Editor’s note: The Star’s Zack Rosenblatt is counting down the 50 best athletes on the UA campus right now, with help from athletes, coaches and those close to the program.
No. 46: Addi Zerrenner
and Claire Green
Sport: Cross country/track and field
The details: Zerrenner and Green are both senior distance runners for the Wildcats women’s cross country team, which has been coached by James Li for the last 15 years. Green debuted in the 5K, and also has experience in the 1,500-meter and 800-meter runs, along with the mile and 3K indoors. Zerrenner primarily thrives in cross country, but also competes in the 3K, 5K and 10K.
The numbers: Last season, Green had the nation’s 12th-best time in the outdoor 5K (15:49.58 at the Stanford Invitational) and the 10th-best time for the indoor 3K (9:05.94 at Husky Invitational) and the 33rd-best mile time (4:39.23 at the MPSF Indoor Championships). Zerrenner came in 10th at the Pac-12 Cross Country Championships with a time of 20:47.57, and Green finished in 18th with a 21:07.30 time.
The value: The women’s cross country team has been on a decline since winning the program’s first Pac-12 title in 2013. Arizona has finished in eighth place in each of the three years since then. But the Wildcats have some hope for improvement now, and that starts with Zerrenner and Green, Arizona’s two most consistent and competitive runners on the cross country team. Green has also shown flashes of talent in distance running with the track team.
“Cross country was such a surprise because I’ve never considered it to be one of my strengths,” Green said. “It helped give me the confidence I needed to move up to the longer events on the track.”
Why them? We cheated and combined Green and Zerrenner largely because of their combined importance to trajectory of Arizona’s cross country program. They bring value to distance events in track and field too, but they’re Arizona’s best shot at rising up the rankings of the Pac-12 in 2017.
Proof they’re good: Green’s consistency across all the cross country races proved invaluable. She came in first place for Arizona in all but one cross country race last year and finished in the top 20 of all five races she competed in. Green took fourth overall in the 5K at the Pac-12 Track and Field Championships.
“It was undoubtedly the strongest season I have ever had,” Green said.
Zerrenner had the best race of her career in the conference cross country championships, surprising even herself on the way to a 10th-place finish and second team All-Conference honors. She was Arizona’s first All-Conference selection in cross country since 2013, which was the last of a five-year run where UA had at least one All-Conference selection.
Zerrenner also finished in the top two for Arizona at every one of its meets.
“Not to sound cheesy, but the day of the Pac-12 Championships is hands down the best day of my life,” Zerrenner said. “I ran the best race of my life.”
What they can accomplish: Zerrenner can improve on her 10th-place standing in cross country, and she has her sights set on reaching NCAA nationals, as well as both indoor and outdoor track and field. Green has her sights set even higher — the senior wants to make the All-American first team for cross country, indoor and outdoor NCAA championships, and place in the top five in the indoor 3K and outdoor 5K.
Green would be Arizona’s first first-team All-American in the 5K since Amy Skieresz won the national title in 1998.
Green said it: “Addi and I are the perfect example of opposites attracting. Our racing styles and personalities could not be more different, which is perhaps why we work so well as friends and teammates. Addi is constantly pushing me to be better because she excels in areas of training and racing that I really struggle in, and vice versa. When we step on the course it’s as if we can read each other’s thoughts.”
Zerrenner said it: Green “pushes me every single day not only at practice, but just in life overall as she is the perfect example of a female student-athlete doing it all. We definitely support each other, but we always want to beat one another. We joke all the time that we are like competitive sisters.”
