It was a brisk October morning when the boys and girls cross country teams toes stepped up to the starting line at the Regionals race.
The stakes were high for both teams. Making it to States was important, and much hard work and time went into practice, it would feel wasted if the team did not make it. Knowing only the top 15 individuals qualify and only the top three teams can go to States, the pressure was on. The gun goes off and the race becomes a blur. When the runner’s finally see the finish line it becomes surreal, and when they cross it, the team feels many emotions. Happiness, concern, excitement, and sadness. They later find out the team made it. Both teams made it to States. Team captain Luke Morehouse recalls his experience learning his team made it to States.
“It felt amazing knowing that the whole team qualified for States this year,” Morehouse said. “Last year, it was very sad when the whole team didn’t make it, and it made the experience worse. Having the whole team there made it so much better.”
There is so much preparation that goes into getting ready for any race both mentally and physically that many do not know about, like running almost 30-45 miles average per week, or planning their time splits. States is on a whole new level. The team wants everyone to race their best race on that day, but that all comes down to how well they can handle the pressure of doing their best for this race. Junior Brooke McFarland had a season with big personal records, and she wanted to continue that going into States.
“Honestly, I just kept telling myself that this is what you have trained all season for. It is just another race, and you are here. There is nothing to lose,” McFarland said. “I took an ice bath in the hotel and stretched the night before. I just tried to keep my mind off the race until the day of the race. I did my normal routine that I do before every race and at the line I was ready to go, and I felt good.”
Like team captain, Gavin Frandle, many runners set goals like being able to “move up places during the race,” or “to enjoy the last official race,” but many run into obstacles that may hinder them from achieving their goals, like breathing in the dust kicked back from the 4-wheeler leading you through the course.
“During the race, I was not feeling good,” Frandle said. “I was trying to do positive self-talk to try and spur movement from me, but this course was not an easy one. Dirt was kicked up during the whole race, and it made it difficult for runners to breathe and move up places.”
Even though the teams run into obstacles that may prevent the outcome they were looking for, it is how they overcame them together that makes the race even more rewarding.
“I was trying to run my personal best. I got to the most difficult part of the course: a hill, leading up to the 2 miles. It is about .4 miles long and you begin to get tired,” team captain junior Siene Muraszewski said. “I was able to overcome this difficult part in the course by trusting my training. Over the summer we did at least one intense hill workout a week, so going up the hills I remembered to keep pushing.”
The girls and boys have overcome a lot this cross country season and have every reason to be proud of what they have accomplished, no matter if they accomplished their goals or not because it is not easy making it to States. The boys placed 15th while the girl’s placed 16th in Division 1, both scoring 392 points.
