“She was keeping pace with my fastest guy on the team,” Cerone said, referring to Dan Ritter. “To be that quick that early, that’s not just hard work. Obviously, she does work hard, but there’s definitely some natural ability, too.
“He would come in ahead of Addie, but she was not far behind when we ran our 5Ks in practice.”
Engel won the Division III regional as a freshman last year and placed eighth in the state with a time of 18:41.2, about 40 seconds behind the winner. She had the best finish among all area runners in any division.
“I hope this season I can close that gap a little bit more and drop more time,” Addie said. “I think this year will be better. I’m feeling a little stronger. And now, having the experience of going for the first time, I’ll be a little more familiar with (the environment) and the competition.”
Her twin sister, Bridget, also is a rising star at Central. She finished 20th in the regional as a freshman last year finishing a few spots out of being an individual qualifier for the state.
“I don’t want to diminish Bridget’s impact on the team,” said Cerone, who is in his third year. “I would be ecstatic to have either one of them.”
Addie also reached the state in swimming in the 100-yard breaststroke and in track in the 1600- and 3200-meter runs. Being a three-sport state qualifier in one year has never been done before at Central, according to school officials.
Bridget is the better swimmer, finishing seventh in the state in the 100 breaststroke.
The Engels and junior Sydney Yontz are also playing soccer while running cross country, one of several athletes at the school hopping between sports.
“Our coaches are pretty flexible when it comes to that,” Bridget said. “They let us skip a few practices to go to another sport. The understand you’re going to be working out and getting training either way. They’re pretty relaxed about it.”
Yontz finished 52nd in the regionals last year to help the Irish to a ninth-place showing. Sisters Hannah, Adelaide and McKenzie Taylor also are back, while Mary Ritter and Abigail Peterson are expected to contribute.
Central has three boys running in junior Sy Roth and sophomores Kyle and Ryan Ewing.
“It was really exciting last year. Hopefully, we’ll get to do it again this season,” Cerone said.
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