GOSHEN – The pinnacle of Saturday’s girls cross country regional awards ceremony had already happened. Northridge won the team championship, beating out Penn. The top 20 finishers were already presented their ribbons and most of the attention had been turned away from Fisherman’s Camp Pavillion at Ox Bow Park. But for at least a few more girls this was the fever pitch. Ten more individuals would have their name called to advance to the semi-state meet in Ft. Wayne next Saturday.

Wawasee’s Elizabeth Zorn sits with her team. She appears calm, most of the girls do as they know they would not advance as a team. But hope remained for Zorn, who paced the Lady Warriors with a time of 20:35, but would that time be enough to get her through? The first five names are called off, none of which are the Wawasee junior’s.

Zorn remains seated with her team, now with a fist full of fallen pine needles. She takes a few at a time and snaps them, it’s calming her. Four more names, just one spot remains.

The junior finally hears her name called, the the tenth and final qualifier, but it didn’t matter how close she was, she just wanted to get through. Zorn drops the handful of abused pine needles and jumps up to join the other very proud semi-state qualifiers.

“I was just really excited,” Zorn said when asked about that moment.

So excited that she had to stop and think…and then reiterate that point, “I was really excited,” she said laughing.

“I didn’t think they were going to call my name,” a relieved and jubilant Zorn continued. “I went to semi-state as a freshman with the team and I really wanted to get back. That was my goal all season, that was my goal today and I’m just so happy I made it.”

Zorn and her team slipped into the regional field by a singular point over Fairfield at last week’s sectional and the junior certainly did not waste this opportunity as she eclipsed her personal best by 30 seconds.

“I’ve been waiting for it all year,” said a smiling Wawasee head coach Doug Slabaugh. “She’s been the highest mileage girl on the team. She’s put the work in since day one and she went out and executed today. I’m very proud of her.”

While Wawasee’s team did not make the cut for semi-state, the girls improved their times from the sectional, giving Slabaugh something else to smile about.

“We had a good day, especially with our one through five runners,” Slabaugh remarked. “We have all of these girls coming back next season, it’s exciting. Hopefully we can get healthy next year, add in a few girls to fill some gaps. It wasn’t a bad day for us, it was a good way to end the year as a team and we’re excited to watch Elizabeth next week.”

Aubrey Kuhn (20:59), McKenzie Smith (21:34), Delanie Bame (22:23), Keyanna Clevenger (22:53), Bailey Schroeder (22:58) and Yanelly Pizana (24:15) rounded out the times for Wawasee.

Mishawaka, Concord and Mishawaka Marian joined Penn and Northridge as semi-state qualifiers. Lauren Frank (18:50) of Penn was the individual champion followed by Mishawaka’s Jessica Duvall (18:51), Morgan Blyly (18:55) or Northridge, Hannah Yeakey (19:03) of Bethany Christian and Mackenzie Adams (19:21) of Northridge.

The semi-state meet will be held in Ft. Wayne on the campus of IPFW.