The Boy’s Cross Country team had a strong start to their season, finishing top 15 in their first four meets, with three top 5 finishes. Senior Kale Muir was the team’s top runner throughout these meets, with sophomores Cody Fikar and Josh Bradley just behind him.
Their success this season comes as no surprise to the runners, as they have been extra dedicated to improve and reach state this year. With the season being so short, it’s very important to start preparation early and that means being dedicated and motivated over the summer.
“The guys have done an excellent job the past two summers raising the baseline on what’s an easy run for them,” Head Cross Country Coach Dave Nebel said.
Doubts clouded the future of the Boys team this year after they lost three seniors in Nathan Johnson, Rafael Lima and Sam Kobernick, but the team has been able to overcome these losses and surprise themselves.
“This year the unity is still there and we’re still running hard and competing,” sophomore Josh Bradley said.
The team dynamic has never been in doubt this season and they still try to connect outside of practice and meets to stay closer as a group. This includes some of the more traditional things like pasta feeds and a group chat, but this year, the varsity team is trying something a little different. According to Bradley, the team likes to “play Fortnite and get on at like 8 AM before a meet and play”.
A team like this needs leaders to help pave the way to success.
Coach Nebel said three runners fell into leadership roles this year, each leading in different ways: “Kale Muir, I mean talk about a guy who leads by example; more of a vocal leader is Josh Bradley; and Cody Fikar helps lead by his work ethic, competitiveness and attitude,” Nebel said.
With the departure of key runners, the Boy’s team needed someone to step up to fill that role. Nebel explained how senior Asher Robinson picked up that position and is improving week by week.
“He’ll be a great example to the younger kids and he has really shown tremendous improvement,” Nebel said.
The Boy’s Team stuck together through the tough meets and the great meets. They always had one goal in mind though, no matter what it took they wanted to reach this goal.
“Our goal is to place top ten in the state meet, but our district is really tough so just making it into state will be a grind,” Bradley said.
The girl’s team also had a number of impressive finishes including a 4th place finish at the LPS championships. The training regime stayed fairly similar to the boy’s team which included a variety of workouts hoping to improve the team’s endurance and speed.
The girl’s team showed their determination this season, which started with rigorous practices during the summer, too. Overall, they placed well, finishing top 10 in several meets this season and proving to be a competitive team.
Their top runners; Caitlyn Olsen, Lucy Deitering and Maisy Viehl all combined to have a few top 15 finishes including a 14th place finish by Deitering. The team overall had several injuries, causing them to miss out on some of their top runners like junior Simone Gergen, Viehl, and Olsen. This caused some unfortunate finishes but also sparked the team to be more determined and to run faster.
Although they missed the state meet, this team fought until the very end and still managed to send senior Kale Muir and freshman Caitlyn Olsen to state.
