WICHITA, Kan.—
Shawnee Mission West’s Alli Cash didn’t lose a single race this past season, set a record at legendary Rim Rock Farm and won her second consecutive state cross country title. Now, she can say she is a recipient of the Gatorade Kansas Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year.She is the first runner from Shawnee Mission West to win the award. It is awarded to the person with the highest level of play while maintaining high character traits on and off the field and high standards in the classroom.
Cash keeps a high grade point average, a member of the National Honor Society, involved in a peer mentoring program, volunteers at a soup kitchen and regularly helps with clothing and food drives. Her performance on the course sound like tall tales, but the girl is fast.
“In the simplest terms: 30 to 60 seconds,” said Shawnee Mission West cross country coach Jeff Onnen. “Nobody in the state of Kansas came any closer that in any race she ran this fall. She was simply at a completely different level than anyone else in Kansas this year and will probably go down as one of, if not the, most dominant female distance runner to ever come out of Kansas.”
She won her second-straight state title this season with a time of 14:02.8. Cash finished the Rim Rock Invitational in a time of 13:59.3, the first time a high school female ever ran a sub-14 minute race on the course.
Cash also finished sixth at the Nike Cross Nationals Heartland Regional championships with a time of 18:15.33.
