Photo above: Kayla Rader running down the hill.  Photograph by: Kylie Brunelli

Friday, September 9th, was the first cross country meet of the school year.  This meet introduced a brand new course with five new trails built this summer.  The race was three miles long and included a couple of hills.

Junior Kayla Rader, finished 1st for the JV Girls with a new personal record of 25:36.  She said, “The race was a lot less painful than expected,” and she liked “Seeing everyone do really well.”  She found the race to be “more laid back” than usual given the low number of other teams and their small team sizes.

Senior Caelan Gilliam won the Varsity Girls race in 20:40, slower than her average time.  She “expected more runners and for the competition to be harder,” which was likely the reason she wasn’t as fast.  A whole 1:10 minutes passed by the time the next girl crossed the finish line!  That being said, she thought, ” It was a good first meet to get used to racing again and home meets are always fun.”

Senior James Ponzio placed 1st for Varsity Boys with a time of 16:24.  Just like in Caelan’s race, there weren’t many participants, which made things less motivating.  He said, “The hills were super hard to run alone.”  Luckily, the rest of the course didn’t have as many steep climbs, and he “ran the second half of the course faster than the first.”  He believes, “The team’s in a good place for a special season,” for which he’s thankful.

Since it was the first meet, it was the first time many freshman had ever raced.  Eli Kieft didn’t know what to expect, and he ended up finishing 3rd in 19:35.  He said, ‘The hardest part of the race was when everyone is yelling at you to run faster and I tried but couldn’t.”. Nonetheless, he was very proud of his performance.

Freshman Conner Gilliam came in 2nd with a time of 17:36 for Varsity Boys.

Freshman Conner Gilliam came in 2nd with a time of 17:36 for Varsity Boys.