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| Members of the Cross Country Team run at a Meet | 286.66 KB |
Placing first and third in recent meets, practicing daily, and otter pops? Yes, our cross country team covers all of that! Everyday right after school, several students don their running clothes and practice for upcoming meets on Fridays. “We have had so many great kids come out to run this year,” Coach Spellman, the cross country coach, said. The team is close and trains diligently. “We’re amazing and we work hard,” Nathan Merrill, the boys team captain said.
The team’s constant training pays off at meets on Fridays. The team goes to different schools across our district to compete in the mile and a half long courses. So far, the girls team has placed first in most of their meets, while the boys team averages third. “I am anticipating getting the same places- first and third at the district meet,” Coach Spellman said. “Racing pushes you to do your best; it is great to see everyone’s hard work pay off.” Cross country is a sport where the team must work together to win meets. According to Nathan, the team trains really hard to accomplish the best they can.
“Everything we’ve been working on, is leading to district, where we hope we’ll win,” Kaitlyn Gee, the girls team captain said.
“Winning is nice, but the most important thing is to do your best, and I have been very impressed with how hard our kids work,” Coach Spellman said. “Their hard work is paying off and they are steadily improving at each meet.” According to Spellman, they compete in cross country to learn that discipline and practice do benefit them. “I try to teach our runners the importance of setting goals and then working towards those goals.” The team trains for these meets by alternating between running longer runs and sprinting. They also run lap-relays, according to Kaitlyn Gee.
Anela Christensen, a runner from the team, described the overall cross country experience as, “Hotmazing.” The team has a lot of fun working and running together. An awesome reward for their hard work each day is the otter pops they get. Sometimes they will compete to get more otter pops, or even Gatorades. Although otter pops are an added bonus, practice brings stronger lungs, legs and overall health improvements as well, according to Coach Spellman.
“It’s awesome to be involved in an extracurricular activity such as cross country!” said Kaitlyn Gee.