Newaygo's Arney Defies the Odds: Qualifies for 4th Consecutive Cross Country State Meet

Remington Arney shows her Regional medal, which marks her fourth consecutive trip to the State Finals

Newaygo's Arney Defies the Odds: Qualifies for 4th Consecutive Cross Country State Meet
Story and photo by Alexis Mercer

For the majority of runners in the state of Michigan, Regionals is the last meet they will run for the season. Only the top 3 teams and 7 individual runners from each Region move on to the State Finals at Michigan International Speedway. 

For Newaygo’s Remington Arney, she was one of the minority to qualify this past weekend. And this is her fourth consecutive year doing so.

As a freshman, Arney edged out her competition at the Regional in Buckley by less than .1 of a second to be the final individual qualifier at that race. No spectators knew who had won between the two, who both dove for the line in a dead sprint. It was Arney who earned the spot and the trip to MIS. That year she took 211th place in the final showdown with the best of the state.

Her sophomore year, Arney wasn’t leaving it up to less than a second. At the Regional at Chippewa Hills, she ran 20:16 and took 9th place overall. This set her up for a significantly better year at the State Finals, where she took 41st place with her time of 19:38.9.

Coming into her junior year, the goal was a higher Regional and State finishing places. At the Region, she actually ran a better time by 26 seconds with a 19:50, but took 10th place. This time improvement, however, meant she did earn a better spot at State: 34th place and a PR there of 19:26.

This year, her senior year, Arney was primed and ready for the best yet. She had her sights set on All-State (top 30). But midway through the season, she suffered a terrible injury: fractures in BOTH of her feet. She crossed the line at the White Cloud CSAA Meet and crumpled onto the ground, unable to walk.

It was at this point that her goals changed. She went from looking at being a potential All-State runner to not knowing if she would even lace up her spikes one more time as a senior. Three weeks in boots, using the elliptical, biking, swimming and a lot of heat therapy and epsom salt baths was her new reality. 

She did lace up those spikes and gave herself a shot on Friday, October 27 at Chippewa Hills. Despite the pain and loss of conditioning, she pulled off what many thought to be an impossible task. She crossed the finish line in 11th place with a time of 20:50. She would be headed to MIS one more time to finish up her high school career.

Full team results from the Regional meet can be found here: https://www.athletic.net/CrossCountry/meet/223278/info

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