Photo by Cody Tomer
John Marshall’s Zara Zervos finished first in the girls’ race of the Wheeling Park Fall Classic on Saturday.

WHEELING — John Marshall’s Zara Zervos makes running look easy.

She did so again on Saturday morning, winning the girls’ race at the Wheeling Park Fall Classic in a time of 21:57.00, 15 seconds faster than runner-up Emerson Grafton of Bridgeport.

Zervos ran the 3.1-mile course at a pace of 7:03 a mile and an average speed of 8.5 MPH but didn’t break out in front until the last mile of the race.

“I caught up with the lead pack at the one-mile mark and the three of us ran together for about the next mile,” Zervos said. “Toward the end, there is a real gradual hill and then a really steep hill. I knew with my training that I was really comfortable with hills, so I knew if I stayed with that lead pack until that hill, I could kick it at the end and pass them.

“Also, since I’m a 400 and 800 runner in track, with a half-mile left, I was confident in myself.”

Another reason why Zervos waited until the end to showcase her blazing speed is due to a condition she was diagnosed with at the end of last season called Vocal Cord Dysfunction (VCD).

VCD is when the vocal cords don’t open correctly, so air can’t reach the lungs. Zervos, her family and doctors believed it was asthma for some time, until a trip to the Children’s Hospital last year.

“At the end of last season I realized a lot of the time when I ran that I couldn’t breathe,” Zervos said. “I was always told it was asthma and I was given enhalers but it never helped. So, we went to the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh and I was diagnosed with VCD.

“With asthma, when you breathe out, your lungs are compressed and you can’t get air out but with VCD, you can’t breathe in and the air will get stuck in your throat and won’t get to your lungs. It makes it sound like a train whistle when I breathe.”

With the diagnosis finally out of the way, it was time for Zervos to find a way to deal with this new challenge and with the COVID-19 pandemic, she had plenty of time over the summer to hone in on new ways to run.

“That’s been a big challenge for me,” Zervos said. “I’ve had to train and find different methods to alleviate it in the middle of runs and having to find out what causes it. I’ve found out that when it’s really sunny or really hot is when it’s the worst for me.

“It’s also caused by stress, which is a big thing for me with all my AP classes or playing two sports in the fall, so I’m just having to find ways to calm myself down.

“I’ve gone to a speech therapist who has helped me and there are different breathing techniques that I’ve learned. A lot of my runs this summer have been just finding ways to practice these techniques, that way I know if it happens in a meet it’s something I can get under control because it really hurt my season last year. I’d be having an amazing race and then two miles in I couldn’t breathe and it would kill my last mile.”

Zervos is making sure she won’t have that problem again this season and she handled it with ease on Saturday.

“I’ve learned that I can’t go out hard or it will act up and I won’t be able to breathe or compete the way I want,” Zervos said. “I didn’t kill myself in the beginning (Saturday) where there was sun but the middle part of the race was under the trees in the shade so I was able to really pick it up. The last mile my breathing got bad and if you were close you could hear it because it was all uphill in direct sunlight but by that point I knew I had less than a half-mile left and I knew I could push through.”

The victory for Zervos not only proves that she is capable of overcoming the obstacle placed in front of her but also makes all the work in the offseason worth every second, despite wondering if there would be a season.

“It’s been a lot of trial and error and seeing what works and having to mentally work on it,” Zervos said. “I’ve been running every day and I did the 26-hour marathon challenge where you run a mile every hour on the hour for 26 hours straight. We would get up every hour, go run and get like 40 minutes of sleep and then go on to the next hour. It was getting rough by the end but it was really fun just finding little things to do together as a family and it was fun just me and my dad doing it together.”

Wheeling Park Boys, Girls Sweep Fall Classic

The Wheeling Park boys’ and girls’ teams finished first in Saturday’s Wheeling Park Fall Classic, defeating Bridgeport, John Marshall and Linsly.

“Our guys and girls worked so hard all summer long,” Park coach Jacob Galik said. “It takes a certain type of kid to keep focus on a race you might not get to run and I couldn’t be more impressed with their level of focus.

“Our boys were ranked ninth and our girls are unranked but they have worked so hard. Lacey Wright, Isabella Border and Emily Dunlevy (finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively) all worked hard. Emily got fifth in her first race and that is exceptional. Exceptional kids do exceptional things and that’s what they did.”

Brady Miller won the boys’ race with a time of 17:21.11 at a pace of 5:35 a mile, followed by teammate Jonah Nizami (17:38.00) and John Marshall’s Mack Allen (17:47.58).

“I’m excited for Brady,” Galik said. “He’s not the fastest kid but he has a ton of heart and strength and he ran perfectly. To run a 17:21 on our course is doing something.”