The high school cross country teams participated in their first meet last week at the Endurance House. Seniors Prayze Pierce and Colton Canada ran in the junior varsity division. Canada placed 1st and Pierce placed 3rd.
Canada said the meet went well.
“It was a pretty good start for the season,” he said.
The high school girls ran against 1a – 3a varsity and 1a – 6a junior varsity. Sophomore Kassidy Marin placed 13th, junior Rebecca Taggart placed 21st, sophomore Landri Payne placed, junior Jennifer Smith placed and freshman Malia Jones placed.
Marin said the first meet was a good start to keep working up.
“The first meet was a challenge,” she said. “I know I can keep improving.”
Cross country coach Amy Huseman said she has high expectations of the runners this year especially since she had two athletes who made it to the regional meet last year.
“My goal is for the whole girls team to make it to regionals,” Huseman said.
The girls high school cross country team has six members (five – seven participants makes a team). The boys high school cross country team has only two members.
“We want as many people as possible to run because it means a higher chance of going to regional with team rather than individually,” Canada said.
Canada went to the regional meet as a team his freshmen year and individually last year.
“I wanted a team to go to regionals my senior year as well,” he said.
Because of the lack of male students participating, Huseman said she is still going to try to recruit more to join.
“I want a full team, but I will still push the boys we’ve got,” she said.
The cross country teams have been practicing since Aug. 18 almost every morning at 6:30.
“Some of the difficulties are staying focused on running because it can be hard waking up early in the morning to go run two miles,” Marin said.
Marin advanced to regionals last year and said she has similar goals this year.
“I want to improve my mindset and time for this year’s season to make it to regional sand do better than last year,” Marin said.
Pierce said he also wants to improve from last year.
“I’ve already did better at my first meet this year,” he said. “I was very ecstatic about placing third and my time and can’t wait to get even faster.”
Canada and Pierce are in football and cross country and have to adjust to the practice schedules.
“It’s been hard having to balance cross country and football,”Canada said, “and trying to find the will to go run after practice gets to be tough.”
Huseman said the sport is tough but gratifying. “It’s hard working around other people’s schedules and requires a lot of self-motivation,” she said. “However, it is fun and rewarding.”