Port Clinton's Wiechman gears up for postseason

PORT CLINTON — Morgan Wiechman feels physically and mentally prepared for the high school cross country postseason. Wiechman, a Port Clinton senior, is a three-time All-Ohio performer in the sport. She plans on being on the podium for the fourth time when the state meet is held November 1 — maybe all the way at the top. "I want to be a state champion," Wiechman said in a recent interview. "At the beginning of the season, it probably seemed more like a stretch goal, but where I am right now with my conditioning and athleticism, I think it's an attainable goal. It'll be really hard to do, but when the time comes on that start line I have no doubt that I'll be on the podium higher than I was last year." After a strong ninth-place finish as a sophomore, Wiechman had high hopes at last year's Division II state meet. She finished 18th in 18:38.96 at Fortress Obetz — 10 seconds faster than her time the previous year — but… "I forgot my spikes," Wiechman said. "I realized it literally 20 minutes before I had to race and had to run in flats. I freaked out before I ran and wasted a lot of energy before I got on the start line. I didn't really have the race I wanted last year. I still ran a PR on the state course, but I want to come back to prove that I know what I'm doing." Wiechman and her family camped at a state park the night before the meet and her spikes didn't get packed on race day. "I took them out of my bag to get something else and had a sweatshirt or something covering them," Wiechman said. "I got there and realized they weren't in my bag." Nichole Wiechman — Morgan's mom and Port Clinton's coach — did her best to keep her daughter focused. "My mom was trying to spin it: 'It'll be OK, these are the shoes you've trained in all season. They're just gonna get their chance to get out on the course,'" Wiechman said. "I was crying; I was so stressed out. It's so mental; you put your spikes on and you're ready to race. They make you faster, but I don't know how much of a difference it really makes. "It was not a fun time before the race, but I was able to mentally push out and be on the podium." Wiechman (pronounced week-man) finished 20th as a freshman to grab the last spot on the podium. As an eighth-grader, she placed second in the state. The two-time district champion who also won a regional title two years ago said her consistency is one of her strengths. "Once I get into a pace, I'm able to hit it over and over. I have pretty good stamina," she said. "When I'm in college, I want to do the 10K for track. The idea of running laps and hitting a pace over and over again feels like a lot of fun." Wiechman — who ran a career-best time of 18 minutes, 11 seconds at last Saturday's Huron Invitational — is a three-sport athlete. In addition to cross country, she participates in swimming and track. She even runs 10-15 miles per week during swim season. "It's fun to change it up because running can get really monotonous after awhile," she said. "Swim is something different and it does make me a lot faster. It works my aerobic and it works my arm muscles and leg muscles and different muscles than when I'm running." Wiechman also works on the mental side of sports. "Mental training is just as important as physical training," she said. "If you're not mentally tough and prepared for what you're going to go through in a race, you're never gonna get to that next level. Racing is so hard mentally. You have to be like, 'this hurts, but I can still do this.' Believing in yourself is super important when you're running. "When it comes time to race, you don't let go; you keep pushing. That's something I struggled with my junior year. It's something you have to constantly work on. Your can always get mentally tougher, like you can get physically stronger and run faster." Nichole says her daughter is on the right course as the postseason push begins Saturday with the Sandusky Bay Conference Championships in Tiffin. "There was big mental piece to work through last year and maybe at the start of this season, but she's really started to lock in," Nichole said. Morgan might get some of her speed from her mom. Nichole, an Otsego graduate who teaches chemistry at Port Clinton High School, advanced to the state cross country meet twice and was All-Ohio once. "But nothing like (Morgan)," Nichole said. 'She's a whole minute faster than I was." Wiechman is fast on the course and also moves non-stop when she's not in spikes. She has a 4.0 grade-point average and is president of the leadership council at PCHS. Outside of school, Wiechman is heavily involved in Wood County 4-H — the same club in which her mom participated. Wiechman is a camp counselor, serves on the junior fair board and is president of her 4-H club. She also shows rabbits, chickens and pigs. Wiechman wants to continue running cross country in college. Bowling Green and Akron are two schools on her list. She wants to major in exercise science and has aspirations of becoming a college coach. "It was agriculture for a long time because I'm involved in 4-H, but then I realized I really want to be a coach, but not a teacher," she said. "If I coach in college, most of (the athletes) should be there because they want to be there, not just because their mom and dad say that they have to do a fall sport and can't sit on the couch all fall." Wiechman played softball when she was younger — her dad Ryan is PC's coach — but any plans to play in high school ended after her All-Ohio finish her freshman cross country season. "I played softball all the way to eighth grade," she said. "(Ryan) thought I was going to play my freshman year, but then I did really good in cross county and my mom said, 'She's only running track.' He was really trying to convince me to pinch-run last year." Wiechman has pushed herself in several sports while remaining relatively injury free. She did have a scare as a volunteer coach playing tag. "The worst injury I've ever gotten running was at elementary cross country last year," Wiechman said. "I was going to tag a little kid and he was wearing glasses. I absolutely smashed my face into this little kid bolting at me. I was gushing blood from the cut on my nose and I had black eyes. "Luckily that wasn't homecoming week. The week after was homecoming and I still had remnants of black eyes. You couldn't tell in the pictures, but I have a little bit of a scar on my nose. Looking back, very funny. At that time, not very funny."