By JIM PETERS
ST. JOHN -- When an iron deficiency was sapping Macey Thompson's running last season, her dad suggested the Popeye method from the old cartoons about the sailor who got his strength from downing cans of spinach.
"He would tell me to eat a bunch of spinach," the Lake Central sophomore said.was like eighth, not even varsity last year. had low iron, wasn't really good to end the season.
While it wasn't the iron-rich leafy green that did the trick, iron pills sure did.
A fringe varsity runner as a freshman who was shut down for most of the postseason, Thompson has emerged as the top cross country runner in the area and one of the best in the state.
"When you have iron issues, it makes a huge difference once you get that in line," Indians coach Morgan Kleinaman said. "When all of that went on last season, we pulled her during the post-season until literally Friday night before state. We were at the hotel, we said, you've got to run tomorrow. She did very well. It was nice for her to watch everything, see how the post-season worked, then still get that feeling of success at state. She had a very successful track season, and it rolled over into cross country season."
The last-second addition finished 200th in the field of 249, but the 3.1 miles at Lavern Gibson represented the start of the road back for Thompson.
"It's such a big difference between middle school and high school," she said. "Seventh grade, I got the school record. Eighth grade, I wasn't as good. I started training again, and I was good during track season. I was sixth and seventh at the beginning (last season) then my iron dropped totally. Our top runner had low iron, too. I ran at state, I got a good time there, too. My legs used to hurt, they'd start burning after the first mile. I started feeling way better, I finished workouts."
In track, Thompson was one of just two freshmen to qualify for state in the 800, and finished 13th there.
"I got a long break because of basketball. I used different muscles," she said. "I trained hard in the winter. We started track conditioning, we'd do workouts, I got a (personal record), I was like OK, this is pretty good, 19 something, it was already a minute PR. I realized then I was good in cross now."
Lake Central ran in the Valley Kickoff back in Terre Haute on August 17th and Mrozinski won the race in 18:58.6, an 85-second improvement from the state meet.
"I broke 20 and 19 in the same race," she said. "I had so much left, I just kept going, I guess I passed them. I realized it was going to be a pretty good season."
Thompson had been practicing very well coming through the summer and the opening performance validated the training.
"That meet was very eye-opening, to see you really are this good, you can be this good, on a hard course, state course," Kleinaman said. "We were like, OK, she's going to do this. She's definitely making a name for herself."
Thompson's ascent has been paralleled by the Lake Central team. The Indians, 16th at state last season, ran second to Carmel in the opener and are ruling the Region this season, including Saturday's Duneland Conference championship, where it posted a 29. Both are shoe-ins to return to Terre Haute for state on Nov. 2.
"We knew they were a good group coming in and the class coming in was good as well," Kleinaman said. "I don't think we realized they were going to be this good. We graduated a decent amount, we have one out due to injury, so there's only a couple who were in the varsity group from last year."
Lake Central's Duneland lineup included four freshmen, two sophomores and one senior.
"It's definitely a big jump," Kleinaman said. "We tried to keep everything the same, altering things because they're faster now. They respond well to the training and work really hard. There's the top three, a little gap, then the back four are fairly close together. Four through seven are really good about breaking up other teams. They know the top three are obviously doing their job, they try to keep that score low. We're thinking as a coaching staff, top 10 in the state. They're determined. We've talked about how good they are, what they can do. They've really accepted that, they're going to prove that and keep going. It's been exciting. They're excited."
Along with her physical struggles last season, Thompson and her family went through the loss of their mini Goldendoodle, Sherpa.
"I dedicate each race to him," she said. "I just pray for him every single race. It hurt my mom a lot, too. It was sad to see her sad."
The Thompsons have since gotten another doodle, which they named Denali, to go with their other dog, Everest, in keeping with their mountain and climbing theme.
"My mom was in such a struggle, he's been a big help," she said. "He's young, he keeps my other dog young."
Lake Central sophomore Macey Thompson won Saturday's Duneland Conference Championship meet, leading the Indians to the title, continuing a dominant season for her and the team.
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