![\"Katie](\"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/irelan.jpg\")
<\/a>Under the watchful eye of coach John Gentile at Villa Joseph Marie High School, an all-girls Catholic school in suburban Philadelphia, Katie continued to work hard — running mile after mile, day after day — to build up the strength and stamina needed at the high school level.<\/p>\n
Slowly, but surely, her times began to drop. In her next 5K race, she broke 20:00, then 19:12, then 19:00 and, finally, 18:30, improving almost 2 minutes since the start of the season.<\/p>\n
By the time the season ended in November, Katie established herself as the No. 1 ranked freshman girls cross-country runner in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
It was a dream season for Katie, who finished runner-up in the Athletic Association of Catholic Academies (AACA) championships, first in the District One Class AA championships and ninth in the PIAA Class AA state championships, leading her team to a district championship and third-place state finish.<\/p>\n
Katie also has been a champion in the classroom, posting a near-perfect 3.92 grade-point average at her highly competitive private school in Holland, PA.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoing well in school is very important to me,\u201d said Katie, who recently enrolled with NSR of Southeastern PA. \u201cI have the same level of commitment when it comes to running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Katie didn\u2019t stop running — or winning — this winter.<\/p>\n
She recently concluded her first indoor track season, running the 400, 800 and 1600 meters, 4×800 relay and distance medley for longtime coach Cate Murway. She led her all-freshman 4×800 relay team to a school-record time of 9:39.55, helping it qualify for the PTFCA Indoor State Track and Field Championships. Her 4×800 relay team placed 10th in the 13-team field last weekend at Penn State.<\/p>\n
Now Katie is gearing up for her first outdoor track season, which begins in late March. She plans to compete in distance, middle distance and relay events.<\/p>\n
She is no longer an unheralded freshman. She is a freshman phenom with an eye on a college cross country and track career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to continuing my academic and running career in college,\u201d Katie said. \u201cI am committed to reaching my goals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Katie Irelan\u2019s high school cross-country career didn\u2019t begin with much fanfare. In her first 5K race last fall, the 2019 National Scouting Report prospect couldn\u2019t break 20 minutes. But the pint-sized (5 feet 4, 106 pounds) freshman was determined to improve. Under the watchful eye of coach John Gentile at Villa Joseph Marie High School, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[31,528,529,222,526,527],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9677"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9707,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9677\/revisions\/9707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}