SAN DIEGO -- If Yankton's Ramsey Kavan was not already one of the most highly-sought prep distance runners graduating in 2005, she is now.
Kavan finished third, the top place by a senior, in the girls' race of the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships National Final, held Saturday at Balboa Park in San Diego, Calif.
Junior Aislinn Ryan of Bellvale, N.Y. won the girls' race. Sophomore Marie Lawrence of Reno, Nev., finished second. Sioux falls Roosevelt standout Allison Eckert finished 22nd.
Senior Kenneth Cormier of Douglas, Ariz., won the boys' race.
Kavan was one of the few seniors competing that had not already signed a national letter of intent, something the Foot Locker announcers made sure those in attendance knew after the race.
"They interviewed her on the PA, and called her the top free agent out there," said Yankton cross country coach Dan Fitzsimmons, who was in attendance at the race. "There is no senior with higher stock than here right now. She's done everything you can possibly do in the last three weeks.
"And the two girls ahead of her can't take any of her (scholarship) money, because they're not available."
While there were some muddy spots on the course, the conditions were not anything like the Nike Team Nationals meet a week ago, the Foot Locker Midwest Regional two weeks ago or the S.D. State Meet in October.
"It was actually really good. It was sunny, nice out," Kavan said. "I'd kinda got used to the muddiness, but it was nice to run on really ground this time."
The pace went out quickly, with Ryan, Lawrence and Kavan taking turns leading the pack.
"It was a lot quicker than either of the previous two (Nike or the Foot Locker Regional)," she said. "But I felt pretty relaxed. It didn't seem too bad."
Ryan was the first to make her move.
"The first couple miles, we played back and forth, then Aislinn took off and Marie went after her," Kavan noted. "I couldn't catch either of them."
Kavan did hold off Whitney Anderson of Breckenridge, Colo., and Brittany Tinsley of Russells Point, Ohio. Each finished two seconds behind the Yankton senior.
"I was pretty happy with it," Kavan said of the race. "You can always look back on a race and think you could do this or that better but, overall, I was happy with the way I ended my (prep cross country) career."
Kavan's cross country career has taken her where no Gazelles has ever gone, including two Foot Locker Finals and helping her team to the inaugural Nike Team Nationals meet. But for Kavan, the road she has traveled has not been about where she has gone and what she has done, but who she has met along the way.
"I've met a lot of great girls and made some pretty good friends," she said. "I've got to run with this caliber of athletes, and they're all great girls."
For now, Kavan expects to relax a little as she focuses on finishing her senior year and preparing for her final season of track.
"I'm a little excited to relax for a while," she said. "I'm also pumped up for track. I can't wait for the first meet."
For Fitzsimmons, there are mixed emotions. The Gazelles will return all but one of their top runners for next season, but that one -- Kavan -- has been a part of the team's success for the last four years.
"I'm always planning for the next season," he said. "But there's some emptiness, some hollowness that comes with the end of this season. There are tears of joy, tears of sadness in that we'll all move on in the next month."