bend | 27 |
| 2 | Dodge City | 54 |
| 3 | Hays | 81 |
| 4 | Garden City | 89 |
| 5 | Liberal | 119 |
All-WAC Girls Cross Country
| First Team | |
|---|---|
| Serenity Larson | Dodge City |
| Marissa Boone | Great Bend |
| Diane Alvarez | Great Bend |
| Daniela Cerda | Liberal |
| Addy Nicholson | Great Bend |
| Second Team | |
|---|---|
| Ashley Alonso | Dodge City |
| Cate Wiese | Garden City |
| Emma Loomis | Great Bend |
| Eliana Beckham | Great Bend |
| Alex Gere | Dodge City |
Runner of the Year: Serenity Larson, Dodge City
Girls WAC Coach of the Year: Lyles Lashley, Great Bend
