Wiregrass cross country run through Rogers Park
Wiregrass girls varsity pose for a photo after placing 8th in the Rogers Park Invite.
The Wiregrass cross country team had a successful meet on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Rogers Park, with the boys team placing 6th, and the girls team placing 8th.
The top five runners from each school placed and scored points for their team. For girls varsity, freshman Ava Schmitt placed 1st on Wiregrass and 24th overall with a time of 21:45. Other girls scorers were Hannah Sheen, Elyse Alagal, Jasalynn McFaul, and Sam Scott.
“Ava is an amazing runner with a lot of potential, especially considering she’s only a freshman,” sophomore Kendyl Walker said. “It will be exciting for our team to see how much she improves by the time she’s a senior.”
Fostering a community was a main focus of the team this year and it has shown in the positive encouragement seen at races.
“Our team does a great job of supporting each other, something that hasn’t happened every year I’ve been on the team. Everyone makes an effort to cheer on the rest of team during meets and encourage each other at practice, ” junior Hannah Sheen explained. “This really helps our team improve and succeed.”
For the boys, the top finisher for Wiregrass was sophomore Hunter Boggs, placing 9th overall with a personal record of 17:23. The other top runners were Jack Webster, Daniel Lyon, Henry Moore, and Mason Spearin all placing between 30th and 40th.
“We have practices five days a week and Coach requires that we show up every day, or we are not allowed to race in meets,” junior Jack Webster explained. “This keeps every single person on the team accountable for their own improvement and makes us work hard to achieve our goals.”
Both teams have spent months training and practicing, all in preparation for the Conference meet in a couple of weeks.
“We are all hoping to do our best during Conference, because it is supposed to be a faster course,” Webster explains.
Both the boys and girls teams have an intense training schedule that includes daily runs, team time trials, and long runs ranging in distance from 8 and 12 miles, all in an effort to reach peak physical conditioning and endurance.
“Our team is working hard and improving every day. Our team average time is going down every week,” Girl’s Assistant Coach Damelio said.
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Ellie is a freshman at Wiregrass Ranch and this is her first year writing for The Stampede. She is an athlete on the cross country team and the girls...
