The latest subject of our weekly Future Star series is Perrysburg freshman Ava Beeks.
Beeks put together a tremendous first season of high school cross country running this past fall with eight top 5 individual finishes in her eleven starts plus seven instances of breaking the 19-minute standard over the 5 kilometer distance.
The highlight of her campaign came at the OHSAA Division I state meet, where she played an integral role in the Yellow Jackets team title winning effort. Beeks placed 13th overall with her PR mark of 18:26.50 and was Perrysburg's second scoring member behind senior Aubrey Duhaime, a University of Toledo recruit, who claimed 5th in the standings at 17:59.80.
From her own perspective, Beeks' indoor track season didn't begin to unfold exactly as should would have wished, but last weekend at Tiffin she had a major breakthrough.
In just her second outing at the 3200 meter distance, she bettered her debut performance by north of 30 seconds. Beeks took a runner-up finish at Tiffin Open Meet No. 3 in a time of 11:51.95, a clocking that stations her at the top of Ohio's freshman class leaderboard and at No. 31 nationally for members of the class of 2025.
For more insight on this rising standout performer, we reached out to Perrysburg coach Jon Monheim to gather his thoughts on her career to date and her potential moving forward.
We also connected directly with Beeks for a race summary report from her work at Tiffin.
Coaches Perspective
"Ava is a fierce competitor who is very goal oriented. She's full of energy and comes to practice ready to work and get better each day."
"Ava's greatest asset is her ability to fight through pain and push herself to the max. Her success during the XC season as one of the state's top freshmen and her recognition of being All-State are signs of positive things to come during her track season."
- Coach Jon Monheim
Tiffin Race Report
"This race went far better than expected. My only goal for myself was to break 12 minutes. I was having a rough indoor season even after spending the last few months trying to get back into shape. The previous week I ran the 1600m at SPIRE and got dead last in my heat by about 60m."
"I told myself that I never wanted to give up on myself like that again. So when I ran at Tiffin everything finally clicked for me. I think the main reason I dropped so much time was my mindset going into the race."
"I never put much pressure on myself, which allows me to avoid those negative thoughts. I felt great the whole race which is new for me because typically I am on the verge of collapse, however I was able to make it a whopping three steps after I finished before I went to the ground!"
"My main goal for the indoor season is to prepare for outdoor track."
- Ava Beeks
