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Adrenaline pumping, feet pounding the ground, the Cross Country Team made their way to the finish line at the Raymore Peculiar Invitational on September 12th. It was the team’s first 5K of the year and everyone was full of nerves, not sure how they were going to do but determined to finish strong. Jay Johnson, Head Coach, has been trying to improve on the athlete’s performance since the race.

“For our first 5K race, we had a lot of inexperienced kids where they couldn’t survive their way .three miles. But they found that they were strong at the end of the race,” said Johnson.

The athletes tend to try and find their own way of becoming better. Nolan Dick, sophomore, has been on the team since his freshman year. He has started his own method of training in order to improve on his running.

“I’ve been running with the Varsity group sometimes which helps me because they know what they’re doing. The coaches are really good too,” Dick said.

The team tries to get better together during the after school practices every day. A technique they use is to add five minutes onto the running time every two weeks. This way, the scores can get better as practices challenge them more.

The team not only has a chance to try and get better on the practices the days before the race, but they prepare for the races before they have to run. As one stands, watching the races, student athletes are running all around trying to warm up for the big run. Nicole Ware is a Junior who runs with the JV Girl’s team.

“We do a little warm up with our legs, like we run for like ten to fifteen minutes and then we put on our spikes. And we normally say a little prayer before the race starts,” Ware said.
The team works everyday after school in order to get better. They try to prepare for future races and the more difficult runs they will encounter, such as the Suburban Conference, which includes some of the best runners in the state. Every practice the Cross Country team does is another step to achieving their goals.