In a recent Facebook post, Craig Virgin noted that World Series MVP Ben Zobrist ran cross country his freshman year at tiny little Eureka High School in Eureka, Illinois. He was 6th man on a team that qualified for the state meet in the small school division.
Per the archived results on the IHSA website, Zobrist ran 17:07 on the famous Detweiller Park course. Not too shabby for a freshman.
Being from Illinois, I'm glad he wasn't a whole lot better because he might have run track instead of playing baseball, and then the Cubs might not have been World Series Champions.