Published: June 7, 2014
Germantown’s Kurtenbach goes from pool to podium
Senior began running track 6 weeks ago
By NICHOLAS DETTMANN
Daily News
LA CROSSE — For Germantown’s Khia Kurtenbach, just getting
to the WIAA state track and field championship was a thrill and an
accomplishment.
After all, she only started track six weeks ago.
But why settle for just that?
Kurtenbach, a senior, finished third in the 3,200-meter run
Friday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and she did so in impressive
fashion, knocking more than 20 seconds off her personal-best time.
She finished with a time of 10:49.97, shattering the school
record of 11:08.
“I was really happy,” Kurtenbach said. “I broke the school
record so I was just real happy because it was a season goal of mine,” she
added.
It was a goal she set just six weeks ago.
“I was happy with how the race went out; it went out really
fast and that suits well with how I run,” Kurtenbach said. “At the end I was
able to hang on. I remember thinking, ‘I don’t want to lose my third place. I
don’t want to lose my third place.’” West Bend West’s Kyra Gudex finished 19th
(11:58.80) and West Bend East’s Morgan Dommisse finished 22nd (12:14.96).
Kurtenbach is on the Warhawks’ swimming team and plans to
swim while in college at the University of Chicago. She seemed to have picked
up on it.
“I just try to react to the pace,” she said when asked if
she kept an eye on the timer throughout the race. “I wasn’t really running a
pace. I just wanted to respond to what everybody else was doing and listen to
my body.”
“It’s kind of surreal,” she added about taking third place
at state. “It hasn’t really kicked in.”
She’s never even run cross-country.
“The aerobic capabilities have transferred really well,”
Kurtenbach said. “I’ve learned how to race, learn how not to be freaked out
when other people are touching me.
“In swimming you have lanes. That doesn’t happen in running.
I’ve had to learn a lot about that.”
She got into track because her best friend is on the team.
“She talked about how fun it was,” Kurtenbach said. “I was
jogging around with her and she’s like, ‘You hold a pretty good pace.’ And I
just wanted to try something new.
“I’ve been swimming my whole life and I needed a break (from
swimming).”
To become a good runner, she did the right things, starting
with listening to her coaches.
“I just tried to push as hard as I could,” Kurtenbach said.
“Now I might run track in college too,” she added with a smile.
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