LSJ Female Athlete of Year: Tessa Roe grew into star runner and more at Lansing Catholic

The expectations were modest for Tessa Roe when she made the move from Portland St. Patrick schools to Lansing Catholic at the start of high school.

Roe figured she would be part of successful basketball teams, playing alongside close friend Gabby Halliwill and others, while chasing her dreams of playing the sport in college.

As it turned out, Roe did much more than that during her Lansing Catholic athletic career.

Roe experienced a state championship in basketball when she helped the Cougars claim the Division 2 title as a junior. She also contributed to a state championship golf team in the fall in her first season competing in the sport. Those titles were in addition to being a standout for Lansing Catholic's cross country and track and field teams.

That success is why Roe is the Lansing State Journal's Female Athlete of the Year.

"I think it's a great experience I've been able to be a part of with everything for Lansing Catholic," Roe said. "Honestly, it's just because I've had great teammates. It's not like I was a standout player on the basketball team or on the golf team. I basically just played my role and I had great teammates who helped us all win."

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Lansing Catholic cross country and track and field coach Tim Simpson sensed shortly after Roe arrived as a freshman that she was a special athlete who could accomplish big things. Roe just missed earning all-state honors when she placed 39th at the state cross country finals in her debut season at Lansing Catholic before building on that success to become one of Greater Lansing's top runners.

That's why it was no surprise to Simpson when Roe, who will continue her running career at DePaul, became a contributor when deciding to go out for golf for the first time in the fall. Roe had dabbled in golf a little but didn't have big expectations. She kept working on her golf game outside her training for cross country and finished the season by being the fifth scorer for the Cougars as they wrapped up the Division 4 state title.

"It didn't surprise me because if she takes it up, she's going to do something and she's going to work at it and be sure she's good at it," Simpson said.

"It just shows overall what I thought when I first saw her. Her senior year she picks up a sport she hasn't done before and is on varsity on a state championship team. It kind of goes along with what I had seen early on."

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While she made her mark on state championship teams, Roe also emerged as one of the top runners in program history at Lansing Catholic, contributing to top-10 finishes at the state meet in cross country four times and track and field twice. Roe fed off of CC Jones and Hannah Pricco while discovering her talent as a runner and having her college aspirations shift from basketball to running.

"It all came down to my coaches and my teammates," Roe said. "They were the ones who helped push me to make me see the runner that I could be. Coach Simpson — he definitely pushed me past what I thought I could have done originally coming in and he made me realize I could be a great runner and, obviously, (helped with) changing my mind. Now I'm going to college for running and not basketball. That definitely played a large role."

Roe finished as a three-time all-state performer in cross country and capped her career by finishing sixth at the state finals in the fall. In track she was on a state championship 3,200 relay while being all-state in the event three times. Roe was all-state in the 1,600 and 3,200 runs twice and finished as the Division 3 state runner-up in both this spring.

Simpson foresees more success for Roe in the future in DePaul's program.

"I told her coach at DePaul you're going to see her come in and she looks great with perfect running form," Simpson said. "She's friendly. You're going to look at her and you might say she's not as tough or as gritty as what somebody else might be, but she's as tough as anybody out there.

"She ran at the state meet against a girl who won four events and she took two of those events down to the wire versus that girl and ran perfect races and she wasn't going to give in to anybody. That's really how she's been in track and cross country. I think she kind of thinks always that she has something to prove."

Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on X @brian_calloway.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: LSJ Female Athlete of Year: Tessa Roe grew into star runner and more at Lansing Catholic