The roles Greenwood junior Selena Piñon plays for her school’s girls cross-country and soccer teams are decidedly different.
A backup midfielder for the Woodmen on the pitch, Piñon is preparing to take part in her second consecutive cross-country regional on Saturday at Franklin.
Greenwood’s top runner is quick to say there is a connection.
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“I joined soccer my sophomore year. I’m not really the best at it, but it helps me with my endurance,” said Piñon, who advanced to Saturday’s meet along with senior teammate Ava Leininger.
“It is hard to manage my time, but I like both sports equally, and we all work well together.”
Piñon qualified for regional by finishing ninth at last week’s Franklin Sectional in 20 minutes, 6.7 seconds. She posted a personal record of 20:03.95 the week before on the same course at the Johnson County meet — also, a ninth-place effort.
To better illustrate the considerable improvement Piñon has made in the past year, her sophomore time at sectional was 21:19.2.
She views making it to the Shelbyville Semistate and a sub-20-minute clocking as the primary goals for the remainder of this season. Should she manage to qualify for the state meet in Terre Haute at the end of the month, all the better.
Like most athletes who take on the challenge of playing two sports the same season, Piñon, who carries a 4.14 grade-point average, excels at time management.
Matt Hockersmith, who is in his first season co-coaching the Woodmen girls and boys with Scott New, is impressed with Piñon’s ability to devote herself to whatever the objective, be it related to athletics or academics.
“When we came into this season, I really took into account how many (soccer) minutes she’s played that week,” Hockersmith said. “With Selena, it’s never a question of if. It’s, ‘What do I have to do to make this happen?’ I’m confident she’ll get to semistate again, but we’re kind of taking it one week at a time.”
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Franklin Regional
When: Saturday, 10:30 a.m. (girls) and 11:15 a.m. (boys)
Admission: $5 per person
Advancement: The top five teams and the top 10 individuals from non‐advancing teams move on to the Shelbyville Semistate on Oct. 24
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