Boys’ cross country placed 12th out of 16 teams  at Gale Woods farm on gloomy day Oct.4 . Sophomore Will Carpenter said the team takes it easy after races.

“Strength training and just preparing for races — we kind of took it easy after our last race and didn’t push it too hard,” Carpenter said.

Cross country head coach Christopher Nordstrom said a major part of races is being prepared mentally and physically.

“We had a big team meeting last week, and just continue to focus on being prepared mentally physically before races and then during races, keeping some of those same things going,” Nordstrom said.

According to Carpenter, as the team prepares for  their section meet, workouts twice a week help.

“Right now it’s pretty much what we’ve just been doing all season and working out once or twice a week — strength training and just preparing for races,” Carpenter said.

Junior Johnny Erdmann said the team will succeed in sections if they keep giving their best.

“I don’t pay a lot of attention to rankings between teams, but our team is doing really well,” Erdmann said. “We’re really committed. We all went out and gave it our best today. And if we keep doing that, we’re going to do well.”

Erdmann said trusting the coaches is key to doing well in sections.

“ Now we’ve got  a really good balance with what we’re doing here. I’ve trusted our coaches a lot. They know what they’re doing,” Erdmann said.

Reflecting on how the race went overall, Nordstrom said that he is happy to see hard work payoff.

“We definitely competed. I know we had a number of kids that got season’s best and some that got lifetime best. So it’s always good to see the hard work pay off,” Nordstrom said. “So overall a solid day.”

The next cross country race is their conference race on Oct. 18 at Hyland golf course