By Michael Newman

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Anna Sophia Keller had the vision at the beginning of the year of winning her fourth straight 1A Girls state championship. She also had the goal of breaking 16 minutes for the Detweiller Park course. The time goal was detoured be a hip injury that slowed her down during the second part of the season. An illness the week before the state meet made the goal of winning a state championship that much tougher. It slowed her down but did not stop her.

She won her fourth 1A state championship running 16:32. How dominant was she in that race? She won by 48 seconds ahead of Claudia Magnussen (Pana HS). In her four years of high school cross country competition, Keller was undefeated against 1A runners. Only a handful of Illinois runners can state that they have finished ahead of her in a cross country race.

Keller’s legacy will be one that runners will look up towards. She won all four of her state titles under 17 minutes. No other runner can say that in the history of this state.

Claudia Magnussen, Daly Galloway (Gardner-South Wilmington HS), Shelby Siltman (Olympia HS, Stanford), and April Van Ryn (Chicago Christian HS, Palos Heights) all deserve recognition for the great seasons that they had in 2016. However, it is Anna Sophia Keller that stands alone…again.

Congratulations to Anna Sophia Keller of St. Anthony High School in Effingham, Illinois as the DyeStat Illinois 2016 1A Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.