Although it seems like we just started, we are already halfway through the in-season portion of the 2024 Cross Country season.
THE WORK
We’ve been putting in a great deal of work this year and are preparing for the end of the season where we run our best races. Thank you to everyone and their willingness to make the early morning practices a reality. We’ve had a stretch of hot weather where the only sensible time to practice is early in the morning.
One of the aspects we’ve been intentional about this season is reaching our weekly mileage goals. To meet weekly mileage targets, it’s necessary to have some days where we split the daily mileage into two runs.
Boys who aspire to reach their potential should aim for:
12th grade: 55-60 miles
11th grade: 50-55 miles
10th grade: 45-50 miles
Girls’ targets:
12th grade: 45-50 miles
11th grade: 40-45 miles
10th grade: 35-40 miles
Each year we add more running to ensure yearly improvement. For freshmen, the primary goal is just to run everyday and learn what it takes to be a runner in our program.
THE RACING
We don’t race every week as racing all-out for 5k Cross Country is very demanding and it’s not necessarily wise to do so every week. By not racing every week, we can also squeeze an extra week of training into the season by not having to back off for races all of the time.
Our first meet at Douglas was a low-key meet designed to help us ease into the season. This meet featured a vicious hill at the 2-mile mark which added to the challenge of the first meet. Summer training was very visible the first meet and it was evident that we had a crew that put in some monster weeks.
Adison Armstrong, Brinna Sheldon and Whitli Adams led the way for the girls. Each of these girls have logged well over 1000 miles for the year already. Emerson Buchholz, Maddie Carcamo, Kayla Harris and Olivia Boerger swept the JV race, going 1-4. They were followed by Bella Speidel (6th) and Jocee Krebs (7th) for an absolutely dominating performance for the JV girls.
Miles Brekhus was 5th in the boy’s race followed by a close pack of 6 guys separated by just 20 seconds. This tight pack will be the key to reaching the podium at the state meet in October.
The first “big” meet of the season was the Nike Heartland Preview last week in Sioux Falls. We use this meet to simulate what a state meet atmosphere will feel like. We bring a Varsity (1-7), JV (8-14) and “C” Team (15-21) to fill up the bus and hotel rooms and give a bunch of our runners this experience. This meet is also a preview for the Nike Heartland Regional in November which is the largest NXN regional qualifier in the nation. Since this meet is after the season, travel and lodging is OYO, but anyone can race. I would recommend this post-season race to everyone, it's an awesome experience. (Information for the Nike Heartland Meet can be found here)
Our boys varsity kicked off the day and finished 3rd behind one of Minnesota's best teams in Minnetonka and Nebraska’s top team, Lincoln North Star. Miles again led the boys, followed by Tate. The night before the race, we talked about the importance of one person making a courageous move during the race to ignite a fire in our pack and at the Nike Preview, that runner was Aaron Letner. Aaron made an early push to propel the rest of the pack into the high 16’s/low 17’s to seal a 3rd place finish. Our 1 through 5 spread (the time between your first runner and 5th scoring runner) was just 33 seconds and our 1-7 split was just 36 seconds. To put this in perspective, 60 seconds for a 1-5 split is great and we were ~ half of that.
The girl’s team placed 4th behind AA rivals Harrisburg and Spearfish. Harrisburg has the best 1-2 punch in the Heartland Region and will be a team that should be make the Nike National Meet, which is comprised as the Top 30 teams in the US. We were just 16 points behind Spearfish, a gap that we need to close by the end of the season. Adison finished 8th among Class AA runners to lead the pack. Brinna (11th among AA runners), Whitli (13th) and Vi Seitsema (22nd) finished in the Top 25 of AA runners. We’ll need to move our 4th and 5th runners up the pack to find the podium at the state meet again this season.
The JV races were just 4,000m, which wasn’t what we were looking for, so we moved several JV runners up to the Varsity to race the 5k. Nonetheless, Jaxon Hanson and Noah Hansen both placed in the Top, finishing 13th & 16th, respectively. We had four girls in the JV race with Jocee Krebs leading the way and Abigail Eisenbraun clocking her fastest 4k.
40 Personal Records (PR’s)
We’re on track to have the most boys under 17:00 & most girls under 20:00 ever.
5,000m New PR's
4,000m New PR's
THE OTHER 22 HOURS OF THE DAY
We practice about 2 hours per day, but to reach your potential, the other 22 hours are key.
Parents, if you’re wondering how to help your child succeed, you can help with many of these items, particularly iron/ferritin, nutrition/hydration and sleep.
Athletes, there’s more to improvement than just the workouts!
Check out this important information here >
Password: pts
Fundraising
We made around $5000 in this season’s fundraiser! Thank you to all that contributed; we’ll use the money to enhance the program and the experience within the program. The team incentives are in and we'll have prizes for the top sellers.
Pound the Stone
P- Put in the Work
T- Be a Good Teammate
S- Stevens Raiders
Bi-weekly, our seniors choose a teammate that best demonstrates our team values of putting in the work, being a good teammate and representing our program and school in a positive light.
Follow along with Pound the Stone award winners, Mile Club and other highlights on our social media pages:
Rapid City Invite
This Friday, we’ll race at the Rapid City Invite at Hart Ranch Camping Resort. The meet will be large this season, as we host the state meet and many teams want to preview the course.
We will run everyone at the meet; students will be excused all day Friday. You will need to provide your own transportation to the meet. We won’t take a bus.
Senior Day
We'll have our senior day at the Best of the West Cross Country meet. Seniors and parents please plan to attend.
Comments