Gazette MVP: Medina's Mia Heine splits time between soccer, cross country

Mia Heine is not only the best female distance runner among Medina County soccer players, she's the best distance runner, period. The Medina junior excelled while playing two sports for the Bees this fall, so much so that she's been named Gazette MVP for girls cross country. "It's fun being able to help out and be a key player for each sport," Heine said. "I just think it's really cool. I have really good coaches (Jason Rutkowski in soccer and Scott VanFleet and Jordan Olson in cross country). Every week they talk and make sure I can be with both teams and stay healthy throughout the season. "That was definitely really important and I really appreciated it. It allowed me to do both sports. If they weren't so supportive, I don't think I could do both." As a midfielder for the soccer team, Heine helped the Bees go 17-2-2, reach the Division I regional semifinals and finish the regular season No. 1 in the Ohio Scholastic Soccer Coaches Association D-I state poll. In cross country, she finished 57th at the D-I state meet as the Bees took 10th as a team. The 16-year-old also was 10th at the regional level (19:20.3), sixth at districts (19:38.6) and third at the Greater Cleveland Conference Meet (season-best 18:40.67). For good measure, she ran the anchor leg on Medina's state champion 4x800-meter relay as a sophomore while also finishing 13th in the 800 in the spring. "First and foremost, she's just a talented athlete," VanFleet said. "She's got some natural aerobic ability and she's really, really fast, which you don't often get in a distance runner. "She cares a lot about what she brings to the team and how she impacts the team." Heine, who is just 5-foot-1 and 102 pounds, got her love of running from older sisters Elly, a 2021 Medina graduate who now competes at Walsh University, and Avery, a 2022 grad. "They had a pretty strong influence," she said. "They would always push me when I was younger, so that really helped." No one has to push Heine these days. If anything, coaches have to make sure she doesn't overdo it. That in mind, Medina soccer and cross country coaches met each week to arrange a practice schedule that would allow her to be a part of two teams in the fall. Some weeks, she was able to practice with both. At other times, she alternated between the two. When it came to soccer games and cross country meets, Heine had two conflicts as a sophomore and missed one event for each sport. This year, she had just one. After coaches told her it was her decision, Heine elected to play soccer because the cross country meet was not an overly competitive one. "Most Saturdays, I'd have a cross country race in the morning and a game in the afternoon or evening," she said. "It wasn't too bad because of how early the races were and how late some of the games were. Those were some of my favorite days." Heine has what VanFleet calls "sprinter's speed," noting she often ran on Medina's 4x4 and sometimes even the 4x2 in track season. VanFleet pointed to the state meet, where Heine was 10 to 15 meters behind the lead runner when she got the baton for her anchor leg, as a perfect example. "She went out like a bat out of hell like she should have, but when she caught the girl she throttled down and ran behind her for the next 400 or 500 meters, then kicked her butt down the straightaway," he said. "She's one of those people that's hard not to like. She's got a very infectious personality. One might confuse that with happy go lucky, but once the gun goes off she's as competitive as you can get. She's a very smart runner. The average person doesn't realize it, but there's more to racing than just running as fast as you can." As for Heine's height and weight, or lack thereof, VanFleet said there are pros and cons. "Being small is advantageous in some ways," he said. "You're only moving 100 pounds or so, so it doesn't take as much effort. Other things, like stride length and wind, it would impact her more than others, but she doesn't seem to be affected by much of that." That's because Heine takes an it-is-what-it-is approach regarding her physical stature. "I've never really thought of it as a challenge because that's all I'm used to," she said. "I don't know what it's like to have a longer stride." Heine also is accustomed to training for two sports in the same season and plans to do so again as a senior. Though some might think of cross country as a more individual sport than soccer, her favorite part of both is the team aspect. "The atmosphere of running and the team aspect are great," she said. "We're all working together for the same goal. I like the culture of running. It's about how I can get the best out of myself with each performance. "Normally, I go into each race know my top competition, but I want to run my race. I'm not one to start from the front. I like to hold onto the top group and work my way up. I think that worked pretty well this season." Though very windy conditions prevented her from running her best race at the state meet, Heine was still the Bees' top finisher. "I was a little disappointed in my performance, but I had a good season," she said. "It just happened that one race didn't fall in my favor. "I've always been a pretty consistent runner and I never have a really poor race. I'm pretty proud I can go into a race knowing what time I can run and knowing my team will know how I'm going to perform." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on Twitter.