Cross country sets pace for season
Team performs well in first meet
September 21, 2015
Junior captain Jackson Sokolowski paced himself as he reached the last stretch of the race. With an open trail ahead of him, he dashed through the finish line of the first meet of the year.
Sokolowski won his race Sept. 12 in Basset Creek and was part of the 11 Park runners who won awards.
“We had lots of top ten places which receive T-shirts and that’s always really fun,” Sokolowski said.
According to Sokolowski, the team performed very well, placing higher than they did last year by five.
“Last year I think we got ninth and this year we jumped up to fourth,” Sokolowski said.
Sokolowski said in the coming weeks, the cross country team will approach a more crucial period of the season.
“These next couple weeks we’ll start racing a lot more and then in maybe a month or so the really important races start,” Sokolowski said
According to head coach Rachel Hoffman, she and the rest of the coaches were very proud about how the the team performed
“We were really pleased with the results of our first meet,” Hoffman said. “It was a solid start.”
Hoffman said this first meet was shorter than the races coming up in the future.
“The distance was only two miles for all runners,” Hoffman said. “The meets coming up will be longer, varsity and junior varsity will be running a 5k, 3.1 miles.”
According to Hoffman, the team always prepares mentally for races and stays in a positive mindset.
According to sophomore runner Katie Fredrickson, the girls changed to a longer distance, which created a challenge for them.
“Since the girls switched over to a 5k instead of 4k this year it’s a little intimidating but kind of exciting. it’s fun to try something new,” Fredrickson said. “I think we are all ready for the challenge.”
Fredrickson said competing as a team and running together is their main focus for the upcoming meets.
“Our number one thing we need to work on is running as a team,” Fredrickson said. “Since we can only score five runners, we can’t have one person way ahead and then others way behind.”
The next meet takes place Sept. 26 at the University of Minnesota.
