Walk into any high school in the country, and you can probably pick out the best of the basketball players.  They’re the tall ones with the bouncing strides, all arms and legs.  Try to pick out the top football linemen, and odds are that the most monster-sized of the guys you see are playing under the Friday night lights.  Some competitors you can’t spot, though.  Their ferocious will power and big dreams are hidden behind unassuming facades and shy smiles.  Like other cross country runners, the quiet exterior of Pickerington North’s Karissa Magnuson belies the burning competitor within.  “She’s so quiet,” freshman teammate Caroline Johnson says of the Panther’s team leader.  “But she’s beastly and amazing.”  Heading towards the post-season of the 2006 season, that “beastly and amazing” runner is putting her team into the mix of things in Ohio’s competitive girl’s Central Region.
      “As a team, our ultimate goal is to make it back to States,” says Karissa.  With a long list of potential competitors, that goal is anything but an easy one.  Karissa wouldn’t have it any other way.  “I really desire to do my best and pray, asking God for his help and to take away my nervousness.  I think about just running hard and not giving up and breaking my records and just ultimately doing my best.”  That attitude has carried her through a rough and tumble season, beginning with a strong sixth place individual finish at the Pickerington North Invitational to start the year.  Now that season is on the brink of the Regional Championships, a meet that the Pickerington North squad romped through on the way to the state meet a year ago.  As a top five runner on that 

Karissa runs at a Pickerington meet early this season.

District championship team, Karissa propelled her teammates on to the big race at Scioto Downs just as she hopes to do again this season.
     This year, the Pickerington girls are looking for a similar performance from their top seven runners.  If there’s any indication of what to expect this year, one only needs to look to the past. The Pickerington    

North post-season magic, a reflection of all the hard work put in during each off-season, has shown bright as the girls consistently run well when it matters most.  Not only did Karissa and her teammates qualify for the cross country state meet last year, but a foursome of Panther runners also took third at the track state meet in the 4x800m relay.  “It was beyond what I had expected,” Karissa says of what she describes as “the biggest highlight” of her young running career.  “It was just a blessing.”
     In order to keep up the high standards set by her teammates, Karissa demands a great deal of herself.  As much as qualifying for state meets has become an annual tradition, so has the nervousness that comes with the big events.  “Days ahead I start getting a jittery feeling,” she says.  “After the official podium picture is taken and we're walking off the field, I always get sick.  It's like a tradition, but I can live with the tradition when we get such great results as placing and being on the podium.”  Her teammates and her faith are what helps to carry her through those nerves, and she has developed into an example for them on and off the race course.  “She’s definitely a leader for the team,” freshman teammate Johnson adds.  It’s with strong leaders who demand the most out of themselves that teams ultimately succeed and reach their goals.  For Karissa and the Pickerington North girls, on the edge of the post-season, those goals are clearly in sight.

Left: Karissa runs at the State Meet in '05, where she hopes to be again in '06

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