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CROSS COUNTRY MALINA MITCHELL McDonald
Malina Mitchell is in a secure place at this point of her high school career. Legacy-wise, she’s guaranteed to leave McDonald with at least two state titles — one each in cross country and track. She has a scholarship to run cross country and track at West Virginia.
If she didn’t want to put another 5,000 meters on her stress-fractured right leg in the Division III state tournament in Hebron, no one would begrudge her. But she was committed to finishing out the season, whether her body was cooperating or not.
“I think it goes back to the fact that you put all those months in training and you have a team that’s counting on you and you’re going to give it everything you have,” Mitchell said. “Even though it didn’t work out, I’d think I’d be more upset if I didn’t go for it at all.”
Mitchell finished in 90th place in Hebron, putting up a time of 20:49.1. That time was good enough to contribute to her team’s overall score of 138, allowing the Blue Devils to take third in the tournament.
Leading up to state, Mitchell was having a stellar season.
She recorded first-place finishes in the Boardman Spartan Invitational, the Trumbull County meet and was a D-III Northeast District champion. In all of her other races, she never fell outside of the top three.
“I have to try and look at the season as a whole and also my career as a whole at McDonald and not just focus on the one bad race I had due to an injury,” MItchell said. “It’s hard. In this sport, we base a lot on what happens at the end of the season, but at the end of the day, I have to try and be positive and think of it as a whole.”