Knights’ McMillin, Wise sweep coach, athlete of the year awards

With McMillin setting the pace, Greenon finished seventh at state meet.

Raiders fall in tourney opener
5/25/12
Rough 1st inning sets up Tipp exit
5/25/12
Mesoraco's slam sends Reds over Braves
5/25/12
Local Scoreboard for May 25
5/24/12
Ohio State AD says 12 violations minor
5/24/12
> More sports headlines

By Michael Cooper, Staff Writer 11:02 PM Saturday, November 19, 2011

SPRINGFIELD — Before this season, MacKenzie McMillin had never won a cross country race.

In 2011, however, the Greenon High School senior proved she could be a frontrunner.

McMillin won four races this season, en route to being named the 2011 News-Sun All-Clark County girls cross country athlete of the year.

“I’m really excited,” McMillin said. “It’s really amazing. To have my team right there with me winning the county title was awesome as well.”

The Knights won the Clark County championship as well as the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division title. They also finished seventh at the Division II state meet, the highest finish in school history.

Knights coach Kim Wise was also named the 2011 News-Sun All-Clark County coach of the year.

McMillin won the Tippecanoe 2-mile race for her first career victory.

“It was so weird looking around and not seeing people in front of me,” McMillin said. “It was cool to see that I was setting the pace.”

She went on to win the Clark County, Central Buckeye Conference and D-II district titles.

“It was a great experience,” McMillin said. “Our team is really close outside of cross country as well. We all get along so great. We’ve had a great past three years.”

Wise said the Knights were able to overcome many obstacles throughout the season to finish seventh in the state in D-II.

“I was really happy, especially for all those seniors on the team,” Wise said. “A lot of the seniors were hoping for more, and I think that kind of speaks to what their expectations were for themselves. We started just being happy to get to state (three years ago), and by the end they were disappointed with our highest place in school history.”

They made their third straight appearance at the state meet, something Wise said is extremely hard to do.

“It was a really great run,” Wise said. “I don’t think it’s hit them yet on what exactly they’ve accomplished.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0365, Michael.Cooper@coxinc.com or on Twitter @SNS_Wizard.

MacKenzie McMillin and Kim Wise earned All-Clark County honors.

Share this article