Cross country makes strides over the summer towards defeating competitor Totino Grace for conference champions.

In the 2012 season, Park kept an even pace, with their wins ranging from first place to fifth or sixth place almost all season. They finished the season with an overall third place in the North Suburban conference championship. Without St.Francis in their conference, St Louis Park is estimated to achieve second place behind Totino-Grace this season according to last year’s records.

Last year, the team came third in their conference, behind St. Francis and Totino Grace. St. Francis is in a different conference this year, and Park is hoping to steal first place from Totino Grace.

“Totino Grace is our toughest competitor. They’re extremely fast and nobody has beat them in a long time,” second time captain Andrew Jewel said. “It’s important that we trust each other to do their best to win.”

Coach Ben Greshwalk said he is beginning his sixth year coaching boys’ varsity and believes that starting early is the best way to win against the tougher competitors later in the season.

“It’s very beneficial for (the runners) if they run a lot of miles during the summer and get a good base so they’re ready to do the real hard work once they get here in August,” Greshwalk said.

Typical workouts consist of speed interval training around the track, which helps recovery and challenges the runner to increase speed when their body is tired, and or long runs that test physical endurance.

This will be freshman Amira Stone’s second year of cross country, and she said she is looking forward for the season to begin.

“There are a lot of new runners that will be so good,” Stone said. “I have high hopes for this season.”