On Saturday, October 26, the Boys and Girls Cross Country teams will be running at the State meet at Norse Penrose Center! Both teams managed to qualify at the regional meet in Delta, Colorado. Being at lower elevation and having the course mostly flat helped the runners to hit personal records they have been striving for all season. With most athletes running their best times, girls placed fourth and boys placed third. These spots meant that both teams are qualified for State! State is a large cross country meet held every season that only the top four teams and fifteen individuals qualify for. The fact that both are teams qualified is huge! 

Both teams last year qualified for State, senior and team captain, Grace Abernethy, did not expect the girls to qualify this year because the team “lost four runners that qualified for state last year.” JV runners as well as new runners improved over the season and showed that they had what it takes to run varsity consistently and help get the team to State. For new runners, they had no idea what to expect out of the season but Grace helped to show that “running is all about building off of wherever you are out, and it takes hard work to do that.” For runners they always want to be improving, by having all the girls run their best times at the regional meet and qualifying for State they have all shown growth from the first race of the season. Grace is excited to run “against some of the best competition in the state and the country.” She has qualified for State four years now but did not run last year due to an injury. She is looking forward to seeing “what [she] and the rest of the team will be able to accomplish after months of hard work.” This a huge accomplishment for Grace and the girls team!

The boys are also excited to return to the course! Team captain, Charlie Schroeder, has enjoyed the season and the journey to State the team has been on. Charlie has “loved running [from] freshman year to now and even though [he has] only dropped a whole minute from [his] freshman PR to [his] senior PR, it’s just comforting to see where [he has] been and where [he] is now.” A PR is a personal record that can be set by a runner at any time. Running is a rewarding sport because it allows athletes to track their progress over a long period of time. Cross Country courses often stay the same, so if one has ran all four years they are able to compare their times from previous years. Charlie has been lucky enough to grow as a runner all four years and qualify for State three years in a row. Each year State is “an incredible and unreal feeling” and Charlie is “honored to keep experiencing it.” At the beginning of the season, it is hard to know where a team will end up, experience makes a big difference for new runners. After a few meets it became clear to Charlie that the team had a real shot of qualifying. Charlie is very excited for State and very proud of the progress the team has made. He is also hopeful “that the team will still be strong after the seniors leave this year” because underclassmen have stepped it up and shown that they deserve to be on Varsity. 

This season has been interesting. Both boys and girls lost amazing seniors but they were able to pull together and are now State bound! If you see any of the runners congratulate and wish them luck!