Search YouTube for Angela Bizzarri

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJTd7d4Gf5M

Long before Angela Bizzarri was a seven-time All-American in cross-country and track, the Illini senior won a high school state title as a freshman. This clip was produced by the Mason (Ohio) High School broadcast journalism class after Bizzarri captured the state's Division 1 individual crown in cross-country in 2002. The MBC News feature (we assume the M stands for Mason) includes interviews with a very young looking (as you would expect) Bizzarri and her coach. Bizzarri is typically modest about the rare feat of a freshman winning it all. But Mason coach Tim King makes the point that it wasn't necessarily unexpected since his young runner already had built an impressive resume in distance running and entered the meet with the best time in the field. "She's not your ordinary freshman," King says. "It really didn't surprise us, but she still had to get it done." She would again, as a junior. We're guessing Bizzarri's current and former teammates, in particular, will get a kick out of this visual peek into the 2009 NCAA track champion's past. It should be of interest, however, to anyone who has followed the career of the greatest female distance runner in UI history.