Athlete of the Week: Mills’ Jackie Pan

There were no such footsteps Saturday at the Westmoor Ram Cross Country Invitational in Daly City. Pan took first place in the Varsity Girls’ Race 1 with plenty of breathing room, hitting the tape in 16 minutes, 20 seconds, nine seconds ahead of Scotts Valley sophomore Ava Decleve in second. Still, that didn’t stop Pan from “hearing” footsteps, as she admittedly felt like she was running for her life.

“I hear footsteps whenever I run,” Pan said.

Running scared she may be. Nonetheless, Pan has been selected as the Daily Journal Athlete of the Week.

Not only did the Mills senior win the Varsity Girls’ Race 1 at the 41st running of the Ram Invite, with two girls’ varsity races held due to the number of participants the event draws, Pan still recorded the day’s best time. Prospect junior Kylie Hoornaert won the Varsity Girls’ Race 2 in 16:22, two seconds off Pan’s pace.

Pan also fronted Mills’ first-place team victory in Varsity Girls’ Race 1. Junior Katie Yee (10th place, 18:09); sophomore Chloe Amayun (13th, 18:13); junior Miya Cheng (27th, 18:42); and senior Alyssa Draheim (40th, 19:29) all ran their way onto the scorecard to put the Lady Vikings atop the proverbial podium. Sophomore Janelle Pantilon (19:46) and junior Sophie Hohmann (20:37) rounded out the talented Mills roster.

“We have five very good runners,” Mills head coach Larry Cappel said. “I haven’t seen a Mills team this good in at least 20-some-odd years. It’s by far the best team they’ve had in a long time.”

Footsteps or no footsteps, Pan is running with joy for the first time in two cross country seasons. After a strong sophomore showing, she was hampered by health problems in 2022, stemming from low iron intake and an anemia diagnosis.

Pan, feeling sluggish and dispirited for much of her junior season, didn’t get the diagnosis right away. She was considering quitting competitive running before she discovered the root of the problem. Once she did, and started incorporating the requisite cheeseburgers into her diet, she rediscovered the joy of running as the season was winding down.

“It’s much easier to like something when you’re good at it,” Pan said.

At the CCS championships, Pan certainly proved she was good. She ultimately finished in 11th place in the CCS Division IV race, but because six of the runners who placed ahead of her also advanced to the state championships via their teams’ top-three finishes, Pan earned the fifth and final individual bid to the state championships.

Pan’s time at those 2022 CCS championships at Crystal Springs was 20:05.2. This year, she’s won two races in four outings, including the Fighting Knights Joust hosted Sept. 16 by Hillsdale High School at Crystal Springs. Her winning time there was 18:48.8, a vast improvement from her previous personal record at last year’s CCS finals.

“When you run under 19s over at Crystal, you’re special … and I think she can get below 18,” Cappel said.

Part of conquering Crystal Springs is taking on the ominous Cardiac Hill, a long stretch of steep incline midway through the course. Westmoor is a good test for that, with its own perilous incline known as the Shot Put Hill, which might not be as long a stretch as its Crystal Springs equivalent, but it makes up for it by being mighty steeper.

Pan has an aversion to hills, so when Cappel told her to attack the Shot Put Hill, the prospect might have seemed intimidating. Cappel, though, used the week leading up to the event to train his clan of Vikings on Millbrae’s rigorous hills near Taylor Middle School. The training obviously paid off.

As it turned out, it wasn’t the incline of Shot Put Hill that scared Pan, but the course’s final decline. After racing out to the front of the pack, Pan said was in the zone, focused on the road ahead. She didn’t want to turn her head to peek if anyone might be closing ground. Her only perspective on the field was the persistent sound of footsteps.

“We came off the last hill and I started to kick because I got scared,” Pan said.

Descending onto the track and toward the finish line, she used that kick with abandon.

“I was running for my life over there,” Pan said.

After hitting the tape, Pan nearly immediately hit the ground. No wonder. She’d left it all on the 2.6-mile course. When she finally saw the leaderboard, the nine-second buffer was something of a shocker.

“After the race I was on the ground, I was not worried about the person behind me,” Pan said. “But I was actually surprised there was such a large gap because I didn’t think I had it in me.”