Ratermann earns scholarship to Truman thanks to distinguished running career at Rosati
Florissant woman excelled in cross country, track & field
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| Leon Algee Jr. photo - Anne Ratermann of Florissant had an outstanding long-distance running career at Rosati-Kain. She recently was rewarded with a scholarship to Truman University. |
But her father, who had run cross country in high school, encouraged her to give it a try and now she’s very glad she did.
The recently graduated Ratermann, who hails from Florissant, had a distinguished career — perhaps the most prolific of any long-distance runner in the history of the school — and recently was rewarded with a cross country and track and field scholarship to Truman University.“I’m very proud of what I accomplished,” she said.
There’s a lot to be proud of. Ratermann was all-state her junior and senior years in cross country, when she finished 15th and 22nd, respectively, in the Class 3 meet. She was 28th her freshman year and dropped to 51st her sophomore season, mostly due to a stress fracture.
“I still remember teasing her,” said Rosati-Kain cross country coach Maureen Polasek. “She came out her freshman year to get in shape for soccer and she was leading everybody.”
Before Ratermann got to Rosati, the school had never qualified for the state cross country meet as a team. The Kougars qualified for state every year she was there, however. They finished 10th as a team her freshman season and followed that up with a fifth-place finish in 2005, eighth place in 2006 and ninth place this past fall.
“She’s the only all-state runner we’ve had in recent times,” said Polasek. “She worked really hard. She was also a quiet leader. The girls looked up to her.”
Ratermann said she got her running skills from her father, Alan.
“I guess you could say I have a lot of natural talent,” she said. “But I’m also very competitive. I have a lot of determination. I really wanted to finish all-state as a freshman.”
Ratermann also competed in track and field this spring and anchored the Kougars’ highly competitive 4x800-meter relay squad, which finished third in Class 3 in a school-record time of 9 minutes, 38.56 seconds. Other members of that team included Ali Ross, Aleta Jokisch and Rachel Swiderski.
“It was exciting,” said Ratermann of getting a state medal. “We were excited to place in the top three and get on the podium.”
That group was competing against some fine competition, too. Ladue finished first and McCluer South-Berkeley, led by Kiana Ruff, was second. Rosati was able to hold off fourth-place Festus, which was led by superstar Alyssa Allison, who set records this year in the mile and two-mile runs.
“I knew both (Ruff and Allison) were coming up behind me,” said Ratermann. “(Ruff) caught me, but I was able to hold off (Allison).”
Ratermann, who attended elementary school at St. Angela Merici, also finished ninth in the open 800 meters, which was impressive because the field was loaded.
“There was a lot of good competition,” she said. “I ran a 2:18 and I was proud of that. Any other year that would have got me fourth or fifth place.”
In addition to excelling as a long-distance runner at Rosati, she also stood out in the classroom. She compiled a 4.18 grade point average, which ranked her seventh in her class of 102 and helped her claim the Post-Dispatch Scholar Athlete award from her school this spring.
“I really felt honored that the other coaches (at Rosati) chose me,” said Ratermann. “There were a lot of smart girls in my class who played sports.”
With her prep career over, Ratermann now is focusing her attention on doing well at Truman.
“I’m really excited because we’ll get to travel,” she said. “Because it’s a new team, it will be a challenge. We’ll have two practices a day. One’s at 5:30 in the morning and the other one is at 3:30 p.m. It’ll be different from having one practice a day.”
