Valparaiso freshmen Sarah and Emily Worthington never started a sibling rivalry. The identical twins played plenty of sports together, but those games never got heated.
“We keep it friendly,” Sarah said.
They’re just as cordial to each running for the girls cross country team that won its second straight semistate title last Saturday. The Vikings advanced to the state meet at 12:45 p.m. Saturday in Terre Haute.
About the only thing that can lead to a competition between the Worthingtons is avoiding chores at home.
“We don’t like doing the dishes,” Emily said with a laugh.
During races, the Worthingtons rarely say anything to each other, but have developed nonverbal signs they rely on frequently. They tend to run at a similar pace.
“If I come up on her side, that means that Emily should probably step it up,” Sarah said.
And if their eyes meet during a race, the message is always the same.
“Speed up,” they both said at the same time.
That in-race communication helped Sarah and Emily emerge as top runners during middle school. Fitting in with a high school program coming off a sixth-place finish at last year’s state meet was a different story.
As they’ve done since they started running, they relied on each other in practice and in races.
“I would’ve been a lot worse off without Emily,” Sarah said. “Whenever I started dropping back, I’ll see her up there and know that I have to go catch her.”
Using each other for support, the Worthingtons became immediate varsity contributors as Valparaiso won conference, sectional and regional titles along with its semistate championship.
Emily placed 17th and Sarah was 22nd as Valparaiso’s Nos. 3 and 4 runners at the New Prairie Semistate.
Valparaiso coach Boomer Nellessen wasn’t sure what to expect out of the twins when they arrived, and they wouldn’t have told him anyway.
“They were just so quiet,” he said. “And you just never know with freshmen. But they really mixed in with our group.”
Despite the bar being set so high at Valparaiso, neither Sarah nor Emily said they were intimidated. And they both said multiple times their teammates have done everything they can to make the transition from middle school a smooth one.
“Whenever one of us starts to get nervous or scared, our teammates come up to us and help us calm down,” Emily said. “Sometimes I’ll sit down and think about everything our team has done this season and it’s just incredible.”
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When the Worthingtons make their debut at the state meet, it won’t be their first time on the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course.
They competed there over the summer, but aren’t expecting the same conditions on Saturday.
“When we went there over the summer, it was about 100 degrees,” Emily said. “It was very challenging. The first mile is really fast and the finish is very long.”
Dave Melton is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.