TodaySpence takes state cross country award
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Shippensburg’s Neely Spence was announced as the 2007-08 Pennsylvania Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year on Thursday.
The Shippensburg star becomes a member of the inaugural Gatorade State Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year class.
The award is made to recognize students with athletic excellence, high standards of academic achievment, and exemplary character. The award also distinguishes Spence as Pennsylvania’s best female high school runner. She is also up for the Gatorade National Girls’ Cross Country Runner of the Year, which will be announced in mid-January.
The senior distance runner won her second consecutive Foot Locker Northeast Regional, finishing in 17:37 -- four seconds ahead of the next runner. Spence placed fourth at the national Foot Locker Championships. She was 15 seconds off the winning pace.
Spence also captured her second straight PIAA Class AAA championship this past November. Spence ran a 18:14 in Hershey to win by a 25-second margin over the second-place runner.
Meanwhile, Spence has maintained a 3.81 GPA in the classroom. She is also a member of the Chambersburg Community Theatre and the local Young Friends youth group. She is an active volunteer, donating time to therapeutic horseback riding center, the local 4-H Horse and Pony Club, and the area’s Reaching Hope community church project.
“Her life is based on her education and her running,” said Shippensburg cross country coach Randy Holtry. “She’s a highly motivated kid and she is 100-percent committed. She never goes into a race without knowing exactly what she wants to do. She’s not only an exceptional athlete, but an exceptional person too. I have never met an athlete more genuine and more down to earth.”
Spence has verbally committed to an athletic scholarship to Shippensburg University, where she will run for her father, former Olympic marathoner and current Red Raider cross country coach, Steve Spence.
